Tonight he’ll be at Rick’s. Eventually everyone goes to Rick’s.
Casablanca (1942) is one of the best movies of all time. It came out in the midst of World War II and yet doesn’t come close to the cheap tricks or laborious lectures of propaganda . Still, the context is there and an agenda. It won Best Picture, Director, and Screenplay Oscars. Some of dialogue is known by everyone. There are plenty of movies that won awards and had quotable…
It is much more disheartening to have to steal than to be stolen from.
I typically shy away from the term “masterpiece”. Perhaps that is because I conflate it with perfection rather than the mere work of a master. That perfection should be obvious to everyone and be separate from nostalgia and historical context–unless context is a conscious ingredient–and thus applies to very few films. In film, being a collaborative medium with so many people at work that go unseen…
This movie shouldn't be as good as it is. When the shot cuts to the motorcycle with an ironic bump, it suggests satire or whacky comedy. But quite clearly, Ed Harris's Billy is in deadly earnest. Everyone else lives within the middle ground of sincerity or senseless fun. And yet as disparate as all of that is, the tone, to me, held up. About a community of folks who have, for one reason or another, to one degree or another,…
Probably the first time I've watched this in over 20 years and it's a completely different film with adult (and movie literate) eyes. Despite the outrageous premise, which is met with a surprisingly positive reaction, the movie is not slick, looking more like Rocky or Ordinary People than Back to the Future. Even if it isn't particularly thoughtful, and nowhere near John Hughes territory either in its pace or comedic saturation. What passed for a comic drama in those days…
Given that I didn't know exactly what I was in for, it is churlish of me to say I was very disappointed, but I was very disappointed. I saw good reviews, classical story, beautiful images, and thought "Finally, after over a year and a half, I'm finally going to see something awesome." Instead, Lowery made something decidedly weird. Admirably, there's no hand-holding through its nebulous plot and indecipherable motivations, but there was no relief from that nebulous indecipherablity. I saw…
It certainly feels every minute of 3 hours, but in a way that's a good thing. In an age of blitzkrieg plotting, a little time for a mystery to develop is nice. Problem is that the mystery, I suspect, barely holds up to scrutiny as the Batman, as parodied in the Adam West film, simply leaps from clue to clue until the conclusion is revealed to him (not by him). As my buddy Tyler often remarks on the Nolan films,…
