[6] Part ghost story, part wartime propaganda flick, this heady British production is truly an unusual find. Michael Redgrave plays an American lighthouse keeper who has withdrawn from the world. Having lost all faith in humanity, especially in light of the imminent Nazi blitzkrieg, it’s up to the deceased crew of a sunken ship to restore the lighthouse keeper’s faith. Thunder Rock is a very …
[7] In The Other, To Kill a Mockingbird director Robert Mulligan does a great job engendering sympathy for a schizophrenic child who is channeling the spirit of his deceased twin. Chris and Martin Udvarnoky do a commendable job playing the boy and his ‘other,’ and famed acting teacher Uta Hagen is good as the Russian aunt who begins to put two and two together after …
[8] Three girls and a teacher mysteriously disappear during a 1900 school picnic at a strange rock formation in this Australian film from director Peter Weir (Witness, Master and Commander). Weir uses his trademark poetic license to suggest a supernatural cause, but don’t look for a firm answers — the film is based on a true story that was never solved.
[10] Anthony Minghella (The English Patient) adapts the Patricia Highsmith novel for the big screen, casts it perfectly, and delivers a superb character study and psychological thriller. Matt Damon anchors the film in the best performance of his career, playing the insecure but devious Tom Ripley, a lower-class New Yorker who serendipitously finds himself in Italy to locate a tycoon’s son and encourage him to return …
[9] It’d be easy to write off Ravenous as a bungled misfire, but if it is one, it sure is an interesting one. The end result is a pitch-black comedy about cannibalism set in 1847 at a remote outpost in the Sierra Nevadas. The tone of the film is hard for some to swallow (how punny), but from the opening quotation (“Eat me. – Anonymous”) …
[9] Stockard Channing, Donald Sutherland, and Will Smith star in this dark comedy of manners that unfolds like a mystery. The entire film is told in flashbacks and montage, with Channing and Sutherland as art dealers regaling their New York upper crust acquaintances with the bizarre story of how Smith’s character came into their lives. Smith enters their apartment seeking help for a knife wound …
[9] Six guests are summoned to a mansion on a stormy night where they discover each is being blackmailed by their mysterious host. Not even before dinner is over, the host is murdered and mystery is afoot. But who did (done?) it, and why? Clue is one of those films that was disregarded upon its initial release, but has since become a cult sensation. The …
[9] Chinatown is the name of the movie, but only a short final scene takes place there. One could argue the film is a journey to its namesake, but even that’s not enough to explain the title. In a rare intimate scene in the film, Jack Nicholson tells Faye Dunaway about his time as a cop working in Chinatown. He tried to help a woman, …
[9] Edward Woodward (TV’s The Equalizer) stars as a Christian police officer investigating the disappearance of a child on a remote island in the Scottish isles. Attempts to solve the case are complicated by the locals, all pagan practitioners who deny the child ever existed. The Wicker Man is a British cult classic that never had much of an original theatrical release, but has since …
[10] Alfred Hitchcock’s first American film and only one to win a Best Picture Oscar is Rebecca, starring Joan Fontaine, Laurence Olivier, and Judith Anderson. Based on the novel by Daphne du Maurier, the film follows a nervous woman (Fontaine) who catches the eye of a wealthy widower (Olivier). After they marry, she is taken to his ancestral mansion, Manderley, where the icy cold head …
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