Tango (1998)
Tango: do not ever leave me
Filmmaker(s): Carlos Saura
A dangerous love affair inspires a director to create the most spectacular and boldly seductive dance film ever made.
The Big Sleep (1946)
The picture they were born for!
Filmmaker(s): Howard Hawks
Private Investigator Philip Marlowe is hired by wealthy General Sternwood regarding a matter involving his youngest daughter Carmen. Before the complex case is over, Marlowe sees murder, blackmail, deception, and what might be love.
12 Aug The Big Sleep (1946)
Camera in the Head I’m an enthusiast of film, the kind of film that uses the uniquely cinematic qualities of the medium. From time to time, I see a non-cinematic film which I like. This is one such. By non-cinematic, I mean that the film...
The New World (2005)
Once discovered, it was changed forever.
Filmmaker(s): Terrence Malick
A drama about explorer John Smith and the clash between Native Americans and English settlers in the 17th century.
06 Aug The New World (2005)
Matoaka’s Miranda (This comment was deleted by IMDb based on an abuse report filed by another user, because of some perceived religious slight.) Malick’s method is to frame films as remembrances. Remembrances of romantic notions, whether freedom, peace, war or love (as his four films...
Cheeky (2000)
Filmmaker(s): Tinto Brass
While scouting out apartments in London for her Venetian boyfriend, Carla rents an apartment that overlooks the Thames. There she meet the lesbian hyper-horny real estate agent Moira.
03 Aug Cheeky (2000)
Nonchalant Openness Some films are simply about the appeal of one character. That’s all that matters. There seem to be two types: those that depend on the charm of attractive women, and those that have to work some other engagement. Often that’s the acting challenge....
So I Married an Axe Murderer (1993)
The honeymoon was killer.
Filmmaker(s): Thomas Schlamme
Just after a bad breakup, Charlie MacKenzie falls for lovely butcher Harriet Michaels and introduces her to his parents. But, as voracious consumers of sensational tabloids, his parents soon come to suspect that Harriet is actually a notorious serial killer -- "Mrs. X" -- wanted in connection with a string of bizarre honeymoon killings. Thinking his parents foolish, Charlie proposes to Harriet. But while on his honeymoon with her, he begins to fear they were right.
27 Jul So I Married an Axe Murderer (1993)
Green Haggis Sometimes a movie only develops worth after a subsequent movie worked. I myself disliked “Shrek” because of the underhanded attempt to undermine the Disney/Pixar alliance, and the smarmy Bill Gates strategy. But some people did like it, largely because of the voices and...
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943)
An unforgettable story of forty gallant years.
Filmmaker(s): Emeric Pressburger, Michael Powell
General Candy, who's overseeing an English squad in 1943, is a veteran leader who doesn't have the respect of the men he's training and is considered out-of-touch with what's needed to win the war. But it wasn't always this way. Flashing back to his early career in the Boer War and World War I, we see a dashing young officer whose life has been shaped by three different women, and by a lasting friendship with a German soldier.
27 Jul The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943)
Three Strikes To me, what‘s interesting about this are the many different, completely different ways one can approach it. For most folks, at the time this was made, it dealt with deep national issues of identity and war. For most others fifty years later, this...
The Big Picture (1989)
Film school prepared Nick for everything... everything but Hollywood.
Filmmaker(s): Christopher Guest
Hollywood beckons for recent film school grad Nick Chapman, who is out to capitalize on the momentum from his national award-winning student film. Studio executive Allen Habel seduces Nick with a dream deal to make his first feature, but once production gets rolling, corporate reality begins to intervene: Nick is unable to control a series of compromises to his high-minded vision, and it's all he can do to maintain his integrity in the midst of filmmaking chaos.
27 Jul The Big Picture (1989)
Guest Travels in Search of an Ironic Formula As the child of intelligent film critics, Guest was poised to start a career in midstream, already aware of the dominance of irony in film. He would go on to develop and shamelessly exploit a specific, detailed...
Bewitched (2005)
Be warned. Be ready.
Filmmaker(s): Nora Ephron
Thinking he can overshadow an unknown actress in the part, an egocentric actor unknowingly gets a witch cast in an upcoming television remake of the classic show "Bewitched".
27 Jul Bewitched (2005)
Tricky Folded narrative is all the rage among Hollywood writers now. And the Ephrons are hip, so they go along and here we have a simply folded story. Simple folding, the kind anyone can do, is based on the simple device of a show within...
Betsy’s Wedding (1990)
The wedding picture doesn't always tell the real story.
Filmmaker(s): Alan Alda
Offbeat fashion student Betsy Hopper and her straight-laced investment-banker fiancé Jake Lovell just want an intimate little wedding reception, but Betsy's father Eddie, a Long Island construction contractor, feels so threatened by Jake's rich WASP parents that he blows the ceremony up into a bank-breaking showpiece, sending his wife Lola into a financial panic.
14 Jul Betsy’s Wedding (1990)
Pillow Fight This is a significant failure for interesting reasons. Situations can be funny. Worlds can be funny. People can be too, but not all at the same time. Alda comes from a tradition where people are funny. Situations are there, and worlds too, but...
Behind the Green Door (1972)
The Mitchell Brothers Present the all American Girl
Filmmaker(s): Artie Mitchell, Jim Mitchell
Gloria is kidnapped and taken to a theater where she is told that she will have "the most exquisite moment of her life." She shares many sexual and intimate experiences on a stage in front of a small masked audience that grows increasingly aroused as the performance progresses.
