Paul Schrader’s First Reformed is a slow burn decent into madness (or gradual truth awakening depending on your point of view) that works so well alongside of Schrader’s own Light Sleeper (1992) and his screenplay for Taxi Driver (1976). Schrader opens with a paced, forward rolling tracking shot on a perfectly centered Dutch style church. From that opening (after the delicate cursive titles) this feels like Schrader’s most focused work—at least since his trio of 1990s films (the aforementioned Light Sleeper, The Comfort of Strangers and 1997’s Affliction) if not ever. Ethan Hawke plays Reverend Toller and this is

Alexander Payne’s Sideways blends a poignant character study (really, it is three-headed character study) with perceptive comedy. Paul Giamatti plays Miles- and he is at the center of Payne’s (and writing partner Jim Taylor’s) sublime screenplay. Miles is (in his eyes at least) a failed writer and a failed husband. He is also a hilariously smug wine enthusiast “Quaffable, but far from transcendent” (haha!) and as his best friend Jack (a marvelous Thomas Haden Church) describes him “a negative guy”. Told in a largely invisible visual style by Payne. There are days of the week titles as we approach

After the disastrous The Great Wall (also known as the Matt Damon ponytail movie) in 2016, it would have been tempting to write off legendary auteur Yimou Zhang as past his prime or washed up. Shadow is certainly a return to form even if it never hits the highs of 2002’s Hero. There are three rival kingdoms divided in ancient China. This is the Wuxia genre even if much of it plays out like a chamber drama (The Lion in Winter, The Man in the Iron Mask, and yes, Shakespeare) until we get to the action in the second

In the same year as Little Caesar and The Public Enemy Warner Brothers also made Smart Money which pairs Edward G. Robinson and James Cagney. This is the only time these two massive stars would work together. They make of two (2) of the three  (3) heads of the early 1930s gangster genre movement (the third being Paul Muni in 1932’s Scarface). The chronology of these films is important. Little Caesar came out, then this movie was shot (Edward G. was a big star). Cagney was not yet- but he would be by the time the movie was released

Between the Bruce Campbell movies and Spider Man movies, Sam Raimi made A Simple Plan (1998) starring Billy Bob Thornton and The Gift here written by him. Billy Bob was very hot in 2000 and the cast assembled here is quite a collection. Cate Blanchett leads the way, but she is supported by Hilary Swank (both won Oscars in 2004), JK Simmons (another Oscar winner) as the hilarious local sheriff, Gary Cole, Giovanni Ribisi, Keanu Reeves (playing a real piece of work character) and Greg Kinnear. Katie Holmes, right smack dab in the middle of Dawson’s Creek, may have

Hero is such a significant artistic achievement. Yimou Zhang’s film is simultaneously one of the great Wuxia films (martial arts films set in ancient China) and one of the most considerable visual achievements in 21st century cinema. It was one of the most expensive Chinese films made to date in 2002. The prologue introduces the scenario. There are seven warring nations in China. “In any war there are heroes on both sides.” Jet Li plays “Nameless”- with a complex strategy to assassinate the king. To get close enough to the king (Daoming Chen) he has to kill Sky (Donnie

For Francis Ford Coppola this is still not a great film, (the earliest in the archives)- but he is no longer working with Roger Corman and Finian’s Rainbow (1968) is in his rearview so this is his most personal film to date. The bulk of Roger Ebert’s four-star praise for it in 1969 is about the freshness of Coppola’s voice. https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-rain-people-1969 Coppola, cast and crew (including Walter Murch and a young George Lucas a production associate) traveled around the country to make the film. There is a clear care for composition and eye for visuals in the first shot

Lee Isaac Chung tells the story of a Korean family moving to rural Arkansas in the 1980s. Chung tells the story with such remarkable specificity (he grew up in rural Arkansas in the 1980s himself - personal). The couple (played by Yeri Han and Steven Yeun) often fight and their children (Noel Cho and Alan Kim) send them paper airplanes with “Don’t fight” written on them in crayons. Again, nothing here is told in a generic, broad way. Their house is on wheels, their profession is identifying the sex of baby chicks, Mountain Dew is called “water from the

When M. Night Shyamalan was a one-man phenomenon making The Sixth Sense (1999), Unbreakable (2000) and Signs (2002) many called him a Spielberg clone or acolyte. Twenty years later, it is hard to get through a review of John Krasinski’s A Quiet Place without mentioning Shyamalan. This is a horror/sci-fi with an ingenious twist. The Abbott family (played by Emily Blunt, Krasinski, Millicent Simmonds, Noah Jupe and Cade Woodward) live in a post apocalyptic world where the alien monsters have very sensitive hearing. There are two time periods covered, a prologue (day 89) and the rest of the action

City of Women is an admirable cocktail blend of La Dolce Vita, 8 ½, Alice in Wonderland and The Wizard of Oz. The first two make sense- this is twenty years after the first (of two up to this point) pairing of Federico Fellini and Marcello Mastroianni. The two men took world cinema by storm with their masterpiece collaborations in the early 1960s. In City of Women Marcello plays Snaporaz. He is riding on the train and starts stalking and lusting after a desirable woman (played by Bernice Stegers). He follows his manhood right off the train (Alice chasing