[5] Beautifully shot and slavish to Kubrick’s singular, intentionally off-putting vision, Barry Lyndon follows the circuitous rise and fall of an unscrupulous man through love and war, as he swindles his way into aristocracy and sews the seeds of his own ultimate misfortune. I can appreciate the exercise, creating an immaculate vision so emotionally restrained, it’s almost devoid. But the film is a conundrum for …
[8] Charlize Theron stars as Aileen Wuornos, the infamous Florida prostitute who became a serial killer, in this film chronicling her last few months of freedom before being captured and executed in 2002. Writer/director Patty Jenkins doesn’t shy away from Wuornos’ crimes, but aims to paint a more complex portrait of the woman who committed them. Monster introduces us to Wuornos as she’s contemplating suicide, …
[8] Hot off his Best Director Oscar for Birdman, Alejandro González Iñárritu delivers another astonishing directorial effort. The Revenant is shot entirely outdoors with available lighting, capturing the story of an 1820s fur trader (Leonardo DiCaprio) who is viciously mauled by a bear and left for dead by a traitorous fellow trader (Tom Hardy). DiCaprio and Hardy are both equally up to the task here, …
[7] A gaggle of Oscar-winners go topsy-turvy and fight to survive when a luxury liner capsizes at sea in the trend-setting disaster flick, The Poseidon Adventure. The film delivers on producer Irwin Allen’s desire to blow shit up (think of him as the proto-Michael Bay), but also manages to give its venerable cast plenty to chew on. The characters are engaging and no one is …
[7] Director Sydney Lumet (12 Angry Men, Network) takes on Agatha Christie and delivers a light-hearted soufflé of a murder mystery. I always tend to enjoy ensemble films within a claustrophobic setting, so being trapped on the Orient Express during a blizzard with Lumet’s star-studded cast was a real treat. Albert Finney headlines the venerable collection of stage and screen actors as Christie’s famous detective …
[8] Quentin Tarantino’s eighth film (because he’s counting) is a three-hour long claustrophobic western about eight characters holed up in a lodge during a snowstorm who all have reason to kill one another. Leading the ensemble cast are Kurt Russell as a bounty hunter, Jennifer Jason Leigh as his ruthless, almost feral captive, Samuel L. Jackson as a Union major delivering corpses for reward money, …
[6] Charlton Heston headlines an ensemble cast in Cecil B. DeMille’s The Greatest Show on Earth. We’re talking, of course, about the Circus — and the lives of the people who put it on. Heston plays the owner and manager of the sprawling, traveling outfit. Betty Hutton is the love interest he has no time for, while Cornel Wilde plays the hunky trapeze artist who …
[8] Tom Hooper (The King’s Speech) directs this adaptation of David Ebershoff’s novel, based loosely on the life of Lili Elbe, one of the first people ever to undergo sex reassignment surgery. Eddie Redmayne (The Theory of Everything) is outstanding as, at first, Einar Wegener, and later as Lili. Redmayne’s transformation is a beguiling one, capturing all the seduction and trepidation a life-altering revelation should …
[5] This early Best Picture Oscar winner is a three-hour mix of song, dance, and narrative, much like Broadway Melody before it. I was expecting a real stinker, especially when the opening credits revealed “Fashion Parades by Adrian”. But apart from being overly long and anachronistic, it wasn’t so bad. The narrative is fashioned loosely around the life of Broadway’s legendary Florenz Ziegfeld Jr (the …
[4] For its racist stereotypes and sugar-coated depiction of plantation life in the post-Civil War South, Disney has locked away Song of the South from the public since its last re-release in 1986. I don’t think the film is any more offensive than countless others made before desegregation (Gone with the Wind among them). In fact, putting its social infractions in historical context is probably …
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