FilmsFolded | Comments and Essays

War Games (1983)

Is it a game, or is it real?

Filmmaker(s): John Badham

High School student David Lightman has a talent for hacking. But while trying to hack into a computer system to play unreleased video games, he unwittingly taps into the Defense Department's war computer and initiates a confrontation of global proportions. Together with his girlfriend and a wizardly computer genius, David must race against time to outwit his opponent and prevent a nuclear Armageddon.

13 May War Games (1983)

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Winken and Blinken is less reason to see this now than when it was made, except for the lesson that is more clear here than in current filmdom: how do you cinematically convey concepts that don’t fit our fairly limited vocabulary? The lesson here is stark,...

Published May 13, 2022

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Tagged: 1980s, f1983, p2022

The Sinister Monk (1965)

Filmmaker(s): Harald Reinl

A hooded serial killer finds a novel way to murder his victims--he lashes them to death with a whip. The police try to track him down before any more murders occur.

13 May The Sinister Monk (1965)

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4 Conspiracies the heyday of mystery writing, we had Sayers, Christie, Chesterton and a dozen others who were artists of narrative curves. The game was to create a world, but us in it and only later let us know how wrong we were. And then we...

Published May 13, 2022

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Tagged: 1960s, f1965, p2019

Memories of Murder (2003)

The worst of them will stay with you... forever.

Filmmaker(s): Bong Joon-ho

Crime

Drama

Thriller

During the late 1980s, two detectives in a South Korean province attempt to solve the nation's first series of rape-and-murder cases.

27 Feb Memories of Murder (2003)

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Watchers Excepting Snowpiercer, this filmmaker has a distinct style. He surveys watchers and watching by creating and weaving layers. So far as I know, this is his masterwork. This filmmaker sees differently. He sees people seeing, weaves stories around this to keep us engaged, then simply...

Published February 27, 2023

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Tagged: 2000s, f2003, p2015

Black Cadillac (2003)

Revenge in the driver's seat

Filmmaker(s): John Murlowski

Drama

Thriller

Horror

Three young men become terrorized in a high-speed car chase with a mysterious pursuant.

17 Jan Black Cadillac (2003)

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Fins beyond the Law are some things that naturally are cinematic. Among these are car chases, smoke and snow. Similarly on the story side, people cast together in a small space with an outside threat and unrevealed past relationships. It terms of flow, the most reliable...

Published January 17, 2024

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Tagged: 2000s, f2003, p2006

Black Magic (1944)

Chan stalks a fiendish murderer!

Filmmaker(s): Phil Rosen

Chinese detective Charlie Chan solves a murder linked to the occult. This movie had an alternative title: Meeting at Midnight.

17 Jan Black Magic (1944)

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Spooked original intent of the Chan series, I suppose, was to introduce the “oriental” mind to the mystery genre. As with the equally strange notion of Belgian logic with Poirot, we would be charmed by novel synaptic paths. By the time of this film, indeed...

Published January 17, 2024

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Tagged: 1940s, f1944, p2004

Black Swan (2010)

Perfection is not just about control. It's also about letting go.

Filmmaker(s): Darren Aronofsky

Drama

Thriller

Horror

A journey through the psyche of a young ballerina whose starring role as the duplicitous swan queen turns out to be a part for which she becomes frighteningly perfect.

19 Jan Black Swan (2010)

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The Math I encountered “Pi,” I was profoundly upset. It happened again with “Beautiful Mind” and “Good Will,” other films about mathematical imagination. How, I wondered, could something as inherently cinematic as the mathematical imagination be so clumsily handled? How is it that the only...

Published January 19, 2024

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Tagged: 2010s, f2010, p2010

Why Didn’t They Ask Evans? (1980)

Filmmaker(s): John Davies, Tony Wharmby

Thriller

TV Movie

Mystery

This intriguing story is set in the 1930s at a country house, where two amateur sleuths, Bobby Jones and Lady Frankie Derwent, try to unravel the mystery behind a tale of murder, suspense and false identities. And the only clues the two have to go on are the puzzling last words of a dying man. Featuring characters created by Agatha Christie, Why Didn't They Ask Evans is a classic crime thriller sure to please murder-mystery fans.

19 Jan Why Didn’t They Ask Evans? (1980)

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The Boomerang Clue make a habit out of examining film adaptations of classic mystery novels for clues. I’m looking for clues about why the narrative works. There is a reason Christie is the best selling writer in history, even now as print runs are huge. I...

Published January 19, 2024

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Tagged: 1980s, f1980, p2003

Invisible (2007)

Life, death and something in between.

Filmmaker(s): David S. Goyer

Fantasy

Thriller

Mystery

After an attack leaves him in limbo -- invisible to the living and also near death -- a teenager discovers the only person who might be able help him is his attacker.

19 Jan Invisible (2007)

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Disembodied Eye of these teen movies have to distinguish themselves by leveraging narrative tricks. That’s because the market restricts the story so much that it is impossible to stand out. The narrative device that interests me is when the viewer is deliberately placed in the...

Published January 19, 2024

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Tagged: 2000s, f2007, p2010

Blindness (2008)

Your vision of the world will change forever.

Filmmaker(s): Fernando Meirelles

When a sudden plague of blindness devastates a city, a small group of the afflicted band together to triumphantly overcome the horrific conditions of their imposed quarantine.

20 Jan Blindness (2008)

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Tosca I wonder. At times, it seems that we all have some shared cinematic values — that some art can reach us all. Sure, we usually sacrifice depth in the process, but that's a small enough occasional price for the joy of laughing with a...

Published January 20, 2024

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Tagged: 2000s, f2008, p2009

Blood Tea and String (2006)

Filmmaker(s): Christiane Cegavske

Animation

Fantasy

Thriller

The aristocratic White Mice and the rustic Creatures Who Dwell Under the Oak battle over the doll of their heart's desire.

21 Jan Blood Tea and String (2006)

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Alice’s Rosencrantz I saw this on Christmas Day and was rather thankful. 2006 has been a bad year for movies and at the end of each year I start to put together my additions to my short list of films everyone should watch before they die...

Published January 21, 2024

| Categorised as Fours, IMDB Comments |
Tagged: 2000s, f2006, p2006