Madame Butterfly (1932)

Madame Butterfly (1932)

[3] Sylvia Sidney and Cary Grant star in this iteration of Madame Butterfly, the shitty-ass story of a geisha who marries an American Navy officer who leaves her and never comes back. The concept, alone, makes me cringe. Granted, this…
Forbidden (1932)

Forbidden (1932)

[8] Barbara Stanwyck plays a lonely librarian who falls in love with Adolph Menjou on a cruise, but her joy is short-lived in this tragic love story directed by Frank Capra. Stanwyck finds out her beau is already married (to…
Charly (1968)

Charly (1968)

[4] Cliff Robertson stars as Charly, a mentally disabled man who agrees to have an experimental operation that makes him more intelligent. But just as the experiment's success is announced to the scientific world, Charly learns he will soon regress…
Running Scared (2006)

Running Scared (2006)

[5] I watched this movie several weeks ago and I still don't quite know how to review it. An assault on the senses? Psychotic in tone? Punishingly serendipitous? Insane?... Yes, it's all those things. But it's also a riveting in…
Revenge (1990)

Revenge (1990)

[7] [This review is of the Director's Cut of the film, not the original theatrical release.] Kevin Costner falls in love with his boss's wife and lives to suffer the consequences in this brutal but stylish action/drama from director Tony…
Apartment Zero (1988)

Apartment Zero (1988)

[8] Colin Firth and Hart Bochner star in this bold drama/thriller from writer/director Martin Donovan and co-screenwriter David Koepp (who teamed together a few years later on Death Becomes Her). Firth stars as a movie theater manager in Buenos Aires…
The Great Gatsby (1974)

The Great Gatsby (1974)

[7] F. Scott Fitzgerald's most required reading is faithfully script-adapted by Francis Ford Coppola, with Jack Clayton directing a production as lavish as required for the story of the uber-wealthy but mysterious Jay Gatsby. We enter into Gatsby's opulent world…
This Property Is Condemned (1966)

This Property Is Condemned (1966)

[6] Robert Redford and Natalie Wood headline this Tennessee Williams tale adapted by Francis Ford Coppola and directed by Sydney Pollack. Redford plays a railroad representative who comes to a small Mississippi town during the Great Depression to lay off…
The Half of It (2020)

The Half of It (2020)

[7] Writer/director Alice Wu tells us in the beginning of The Half of It that none of the characters will get what they want, and she's not lying. But that won't stop you from rooting for all three characters in…
Lafayette Escadrille (1958)

Lafayette Escadrille (1958)

[6] William Wellman's (Wings, The Ox-Bow Incident) final film is also his most autobiographical, combining his experiences as an American volunteer in the French Legion during World War I with the experiences of a friend who fell in love with…