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Anatomy of a Murder (1959)
No search of human emotions has ever probed so deeply, so truthfully as… Anatomy of a Murder.
Filmmaker(s): Otto Preminger

Semi-retired Michigan lawyer Paul Biegler takes the case of Army Lt. Manion, who murdered a local innkeeper after his wife claimed that he raped her. Over the course of an extensive trial, Biegler parries with District Attorney Lodwick and out-of-town prosecutor Claude Dancer to set his client free, but his case rests on the victim's mysterious business partner, who's hiding a dark secret.

Drunk Lawyers There seems to be a sub-genre of movies that feature drunk or downtrodden lawyers taking on cases and winning. This is sometimes associated with the “courtroom” film where reality is unfolded according to specific rules, coloured by human dynamics. And this is under...
Published April 2, 2023
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Bad Genius (2017)
Genius students with one mission... Turning exam answers into millions.
Filmmaker(s): Nattawut Poonpiriya

Lynn, a brilliant student, after helping her friends to get the grades they need, develops the idea of starting a much bigger exam-cheating business.

Testy This probably would work better for a young audience, who can relate to school, tests, and the stereotypes depicted here. It is basically a tension building project with a few side annotations: daughter and father reconciling and our heroine coming clean. Left out to...
Published March 23, 2023
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Italian Job (2003)
Get in. Get out. Get even.
Filmmaker(s): F. Gary Gray

Charlie Croker pulled off the crime of a lifetime. The one thing that he didn't plan on was being double-crossed. Along with a drop-dead gorgeous safecracker, Croker and his team take off to re-steal the loot and end up in a pulse-pounding, pedal-to-the-metal chase that careens up, down, above and below the streets of Los Angeles.

The In, The Out This slick production lacks the cinematic acrobatics of “The Good Thief.” Except, except for one clever thing. The editing. The direction, acting and all that are pretty ordinary, as is the actual story and it tested very poorly. So — the...
Published March 12, 2023
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Amateur (1994)
Accountancy, Murder, Amnesia, Torture, Ecstasy, Understanding, Redemption
Filmmaker(s): Hal Hartley

A man wakes up in an alley, bleeding and with no memory of who he is. He stumbles into a coffee shop and is befriended by a charitable ex-nun who is failing in her attempts to write marketable pornography.

Abstract Porn Hartley is one of the most interesting directors working. Many associate him with French auteurs, but I think his experiments are more intellectual, more New York. His films are not only about other films, but exist in a world abstracted from them where...
Published March 12, 2023
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Jewel Robbery (1932)
He stole her jewels -- but that wasn't all!
Filmmaker(s): William Dieterle

A gentleman thief charms a Viennese baron's wife and also conducts a daring daylight robbery of a jeweller's shop.

Sex, Drugs and Crime William Powell is responsible for a huge element of our loves, the smoothness that has comic irony behind it. He invented it. There are a few of his movies that are essential viewing, but those are after the government thugs decided...
Published March 7, 2023
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Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004)
The bride is back for the final cut.
Filmmaker(s): Quentin Tarantino

The Bride unwaveringly continues on her roaring rampage of revenge against the band of assassins who had tried to kill her and her unborn child. She visits each of her former associates one-by-one, checking off the victims on her Death List Five until there's nothing left to do … but kill Bill.

Used Record Store There are movies that are well done; there are movies that satisfy; there are those that work, those that stick, those that transcend time to become classics and those that change lives. None of these measures necessarily has anything to do with...
Published March 7, 2023
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Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949)
He chopped down the family tree...
Filmmaker(s): Robert Hamer

When his mother eloped with an Italian opera singer, Louis Mazzini was cut off from her aristocratic family. After the family refuses to let her be buried in the family mausoleum, Louis avenges his mother's death by attempting to murder every family member who stands between himself and the family fortune. But when he finds himself torn between his longtime love and the widow of one of his victims, his plans go awry.

Three Gimmicks These little projects are worth watching just to see what gimmicks are pulled to breathe life into what otherwise would be fairly minor charms. In this case we have one actor (not a great one) playing all the murdered people. We have a...
Published March 7, 2023
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Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014)
Manners maketh man.
Filmmaker(s): Matthew Vaughn

The story of a super-secret spy organization that recruits an unrefined but promising street kid into the agency's ultra-competitive training program just as a global threat emerges from a twisted tech genius.

Not that Kind of Tailoring From time to time in these comments, I remark on my surprise at how sophisticated young viewers are, and how they demand ever more complex and subtle self-referential folds. It gives me pleasure to realise that my flower children cohort...
Published March 5, 2023
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Iron Monkey (1993)
Unmask the legend.
Filmmaker(s): Yuen Woo-Ping

Iron Monkey is a Hong Kong variation of Robin Hood. Corrupt officials of a Chinese village are robbed by a masked bandit known as "Iron Monkey", named after a benevolent deity. When all else fails, the Governor forces a traveling physician into finding the bandit.

Flight Assembly I am not a student of Hong Kong martial arts movies, just someone who dips into the accessible ones. My interest is in the cinematic experience, and that depends to a large extent on how the camera is choreographed. It doesn’t matter to...
Published March 5, 2023
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Kiss Me Deadly (1955)
Blood red kisses! White hot thrills! Mickey Spillane’s latest H-bomb!
Filmmaker(s): Robert Aldrich

One evening, Hammer gives a ride to Christina, an attractive hitchhiker on a lonely country road, who has escaped from the nearby lunatic asylum. Thugs waylay them and force his car to crash. When Hammer returns to semi-consciousness, he hears Christina being tortured until she dies. Hammer, both for vengeance and in hopes that "something big" is behind it all, decides to pursue the case.

Who Knows? There i s nothing more invigorating like true noir, and there are very, very few of those. This is one that ranks with “Touch of Evil“ and “The Long Goodbye.” Good noir is not a matter of tough talk and dark shadows. It...
Published March 4, 2023
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