Top Films by Year
Top Films of 2020
Top Films of 2017
Top Films of 2015
Leaning Into the Wind – 7
A worthy sequel to Rivers and Tides, although its novelty and relative innocence made that one more memorable. Andy Goldsworthy’s art subverts nature as much as celebrates it, but when he connects it’s a home run. I would have appreciated more art and fewer extended close-ups of the artist; the appearance of his attractive daughter […]
Death of Stalin – 3
An Absurdist take on Soviet history that left us wondering, Is this the worst movie we will see this year? We expected funny, but it never showed up. Steve Buscemi as Khrushchev was absurd, of course, but to what point? Making a farce out of executions in a police state makes for queasy viewing, and […]
Top Ten 2017
1. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, MissouriEvery line of Martin McDonagh’s dialogue is fraught and measured, delivered to perfection by Frances McDormand, Sam Rockwell, Woody Harrelson and an equally adept supporting cast.
Phantom Thread – 7
A psychological thriller with Daniel Day-Lewis, a lover and a sister all vying for dominance while his dressmaking art that makes it all possible teeters in the balance. At first I wondered, why make a movie about the Day-Lewis character, except to show off his nonpareil acting skills. What a comedown is Reynolds Woodcock from […]
The Post – 8
A skillfully made film that affirms one great value after another: the First Amendment, women’s equality, art over commerce, truth to power and on and on. The trouble is the movie is continually running up against history we know well, raising questions: wasn’t the Post’s story merely a sideshow to the New York Times’s? Not […]