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The Eight Mountains
The journey from book to movie is arduous and fraught. It is exceedingly rare for a movie to flatly exceed its source (e.g. The Godfather) and perhaps even less common for the movie to be a perfect distillation of the novel. The Eight Mountains is that. It brings every scene and every character to life…
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Annie Hall
As in most great movie romances, the lovers in Annie Hall do not end up together. Jane Austen may assure us that well-suited, rational lovers can live with as much chance of happiness together as it is possible to have, but we tend to believe that the essence of great romance is in its loss.…
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A Bridge Too Far
A Bridge Too Far is a big movie. Every male movie star of the second half of the 20th century has at least a cameo. Redford. Olivier. Caan. Gould. Caine. Hackman. O’Neal. The talent is everywhere. Richard Attenborough directs. And oh my the money they must have spent to film this thing. The parachute drops.…
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13 Assassins
Whichever version you choose to watch of 13 Assassins, you won’t go wrong. The new version is faster, bloodier and more visually striking. The old version has the same great story beats and is even more perfectly Japanese. Not to be missed by anyone who enjoys Samurai movies (and who doesn’t?). (Prime)
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The Fabelmans
After the disappointingly bland remake of West Side Story, Spielberg returns to form. Yes, it’s obviously a “late” work in the mold of great craftsmen reflecting on their life and craft, but it has all the classic Spielberg touches: masterly direction, a certain innocence, a genuine love of the craft, and a gift for getting…
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The World’s End
The fitting conclusion to the Cornetto Trilogy, each of which has its special pleasures. But I’ve always loved World’s End the best, perhaps for my namesake – the “King” of Gary’s in film. One mile. Twelve pubs. Twelve pints. And a story of friendship, loss, and what the total absence of personal transformation might look…
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Clueless
Pride & Prejudice and Emma are Austen’s two greatest books. But while Pride & Prejudice has a slew of fine, straightforward adaptations, Emma has proven much more difficult to bring to the screen. That’s probably because it’s not a great romance like P&P. As a comedy of manners, though, it’s plainly superior. Clueless is far…
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The Hornet’s Nest
This is as close as you can (or would want) to come to combat in Afghanistan. Those are slugs whispering by the camera and you can see the very unsimulated fear on the faces of the father and son doing the filming. There is no real story arc (it’s Afghanistan), just visceral, hard-to-watch, gripping, and…
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The French Connection
Probably the Platonic Form of the cop chasing criminals movie. A great star (Gene Hackman), a great supporting cast, a ZERO frills (1.44 run-time) script so tight your jaw will need unclenching by the end, one of the great car chases ever – so good it holds up after five decades – and a dark…
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(Anything But) Babylon
La La Land was about people who take their art seriously. Babylon is about people who don’t. And while Hollywood might always have had more of the latter, Babylon fails because A) people who take their art seriously are a lot more interesting than people who are just screwing around and B) Chazelle doesn’t seem…
We are not rational animals, we are animals that must work to be rational
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