The Twist
Only after I wrote my last blog post on favorite endings, I realized I was missing an important category, The Reveal. You know, that moment at the end of every great (and not-so-great) mystery or thriller when the culprit is brought to light or the truth is revealed. When The Sixth Sense came out, I think I stayed indoors for a week, all due to that creepy ending (I See Dead People). This may not have made it my favorite movie ending, but indelible enough…
And Cut!
There are some movie endings that are timeless. Bogart saying goodbye to Bergman in Casablanca is one of the few I can quote back to you line by line. Gone with the Wind, Citizen Kane, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, and The Wizard of Oz all have great, unforgettable endings, which, if you’re reading this blog, you’ve hopefully already seen. Here are a few of my personal favorites (along with the aforementioned, of course). Please tell me about some of yours in the comments! Raging…
Letting Your Characters Speak
There’s a wonderful line from Roger Ebert’s review of Ordinary People, written all the way back in 1980. If you haven’t seen it, the film centers around a boy, Conrad (Timothy Hutton), who must deal not only with the death of his older brother but his cold, loveless mom (Mary Tyler Moore). Oh, and he recently attempted suicide. Here’s the quote: “The sessions of psychiatric therapy are supposed to contain the moments of the film’s most visible insights, I suppose. But even more effective, for…
My Movie New Years Resolutions
I don’t have many wishes this year, but spare me these. Let’s face it, 2012 was a pretty uninspiring year for film. At least in the multiplex, I didn’t see too many movies before November to get excited about. Let’s change that this year. First, let’s talk about the things I don’t want to see in the movies, ever: Red Riding Hood This one actually goes for all Brothers Grimm adaptations. I get it, the stories are spookier than we thought. Enough with the dull…
Quickie Review: The Sessions
The Sessions, a new film starring John Hawkes and the beautiful Helen Hunt, is one of the finest films I have seen this year. Unsentimental, cute, and beautifully orchestrated, it’s a solemn take on love based on an unlikely premise. Mark O’Brien (John Hawkes), a polio survivor, spends the majority of his life in an iron lung. He has no control over his body besides his face and requires around the clock care. At thirty-eight, tired of the longing and rejection that comes with his…
Master of Place
There is so much I could write about The Master, which I loved, but I wanted to focus on director P.T. Anderson’s sense of place, and the magic he imparts to each setting. He tells the story of a veteran, Freddie Quell, (Joaquin Phoenix) set adrift in postwar America. Quell is taken in by a charismatic cult leader, Lancaster “The Master” Dodd (Philip Seymour Hoffman), who tries unsuccessfully to rehabilitate him, just as his own star rises. As far as I could tell, there are…
New York Talks
Garbo Talks is a film about New Yorkers who are in love with movies by a filmmaker who is in love with New Yorkers. Native New Yorker Sidney Lumet directed this 1984 sleeper about a dying mother, Estelle, (Anne Bancroft) whose final wish to meet Greta Garbo is dutifully fulfilled by her son Gilbert (Ron Silver). Lumet had an eye for New York; even in shots in the most mundane of places, the city’s beauty shines through. Here Angelo (Howard Da Silva), a p.i….
You Can Count on Me
It’s hard for me to talk about my favorite movies, maybe because the reasons behind the choices are difficult to explain. I am always afraid I’ll get the response, “Oh, I saw it. It was OK,” or even worse, this question: “Really?” The short answer is I have a lot of favorite movies. It is easier for me to choose favorite directors than movies, maybe because their best ideas are better fleshed out through a career than one feature. One of those favorite directors is…
Hollywood Preview
You ever have that feeling in a movie when you realize the trailers are better than the main event? That’s how I felt while watching Savages this weekend. Maybe it’s because trailers are by their very nature more fun to watch, but if this is what is coming up in the next few weeks, then, despite Savages, I may have to return to the multiplex. For example, John Goodman. I think he’s having a moment right now. Not only did he play a satisfyingly on-point…
Humor/Truth
The best dramas are also some of the funniest. This thought came to me as I watched Louise Brooks in Pandora’s Box (1929) at a free screening at the Getty this weekend. Poor and alone in a London garret, about to meet her fate at the hands of Jack the Ripper, she can’t help joking over dinner that “You can always buy whisky on credit but never bread.” The more I write, the less I like supposed divisions between genres. I think good dramas are…
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