In the Heat of the Night is a wonderful and culturally important film from the 1960s and while I don’t think it’s among Sidney Poitier’s best, with To Sir, With Love being my favorite of his, but it still is a great performance alongside Rod Steiger.
Shampoo is a tour-de-force of a movie more with the acting from Warren Beatty, Goldie Hawn, Julie Christie and Lee Grant, who took home the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, than the screenplay, written by Robert Towne and Beatty (Oscar nominated).
Cold Water (L’eau froide) is a well acted and quite realistic drama about adolescent youth with Assayas’s screenplay holding no punches and avoids some of the pratfalls of similarly themed movies from the ‘80s and ‘90s.
Sex, Lies, and Videotape is a strong feature film debut for Steven Soderbergh and features some great performances, primarily Andie MacDowell and James Spader. This is well worth watching for anyone who appreciates a well written character drama.
Midnight Cowboy for me wasn’t entirely the classic in my eyes, yet still is understandable for its cultural impact and propelled by two incredible performances by Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight, both equally deserving of their Best Actor Academy Award nominations.
The Virgin Suicides is a movie that didn’t have a huge impact on me then and now I can appreciate it for its direction and the performances, but nothing else otherwise in terms of any emotional impact.
The Criterion Collection has announced the date and released artwork for a variety of great titles for July including sex, lies and videotape and Bull Durham amongst others. Click on the link below or image to the left to check out the features and artwork.
The Age of Innocence is an all around rich experience between the costumes, production/sets and a fine cast led way by Daniel Day-Lewis and Michelle Pfeiffer. It certainly was an unusual choice for Martin Scorsese yet like any master filmmaker, really pulled it off.
The Criterion Collection has announced the date and released artwork for a variety of great titles for May including Midnight Cowboy, Moonrise and The Other Side of Hope amongst others. Click on the link below or image to the left to check out the features and artwork.
The Silence of the Lambs is easily one of my favorite movies of all-time (top 10) and is probably The Godfather of the suspense-thriller genre with incredible performances from Foster, Hopkins and Levine and an all-around great experience that has held up incredibly well over the years.
The Criterion Collection has announced the date and released artwork for a variety of great titles for April including The Virgin Diaries, Dead Man and The Awful Truth amongst others. Click on the link below or image to the left to check out the features and artwork.
Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Project No. 2 has some very interesting movies though honestly, I didn’t find them very engaging, but I can appreciate them on a technical level. For hardcore film historians out there, this is well worth picking up as most of these are no doubt hard to come by.
The Squid and the Whale is a poignant family drama featuring some really fine performances, the main one being Jeff Daniels who shockingly (or not) did not at least secure an Academy Award nomination. But beyond that, this is a story which transcends generations.
No Escape is an all around entertaining film perfect for a Saturday movie night. No, it doesn’t make you think or have any profound performances but the acting isn’t bad with Owen Wilson serving as a fine everyman type of character and Pierce Brosnan in his small part is a lot of fun. This is probably worthy of a rental.
Although uneven in its tone (as it deviates from effective to cheesy drama), I enjoyed Valley of the Dolls particularly for the performances from Barbara Parkins and, especially, Sharon Tate. The writing isn’t the best and I’d actually welcome some sort of modern remake or even a mini-series
