Track of the Cat (1954)

Track of the Cat (1954)

[5] Robert Mitchum headlines this William Wellman flick about a family battling their personal demons while also trying to hunt and destroy a near-mythical black panther that is preying on their cattle during a deadly snowstorm. Mitchum plays one of three…
Heaven’s Gate (1980)

Heaven’s Gate (1980)

[4] I'd never seen Heaven's Gate until recently. For decades, it has been the title synonymous with "flop" and studio bankruptcy, but it has also been picked back up, reexamined, and declared somewhat of an artistic treasure in recent years. The…
Call Me By Your Name (2017)

Call Me By Your Name (2017)

[10] In picturesque Italy, 1983, a seventeen-year-old boy falls in love with an older man who is working as his father's research assistant. That's it. That's all Call Me By Your Name is about. And it's marvelous. So many other…
Manchester by the Sea (2016)

Manchester by the Sea (2016)

[9] Not since 1980's Ordinary People have we had such a genuinely affecting movie about loss and mourning. In Manchester by the Sea, a man with a tortured past discovers he is the legal guardian of his late brother's teenaged…
The Edge of Seventeen (2016)

The Edge of Seventeen (2016)

[8] Hailee Steinfeld (Oscar nominee for the Coen Brothers' True Grit remake) stars as a high school girl on the edge of a nervous breakdown when she discovers her best and only friend has begun dating her brother. Writer/director Kelly Fremon…
Arrival (2016)

Arrival (2016)

[7] Amy Adams plays a linguist recruited by the military after aliens (the space kind) make first contact with human beings in twelve separate locations across the globe. Eric Heisserer's non-linear screenplay (based on a story by Ted Chiang) and…
My Bodyguard (1980)

My Bodyguard (1980)

[8] Writer Alan Ormsby and director Tony Bill create a compelling coming-of-age story that avoids two of the greatest pitfalls of the genre: it doesn't talk down to its subjects and it doesn't wallow in sentimentality. Chris Makepeace and Adam…
The Hotel New Hampshire (1984)

The Hotel New Hampshire (1984)

[6] Intentionally bizarre and overwrought, I'm not sure what to make of this adaptation of John Irving's novel about an extended, eccentric family that moves into a down-trodden hotel. I liked a previous Irving adaptation, The World According to Garp,…
A Woman Rebels (1936)

A Woman Rebels (1936)

[6] Katharine Hepburn plays a woman determined to dodge marriage and make a career for herself. She gets pretty far, until an unexpected turn of events turns her into a single mother. A Woman Rebels presents a peek at the…
A Serious Man (2009)

A Serious Man (2009)

[4] The Coen Brothers run hot and cold with me. Sometimes I get them, sometimes I don't. This is one of the times that I don't, and I can only figure it's because the comedy is too subdued and the…