Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017)
After seven months with no arrests for the violent rape and murder of her daughter, Angela, Mildred Hayes (Frances McDormand) rents three billboards chastising the police for their lack of progress. This sets off a firestorm of controversy in her small town where people revere the local sheriff Bill Willoughby (Woody Harrelson), who’s been recently diagnosed with cancer.
Sam Rockwell is a racist cop, Peter Dinklage is an outsider little person, McDormand gets to be colorful and cranky, and the underrated Harrelson sinks his teeth into a role.
The cast is universally excellent, but what I liked most was its refusal to conform to expectations. Justice for Angela is not what this film is about; her rape and murder are an elaborate MacGuffin. Instead, this film focuses on how we deal with the injustices in our lives, how we pick up the pieces following tragedy.
It’s a wonderful film, featuring some of the best performances of the year.
Blackmail (1929)
When Mr. Crewe attempts to rape Alice White, she kills hm. After her detective boyfriend Frank Weber is assigned the case and finds evidence linking Alice to the crime, she confesses. He agrees to cover up her involvement, but an eyewitness blackmails them.
In Britain’s first sound film, Hitchcock establishes many of the tropes he would use throughout his career: the endangered blonde, a landmark setting, his cameo, and an early murder of a mid-major character.
It holds up better than most American talkies do which are filled with long, awkward silences. Hitchcock understood instinctively how to do things others could only hope to learn.
It’s a major accomplishment at the end of the silent era, but only a stepping stone in Hitchcock’s career.
The Indian Sorcerer (1908)
Many of Georges Meliés’ films feel like extensions of his magician background. His films have endured into a second century because of his prodigious output and his unfettered enthusiasm. Mixed with amazing sets and props, the result is a joy to watch, even in his lesser films.
Alphaville (1965)
Alpha 60, Professor von Braun’s hyper-intelligent computer, took over the city, creating a cold, rational paradise where weeping for a deceased loved one is a capital offense and emotional words are outlawed.
Secret agent Lemmy Caution (Eddie Constantine) arrives in “Alphaville” on a mission to find missing agent Henry Dickson, kill Professor von Braun, and destroy the computer.
Despite originating in a series of novels by British novelist, Peter Cheyney, Caution is clearly modeled on Humphrey Bogart’s interpretation of Sam Spade and would be at home in a Marlowe novel or a Hawks noir.
Godard’s meshing of two disparate genres, film noir and dystopian fiction, laid the groundwork for more recent work like Blade Runner (1982), and Terminator (1984). His film is effective and haunting, but his tendency towards inscrutability dampens the enjoyment of this film.
The Chinese Shadows (1908)
Segundo de Chomón’s film works as a proof of concept of animation. It’s not particularly sophisticated by modern standards, but it’s breathtaking for its time.
The Cannonball Run (1981)
Burt Reynolds is at the peak of his powers and his real-life friend Dom DeLuise is a perfect foil.
The large and diverse supporting cast features Terry Bradshaw, Sammy Davis Jr., Farrah Fawcett, Adrienne Barbeau, and Jackie Chan.
Peter Fonda has a fun cameo spoofing his iconic work in Easy Rider. Jamie Farr is a filthy rich Arab sheik. Roger Moore mocks James Bond. Dean Martin plays an exaggerated version of his public persona.
Loosely based on actual illicit race across the United States, this is a delightfully absurd homage to America’s roads and its obsession with driving, a chaotic collection of vignettes centered around a love of America’s wide-open spaces.
The Sand Pebbles (1966)
This film about US Navy operations in 1920s China is a great reminder of the versatility of director Robert Wise. From science fiction, to sweeping musicals, to horror, he tried his hand at everything.
Steve McQueen was born to play trustworthy rebels like Jake Holman, men torn between their desire to rebel and their stronger desire do the right thing.
A young Candice Bergen is excellent as the love interest for McQueen, while Richard Attenborough and Richard Crenna give wonderful supporting performances.
The film ably explores colonialism and national identity and dares to cast evangelism as a tool for cultural domination.
This is a grittier version of Mister Roberts, and, to its credit, asks questions which were still largely unasked in the mid 1960s, when Vietnam was only just beginning to dominate headlines.
Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018)
Vanellope and Ralph reach a crucial stage in their friendship. She’s bored with life in Sugar Rush and wants to expand her horizons; he’s concerned they’re growing apart and tries to placate her by creating an alternate track in her game. When the game breaks, they’re forced to go into the internet to find a replacement part where they meet the Disney Princesses, work for BuzzFeed, make a deal with Spam, bid on Ebay, and wander into an MMORPG.
After years spent by himself, Ralph learning to be a friend is a natural progression and allows the movie to ask important questions about friendship in the digital age, when physical proximity is a less vital component.
The portrayal of the Disney Princesses was very cool. I’m a huge John. C Reilly fan, and Gal Gadot and Bill Hader deserve special praise for their impeccable work.
I love films which combine characters from disparate genres and build them into a cohesive universe and found this sequel to be very satisfying.
Watchmen (2009)
In this darker version of The Incredibles, Nixon survived Watergate to became a feared and respected President instead of a byword for corruption while superheroes and vigilantes have been outlawed.
It’s fascinating to imagine Nixon taking a Trumpian view of crisis management and easy to recast the Saturday Night Massacre as a proto-Trumpian effort.
Jackie Earle Haley is great as the enigmatic Rorshach,willing to get his hands dirty to accomplish his goals, but maintaining a strict moral code.
Patrick Wilson has quietly built a dependable career and he’s excellent as the aging super hero Nite Owl struggling to find his place in a younger world.
Jeffrey Dean Morgan is always reliable as a bad ass character unafraid to skirt the line between good and evil. You can see shades of his performance as The Comedian influencing his later turn as Negan in The Walking Dead.
When you have omnipotent people who see things in black and white, it’s not hard to imagine arriving at the same conclusion as Ozymandias (Matthew Goode).
Director Zack Snyder has long been accused of favoring style over substance, but here it suits the material. In Watchmen, the flashy style blinds us to the substance leaving us unwilling (or unable) to see what’s really going on.
Marvel has perfected the bright colors and glitzy entertainment, but this movie is deeper and reaches for something I don’t think Marvel dares consider. The movie falls flat in a few places, but it elevates the art form and paved the way for comic book movies to segue into more modern sensibilities.
The Family (2019)
Based on Jeff Sharlet’s research, this documentary examines The Fellowship, a Christian group ingrained in the highest echelons of power in the United States.
This film makes clear, the merger of religion and politics is not exclusively tied to the religious right; liberal members of Congress also use the group to curry favor.
There’s a lot of unbelievable tidbits in this film, which illuminate the way we have reached the current moment in our political discourse.
Les Vampires (1915)
In ten installments of various lengths, reporter Phillipe Guérande takes on the French criminal enterprise known as the Vampires, while his friend and fellow investigator Oscar-Cloud Mazamette provides comic relief.
Introduced in the third episode, “The Red Codebook,” Irma Vep (Musidora), the subordinate of the Grand Vampire, evolves into the lead antagonist of the series and primary focus of their investigation. In a fantastic performance, Musidora molds the sultry night club singer into the prototypical 20th century femme fatale. A century later, several scenes featuring her dancing in a provocative black leotard still ring with eroticism.
The film’s plot is laborious and relies heavily on sudden twists, but Louis Feuillade’s epic saga could easily be re-imagined as an HBO limited series focusing on Parisian crime in the early twentieth century, like a European Boardwalk Empire.