4o3v2h

My impression is mostly the same as my initial viewing- too much action without enough stories or characters and care about. The first 20 minutes felt like I was zipping between half a dozen non-descript locations to get all the ostensibly boring exposition out of the way.   Then it was all pew pew.  There’s also too many characters. Rogue One could be two humans and a robot and miss nothing. The blind not-Jedi feels like having Mike Winslow in a movie and he never gets to do any funny noises. I have no idea what anyone who wasn’t Andor or Jyn was adding other than the convoluted battle sequence needed more hands to turn the plot gears.

The movie is leaps and bounds better when Rose is the one with agency in a situation. Every time Jack is mansplaining to Rose it gets a bit obnoxious.

I think Akroyd needs to be reigned in sometimes. Also features my least favorite version of Murray, where he’s stretching too much for jokes that aren’t there.

“Piper: No!”
-Parker Poseys review of this movie.

Elvis’ frustration with the ending lead to his famous song about minds that are suspicious - Blue Suede Shoes.

Turns out Tom Hanks is pretty great in this. Doesn’t work without his performance. 

There has to have been a way to not have the light tone come to a screeching halt every time we’re reminded of the horror movie that is the Moms life (and presumably the Dad…he disappears after a brief cameo in an alligator hat). Josh is on a trip with a forgotten uncle for …reasons. I dunno. My powers of belief suspension are stronger than this movie gives me credit for.

It’s possible that I’m jaded from watching too many “war is hell” movies.   But this felt like a well made one of those. Unremarkable, but worth watching.

I don’t know exactly what to make of the tone of the movie, or what I feel about the characters, if anything. An enjoyable enough ride. I feel like it’s veer towards drama didn’t exactly work for me, since I was only invested in the characters so far as they ed the zany adventures they were engaged in. I dunno. May need a second watch.

Turns out my childhood memory was correct- this is a perfect movie.

Surprisingly engaging for the entire family, considering it’s a silent film that’s largely plotless. The silence actually worked to its advantage, we all came up with names for everyone and talked at the screen without worry of missing dialog (watched at home not the theater- we’re not monsters)

Cat - Sing Street (our second choice movie for Movie Night)
Dog - Dum Dum
Capybara- Gus
Lemur - Sassy Pete
Bird- Big Bird
Lemur Group- The Hat Gang
Dog Group- Wolfenstein, Big Bear, …others
Whale-like creature- Job

I didn’t imagine the movie ending with Voltron beaver but here we are.

This one goes to Roman numeral 2

Somehow has a better, more distilled version of myth making than Liberty Valance, domestication than The Searchers, and American corruption than McCabe & Mrs Miller.  If one were to insist on watching only one western to understand what all the fuss is about, this would be the one.

This was a fun one.

Goslings “sidebar” schtick is starting to wear thin on me. This also takes too many cues from Deadpool on excessive needle drops.  But it still manages to be light enough to enjoy.

A plane wasn’t the ideal setting. Need to revisit.

The source material is only a scoush better than average. This just added some ugly cinematics.

A Packers movie financed by Culver’s and featuring M Emmett Walsh?  What Venn Diagram-of-interests fantasy land am I living in?  As a movie fan I’m incredibly pleased this even exists, but as I native Wisconsinite I can’t help but wonder what narrative possibilities were left unexplored by neglecting to have the Menards Guy as one of the antagonist.

Bert waltzed right in with an accordion ready to go when he dropped of Harry at George’s house at the end. Good think everyone was down for a singalong.

Parts of this are just so clunky. Like they didn’t understand how to setup their story other than awkward exposition. Feels like a lot of cooks in the kitchen.  But the Mccarthur Park was fun, so it gets a bump in the star rating.

The big issue here is that the actor that is Jack plays him like he’s a child. So the romance never works.

Plot and dialog are downright corny. Fun action though.

I ultimately felt that the Riley exterior-world parts in the first were more compelling, and that the interior-world pairing of Joy/Sadness was a better matchup than Joy/Everyone.  Pairing down the cast would have helped the story be more specific and focused. But this was still solid.

Not sure I could explain the ins and outs of the narrative, or that it even s explanation.  It’s just sort of surprising and wonderful.  Want to see multiple times.

Charles Dickens owed one to Jesus for that time he did a stage read of Great Expectations.

Watched on Friday August 30, 2024.

Quite good. I feel like Hitchcock ramps it up a bit more than is needed in the third act, but the first two are so good it easily makes up for it.  All time great villain performance.

