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

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