It doesn’t matter whether you think Oswald acted alone or not. Oliver Stone’s JFK is stunning in its craftsmanship and enthralling in its narrative construction. If you’re only casually familiar with the people and events surrounding Kennedy’s assassination and the conspiracy theories about it, brace yourself for a fast-paced, provocative, emotionally compelling story that is sure to make you drop your jaw and raise your eyebrows.
It may be steeped in sentiment and nostalgia, but Fried Green Tomatoes doesn’t need to use them as a crutch to elicit a powerful emotional response. It’s got bigger guns than that: character and storytelling. It’s one of the rare movies that successfully captures the importance of real, honest-to-God friendship, whether its reflected in the toned-down affection between Mary Stuart Masterson and Mary-Louise Parker (whose characters are lesbians in Fannie Flagg’s novel), or in the budding friendship of Kathy Bates and Jessica Tandy. It’s a marvel that the movie can cut back and forth between the two story lines and keep both equally interesting.
Here we have a horror film so classy, it won the Oscar for Best Picture. Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster each deliver career-defining performances as Hannibal Lecter and Clarice Starling, the central characters in author Thomas Harris’ perverse contemporary retelling of Beauty and the Beast. The screenplay balances their provocative banter with a well-constructed mystery surrounding the identity and whereabouts of a serial killer named Buffalo Bill. Ted Levine gives a excellent, unnerving performances as Bill, a man who kidnaps hefty gals and keeps them in a pit. It’s from that vantage point you hear the film’s infamous (and now campy line): “It rubs the lotion on its skin or it gets the hose again.”
Kevin Costner’s ambitious ode to the American frontier is grand, romantic storytelling at its best. And talk about an underdog. People were calling it ‘Kevin’s Gate’ months prior to release — and why shouldn’t they? A three-hour long western with most of its dialogue in Lakota Sioux? How could such a movie find an audience, much less sweep the Academy Awards?
