The Woman Accused (1933)
[5] Nancy Carroll (Hot Saturday) murders an ex-lover after he threatens to put out a hit on her new fiancée (Cary Grant). She and Grant escape on a three day pleasure cruise, but a lawyer friend of the deceased crashes…
The Kid (1921)
[7] Charlie Chaplin made the leap to feature films writing, producing, directing and scoring The Kid, in which Chaplin's famous Tramp character finds and cares for an orphaned child (Jackie Coogan). While The Kid doesn't quite escape the episodic quality…
Hell or High Water (2016)
[7] Chris Pine and Ben Foster play west Texas brothers who resort to bank robbing to keep from losing their family farm. This draws the attention of a Texas Ranger, played by a snarky Jeff Bridges, and his long-suffering partner…
Panic Room (2002)
[6] A mother and daughter hole up in an impenetrable 'panic room' after three strange men invade their Manhattan home looking for a hidden fortune. Jodie Foster stars in this claustrophobic thriller from director David Fincher (Se7en, Fight Club), with…
Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021)
[6] McKenna Grace stars as twelve-year-old Phoebe, the granddaughter of a recently-deceased hermit she discovers has a connection to the original film's Ghostbusters, who have long since disbanded. When her mother inherits the grandfather's decrepit farmhouse, Phoebe learns he wasn't…
Postcards from the Edge (1990)
[7] Meryl Streep plays a drug-addicted actress forced to stay with her celebrity mother (Shirley MacLaine) in order for insurance companies to allow her to continue working in Hollywood. Mike Nichols (The Graduate, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?) directs this…
The Loveless (1981)
[7] Willem Dafoe made his big-screen debut in this meditative homage to The Wild Ones from writer/directors Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker, Near Dark) and Monty Montgomery. Dafoe plays a greaser who lays over in rural Georgia to wait for…
Sasquatch: The Legend of Bigfoot (1976)
[6] This faux-documentary about seven men who travel deep into the Pacific Northwest to find Bigfoot was one of the first movies I ever saw. So nostalgia no doubt colors my opinion of it. But re-watching it recently, I can…
Teorema (1968)
[6] Italian writer/artist/political activist Pier Paolo Pasolini (Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom) paints a bleak portrait of middle-class complacency in Teorema, the story of a bourgeoise household seduced and forever changed by a mysterious stranger played by Terence…
Stage Fright (1950)
[6] Jane Wyman stars in this Alfred Hitchcock noir mystery as an aspiring actress who goes undercover to prove her best friend (Richard Todd) is innocent of murdering a theatre starlet's husband. The starlet is played with icy villainy by…