Levinson. Barry Levinson is here because of the impressive filmography- I cannot call him a style-plus director. However, both his debut (Diner– one that never gets mentioned among the best debuts of all-time and should) and second film (The Natural) are highly ambitious. He never hit those artistic highs again in his career. Still, not many directors left with two films that land in their respective decades top 100.
Best film: Diner. It is remembered for the talented ensemble cast (in the mid-90’s this felt like a who’s who but that has faded a little), the quotable dialogue, hilarious vignettes (something close to American Graffiti or Amarcord)—all extremely praiseworthy—but in his debut, Levinson starts the film with a jaw-dropper of a tracking shot through a party. In 1982 this to feel like the beginning of something remarkable.
Fellini feels like an influence—Diner is like half town-based memory piece vignette like Amarcord and half coming of age male group of friends story like I Vitelloni
total archiveable films: 6
top 100 films: 0
top 500 films: 1 (Diner)
top 100 films of the decade: 2 (Diner, The Natural)
most overrated: Nothing for Levinson—the only two films listed on the TSPDT consensus top 2000 list are both underrated.
most underrated : Diner and The Natural are on there— but way too low. Neither fall in the TSPDT top 1500!
gem I want to spotlight : The Natural. It is a triumph of sight and sound. Caleb Deschanel is the DP, Randy Newman does the score— genius work from both—probably their best work (and look at their credits sometime-wow). The slow-motion photography ties in throughout, detailed period production sign and certainly Levinson gets credit for tying it all together.
The Natural is absolutely stunning to look at
stylistic innovations/traits:
- The Baltimore trilogy- Levinson is from Baltimore and made a trio of films (both Diner and Tin Men in the archives) set there
- 20th century production period detail. Bugsy has that in spades- a gorgeous production. Levinson nails early 20th century baseball nostalgia in The Natural and a coming of age story in 1959 Baltimore in Diner
- Fellini feels like an influence—Diner is like half town-based memory piece vignette like Amarcord and half coming of age male group of friends story like I Vitelloni
production period detail–Baltimore in 1959
top 10
- Diner
- The Natural
- Bugsy
- Rain Man
- Wag the Dog
- Tin Men
a beautiful shot from 1988’s Rain Man
By year and grades
| 1982- Diner | MS/MP |
| 1984- The Natural | HR |
| 1987- Tin Men | R |
| 1988- Rain Man | R |
| 1991- Bugsy | R/HR |
| 1997- Wag The Dog | R |
*MP is Masterpiece- top 1-3 quality of the year film
MS is Must-see- top 5-6 quality of the year film
HR is Highly Recommend- top 10 quality of the year film
R is Recommend- outside the top 10 of the year quality film but still in the archives
Alto Knights and Heat has the same DP, Dante Spinotti. But he wasn’t the DP of The Survivor.
@Malith – Will you see it or skip it? This isn’t really on the level of The Survivor sadly
@Harry- No plans to watch it for now.
My review of the new Levinson
Sinners or The Alto Knights? What is the better 2025 Warner Brothers film with the lead actor playing two characters?
A pleasant surprise. The Alto Knights starts pretty rough, truly feeling like a poor man’s Goodfellas and packs some quite shoddy editing. I was also concerned going in to this about the films gimmick with De Niro playing dueling parts of characters that are not twins.
Luckily, the film rescues itself. I found the narrative covering true American crime history to be very interesting to follow. De Niro honestly impressed me here as I got into the film. For the first stretch of film he felt like the stumbling old man De Niro playing the same character we’ve seen so many times before but he manages to pretty distinctly differentiate two characters who are both crime bosses. Frank is calm, peaceful, kind, rationale and principled whereas Vito is hungry, left out, insecure, violent, grudging. It’s helped that they look different enough with makeup and prosthetics to make the dual role less distracting. It’s a risk I don’t think was needed for this film but De Niro was good enough to make it work.
Aside from that Levinson is simply a caretaker behind the camera here. The use of black and white with all the childhood/coming of age scenes fits it with his direction of The Survivor which did the same, but not much else to point to.
So Sinners was the much stronger film.
Is Sleepers worth watching?
@Harry – yes, I’d say so. I’ve actually seen it quite a few times over the years. Of course it is disappointing that it isn’t better with that incredible cast- but it isn’t a waste of time either.
@Drake – how many films are on the archives for Levinson now?
@Harry – eight (8)- haven’t vetted this yet- and there are some very fringy films
1982- Diner
1984- The Natural
1987- Tin Men
1988- Rain Man
1990- Avalon
1991- Bugsy
1997- Wag The Dog
2021- The Survivor
@Drake – his upcoming JFK assassination film looks promising. Script by David Mamet and Pacino, Chastain, Cranston set to star and Dante Spinotti as DP. I wouldn’t be surprised though if it ends up in the unfortunate tier of “dissipating this film isn’t at a greater level considering the talent involved” though:
I might check out The Alto Knights after I see The Survivor since there’s surprisingly a lot of hype for it. Though Levinson has a lot of De Niro films that don’t seem to amount to much.
@Harry. Wag the Dog and Sleepers are both worth the while.
I don’t wanna sound stupid (because Fatal Attraction and Dangerous Liasons still exist) but on a per minute basis (although she has limited screen time in Fatal Attraction and Dangerous Liasons attraction as well) The Natural is the best performance by Glenn Close. I think Carmen Maura is the best in 1988 , The Natural should’ve been Close’s Oscar. What do you think @Drake?
What the hell where is Good Morning Vietnam(1987)?Can’t believe such a good film is not in the archives.Clearly a Robin Williams hater.
@Malith– I’m sorry but if I state that Boxcar Bertha is not an archives worthy film that makes me a Scorsese hater?
@Malith– Robin Williams is fantastic. But there’s a lot less going on artistically in Good Morning Vietnam than you think.
Speaking of debuts, would you consider Darabont’s debut as one of the best of all time? I’ve rarely seen it mentioned amongst critics too.
Also, what do you think of Darabont as a director?
@Azman– I don’t think too much of Darabont after Shawshank– but that is one impressive film. I think he may not get mentioned because he had a TV movie he directed before? That’s just a guess. Another guess would be that he didn’t use Shawshank as a springboard into a great career.
@drake, do TV movies count? Do you archive them? Most TV films seem slightly subpar compared to regular films.
@Azman- sure they count– especially now the “tv movie” thing seems like a thing of the past with Netflix, etc.
Ya. You’re right. I was constantly debating what TV movie meant and if Netflix counts as a TV movie. What do you think? The term is somewhat outdated/different now right?
This reminds me that someone said he was one of the best in history, because he directed 2 masterpieces according to him (Shawshank and Green Mile).
How many archivable movies does 2 have? 3?
@Aldo- yikes– one of the best in history? Green Mile as a masterpiece? hmm… Yeah I have him with 2 archiveable movies but The Green Mile is like the 44th best film of 1999.
What about You don’t know Jack(2010)?It has over 90 on RT and contains Pacino’s best performance since Insomnia.
@Chris- I’ve seen it once- didn’t feel it was worthy of the archives but am open to watching it again. Pacino’s best performance since Insomnia (and beyond that– at least as far back as The Insider) is The Irishman