Top Films by Year
Top Films of 2020
Top Films of 2017
Top Films of 2015
Nightmare Alley – 5
I realize that smoking was more common in 1941, but why did Guillermo del Toro put cigarettes in almost every scene of this movie? It’s unneeded as an acting crutch, and it diverts the viewer’s (or at least my) focus from the story: what must his breath smell like when he kisses her?, I wonder […]
Munich: The Edge of War – 7.5
A totally engaging if fanciful account of events surrounding the Munich conference of 1938 which hews to known historical facts and lends itself to a revisionist assessment of the agreement’s merits. The armature of the Chamberlain-Hitler negotiations supports an engaging fictional intrigue involving recent Oxford grads with minor positions in England’s and Germany’s ministries. This […]
Flee – 6.5
The first-person story of a young refugee fleeing Afghanistan in 1984 is a sure-fire heart-tugger, but at the moment it mainly reminded me of man’s inhumanity to man and our failings as a species. The comic-novel format was curious at best, less and less satisfying as the film went on. And it did go on […]
Bergman Island – 7
A dreamy travelogue through Ingmar Bergman’s island, Faro, and a screenwriter’s mind. Fortunately, she is played by Vicky Krieps (how the movie’s blurb could call her an “American” beats me) and in the movie-within-a-movie by Mia Wasikowska, both of whom lay out the uncertainties and difficulties of human relationships in full view. When you try […]
The Tragedy of Macbeth – 7.8
Powerful and sleek, this compressed Macbeth begins in intensity and never lets up. Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand are good, not great, as the title couple (and closed captioning was an aid in following the dialogue). The black-and-white cinematography, modernist architecture and insistent score create an atmosphere of constant foreboding. Kathryn Hunter’s “Sisters” helps, too. The […]