After editing Citizen Kane in 1941 this was already Robert Wise’s sixth film as director (or co-director) and the genre master had already worked in horror and a courtroom crime drama—so it was time to add noir to the resume with Born to Kill- and this is a memorable one. This is an RKO film with some opening sequences shot (mostly establishing shots) in Reno. This is a great early turn for Lawrence Tierney. Tierney (best known probably as Joe Cabot in Reservoir Dogs) plays Sam—a man with an uncontrollable rage stemming from jealousy that turns him into a

The Devil All the Time is a three decade generation spanning story of evil from Antonio Campos and Donald Ray Pollack (his novel, and he provides the omniscient narration). It is an ensemble film set on the border of Ohio and West Virginia (though shot in Alabama) following chance meetings and one family (the main family is played by Bill Skarsgård (father), Haley Bennett (mother) and Tom Holland (son)- Holland plays the adult version of the son in the 1960s) at its center. Holland probably gets the most screen time, but he is not introduced at all until the

The Paul Schrader renaissance (or should I say “resurrection”) is real. With 2017’s First Reformed and now 2021’s The Card Counter, Schrader is riding a career peak in his 70s. Oscar Isaac plays William Tell. Isaac is magnificent in The Card Counter and after this, when you take into account Ethan Hawke’s achievement in First Reformed, I would have to imagine actors are lining up to play the protagonist in Schrader’s next work---whatever that may be. Isaac is in nearly every scene and never makes a false move. He is exacting--intense. The diner scene with Tye Sheridan’s Cirk where

Four years after In the Mood for Love, WKW’s follow-up is the third and (so far) final film in the unofficial Love trilogy (Days of Being Wild from 1990 being the first) featuring Tony Leung as Chow Mo-Wan and Maggie Cheung (here only as a cutaway memory really) as Su Li-zhen. 2046 falls into the category of a masterpiece that has the burden of following one of the great films of all-time. This is WKW’s Magnificent Ambersons or his The Master- an utterly remarkable film- as long as someone was not coming in expecting Citizen Kane, There Will Be

WKW’s triad Mean Streets update marks his promising debut (32 years old) . The opening frame is neon light on the left of the screen-- bouncing off a wall of televisions showing a blue sky on the right. Andy Lau plays Wah- the Charlie/Harvey Keitel character. Quickly WKW shows Wah sleeping all day and waking up at night. He is nocturnal- as it should be in the world of WKW. Picking Scorsese as the template for your debut seems like a good idea all around. The title of the film is from a song by The Rolling Stones (which

It is impossible to mention El Dorado without mentioning Hawks’ Rio Bravo (1959). Hawks and John Wayne are back—as is Leigh Brackett with the screenplay. The story has some changes: there are rival families, one needing help from the law (Robert Mitchem in a variation of the Dean Martin role from Rio Bravo is the sheriff). The young James Caan plays Mississippi (the Ricky Nelson character- named Colorado) but instead of being quick on the draw with a gun, he is quick on the draw with a knife. Arthur Hunnicut is Bull- the Walter Brennan role- and John Wayne

Though Tim Burton’s adaptation of Roald Dahl does not surpass the beloved 1971 version, it is still a good marriage of source material and artist. Burton is back with Johnny Depp (one of five archiveable collaborations), Helena Bonham Carter (as Charlie’s Mom) and Danny Elfman with the score. The production designer worked on Fight Club and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and the costume work is from the designer of The Age of Innocence (1993). Burton has put great care in the mise-en-scene as he always does. He even has the gothic sort of factory version of Neverland

In the long and distinguished career of Paul Newman, Cool Hand Luke sits at the top of the heap as the great actor’s single best work. In 1967 Newman was 42-years old, at the height of his powers, and no longer getting mistaken for Marlon Brando. He was looking to challenge himself in a way he had not previously. Veteran television director Stuart Rosenberg is at the helm here and most of his decisions here are perfect, if not artistically inspired. It is fair to question though if at least some of these ideas came from director of cinematography

Meredith Willson is the author of 1962’s The Music Man. The film is based on Willson’s popular play in the late 1950s (which also starred Robert Preston). The casting of Preston (who had been around some time) is either an example of quite an exceptional eye for the pairing of talent and material--- or good luck. Preston plays Harold Hill- the fast-talking music salesman. He is a swindler. Preston does not really have a music background (Hill himself says “Singing is just sustained talking”) but he fits the role like a glove (so much so that it is sort

The two main reasons to seek out and study Crazy Heart are its lead actor, Jeff Bridges, and music composer (and producer) T Bone Burnett. Both men are in the sphere of the Coen Brothers (we’re talking about The Dude here in Bridges, and Burnett from O Brother, Where Art Thou?) and both won an Oscar for their work in Crazy Heart. Apparently, the two men are buddies and Bridges agreed to the role on the condition that Burnett write some songs for it. Robert De Niro’s buddy Paul Herman is in support, as is Colin Farrell, Maggie Gyllenhaal

Howard Hawks’ Rio Bravo is one of the easiest 141-minute watches in cinema history. Hawks had been working as a director for over twenty years at this point with seventeen (17) archiveable films already on his resume. But, in 1955, he had a financial failure (Land of the Pharaohs) and took an abnormally time to gestate between projects (there were even rumors he had lost “it” as he was now over sixty years old). The results in Rio Bravo are a supremely confident tone, a relaxed pace, a film of great chemistry, and one of the more influential films