What Hollywood could learn from 1939

It was a very good year in Hollywood: What today's movies could learn from 1939

The Academy Awards committee recently increased the number of Oscar nominees for “Best Film” from five to ten. But today's ten best films would be hard-pressed to make the top 100 of 1939. What did Hollywood do right in that year when everything else in the world went wrong?

Armen Pandola

Jul 21, 2009 · Articles · 5 minute read

Michael Mann's "Public Enemies'

Dillinger the doomed

In Michael Mann's crime films, the lines between good and bad are never clear. In his ambiguously titled Public Enemies, Mann suggests that the exuberant if bloody bank robber John Dillinger and the straitlaced G-men who pursued him were in many respects brothers under the skin.

Mark Wolverton

Jul 14, 2009 · Articles · 5 minute read

James Toback's "Tyson'

The dark prince of boxing

Tyson, James Toback's celebrated documentary, explores a life that the boxer himself called “a Greek tragedy.” The former “baddest man on the planet” obviously trusted Toback to the point that he acquiesced in Toback's brilliant cinematic strategy of using Tyson himself as the sole interviewee and narrator of the film.

Bob Ingram

Jun 15, 2009 · Articles · 5 minute read

"Frost/Nixon' on DVD

Frost/Nixon on DVD: The play vs. the movie vs. the real thing

Ron Howard's Frost/Nixon, now available on DVD, works as a tale about two ambitious men confronting each other in search of redemption, absolution, worldly success and ultimate closure.

Mark Wolverton

Jun 14, 2009 · Articles · 4 minute read

Roberto Bolaño's '2666'

A Tolstoy for our century

Roberto Bolaño's novel 2666 ranges across time and space to present a stately, soaring series of tales that plumb the human heart in all its grandeur and darkness. It's a lesson for this new and aching century.

Bob Ingram

May 10, 2009 · Articles · 4 minute read

"Milk' and gay reality

A take on Milk, from a straight lady on the fringe

Oscars or not, Milk is not a perfect film because it depicts gay men's lives in those Stonewall days as more about reckless sex than loneliness and terror. Back in the day, I learned firsthand how lonely and alienating the gay life was and still is, for many.

Reed Stevens

Feb 24, 2009 · Articles · 5 minute read

"Slumdog Millionaire'

A passport to India

Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire is a marvel of innovative cinematography and storytelling. It feels very realistic, but at the same time, it's also a fairy tale.

Be'eri Moalem

Feb 03, 2009 · Articles · 3 minute read

Steven Soderbergh's 'Che'

Viva la (yawn) Revolution

Ernesto "Che" Guevara, the Cuban revolution's grim executioner, put people to death and wrecked Cuba's economy. Steven Soderbergh's two-part epic puts people to sleep and wastes their time.

F. Lennox Campello

Jan 28, 2009 · Articles · 6 minute read

Clint Eastwood: Mellowing archetype

From killer to conciliator: Clint Eastwood's remarkable ride

Clint Eastwood, the nihilist gunslinger of Sergio Leone's spaghetti Westerns and the cop run nearly amok of the Dirty Harry series, has reversed gears in the last 20 years and— as his current Gran Torino shows— found ways to raise dark questions about American manhood and American nationhood while persuading us we're still being entertained.

Robert Zaller

Jan 19, 2009 · Articles · 8 minute read

'Frost/Nixon' at the Ritz 5.

Brothers under the skin

Ron Howard's Frost/Nixon, adapted from the London stage play, pits a ferrety David Frost (Michael Sheen) against a hulking Richard Nixon (Frank Langella) in the modern media's version of Gunfight at the OK Corral. Both men won and both men lost; but Langella's Nixon, a tour de force, is the real reason to see the film.

Robert Zaller

Dec 16, 2008 · Articles · 5 minute read