Absolutely ridiculous how beautiful, transcendent and epic this remains. Equal parts emotional, layered critique of early colonialism and an all around romantic actioner, this is the one Mann film that shouldn’t be slept on. That last half hour is my go to example of an absolutely locked in filmmaker.
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Ali 2001
The current obsession with biopics has NOTHING on Mann’s take on the quixotic and ridiculously too great at his job Ali. This is Willi Smiths best work, disappearing into Muhammad Ali’s bravado and tenderness effortlessly. The opening 10 minutes always leave me breathless and Mann’s capacity for gorgeous nighttime images is unparalleled. This is ideology in motion, the ultimate man(n) who’s great at his profession choosing something greater including negation at that job. This still fucking rules.
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Ordinary People 1980
Everyone is always making a big deal about how this movie robbed Raging Bull and Scorsese of an Oscar. But the true theft here might be of Donald Sutherland’s performance. RIP to the boundless genre king whose best role is a quiet one of a dad dealing with the grief of what’s happening to his family.
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Blue Velvet 1986
I’ll never forget having my mind ripped open in high school by this. Shortly after, DFW’s essay on Lynch in A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again perfectly encapsulated what I’d be introduced to: the avant- garde. Lynch’s most accessible film traffics in all the gorgeous strangeness, the women in trouble, the peeping Tom’s, the horrors of masculinity that would be his trademarks. And within all of this, I’m realizing is the DNA of every high concept wannabe A24…
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