What if sixth sense was a kids movie?

You assholes are really gonna make me watch two movies?

B minus

Way too Try-hard. It’s like they got the note not to match thru every life major point in a biopic , but kept everything else. Lots of “complex genius” and “hard to love” atuff.

Enjoyable. Cast was really good. Stayed away from being too schmaltzy. Only had a few missteps into formula.

It’s hard to not respond positively to a movie that’s overstuffed with ideas. So much better than the alternative, even if the ideas don’t all land.  What’s holding me back is that I didn’t feel particularly invested in Michelle Yeohs emotional journey. Or, more to the point, I’m not sure the movie was. It hits a lot of emotional beats, to be sure. But they feel as haphazard as the multiverse itself. She makes a seemingly significant decision to “kill with kindness” late in the movie. This is based on a kindness montage of Waylon about 90 mins in. Before that I didn’t get the sense she was struggling with always choosing to fight as a character flaw. It feels like an epiphany without a setup. As does a lot of the movie. This also devalues the more audacious moments as seeming like a distraction from the lack of character development.

Turns out this is a pretty great epic- the type that doesn’t get made anymore. The plot points and romance are sort of broad in a way you’d expect. I just wish Decaprio was better in the role. He doesn’t add much to the stiff dialog.

I have a barrier with this movie the way the dialog tells us the themes directly and the music sort of pummels us. Overall I enjoyed it for the more dazzling sequences.

We can all agree that the chef died a horrible death once his helicopter ran out of fuel.

Insert [The worst person you know just made a great point] picture here.

You assholes are really gonna make me watch two movies?

Marking this now so I can my ambivalence when I eventually rewatch it and love it. Right now, it’s put in the same penalty box that Chinking Express was put in before I rewatched and loved.

Just loved it. Waited in my plane seat while everyone was deplaning so I could catch the end scene. Wonderful acting, wonderful Pet Sounds score, wonderful story about longing and processing grief of a past life.  

If the assignment for the husband was for him to be more understanding than would be expected  while also being gently douchy  - mission accomplished.

About 10-15 minutes into the movie I was thinking “why is this prequel cash grab so utterly delightful?”  My son, who picked the movie, pointing out that Wonkas mom was from Paddington and I then ed this was a Peter King t. 

Anyway, this is way better than it needed to be and, hot take, an objectively better movie than the original. Don’t get me wrong, Wilder is a mad genius and created an all-time character. But the beginning is long and plodding, the morals are child abuse, and Charlie is a dud of an actor. There’s something inconsistent about a character who’s career is to bring happiness to kids but spends his time scolding them for, like, watching too much TV. Wilders Wonka is a sour man. Wonka(2023) on the other hand is full on whimsy, the value of community and caring for others, and -what I guess is Paul Kings motif- taking down the Church of England. 

The only real misstep is the fat suit. Are we past this dumb “joke”?

Perfect first four scenes to set up the movies themes:

Vertigo:
Scott is stripped of his job and possibly his identity. He’s powerless to stop the perp, or a man dying, and is left hanging helplessly. 

The Madonna : “What’s this doohickey?”
Scotts reliance on his mother figure is established, his fascination with sex, and his utter lack of interest in a relationship with her. But that’s her fault, he says.  Midge catches him from falling to end the scene. 

The Hunt: “I asked you to come up here knowing you retired”
Scott starts out the scene in complete dominance, refusing to sit, and pointedly asking Gavin WTF am I here?  Gavin warms him up with the lost mysteries of San Fran, then he upends him with a possession mystery and plays on his recent emasculation  (retirement) to sucker him in. Scott leaves unbalanced and intrigued. 

The Prize: “look, we’re dining at Ernie’s “
Scott is hooked by her alluring and mysterious profile, a shot Hitch repeats. If Midge is the Madonna, then this is pure sex for Scottie. The doohicky come to life.  He needs to possess this and reassert his masculinity. 

Movie gets more perfect the more you see it.

The main two characters need some personality to make this work. The stakes are pretty minimal since the only indication of what Cole needs to do to solve the Crones riddle is our knowledge that these characters are in a romance movie. It’s not like we know his life to be lacking romance before his journey. Or adventure for that matter. He’s a blank slate.

Kind of broke the general agreement of an Indiana Jones movie where you expect a string of set pieces. All of the CGI felt inert.

Enjoyed. Didn’t quite stick the landing, but the first two acts were a fun surprise.

Nothing says Christmas more than a dead-child plot twist.

I guess the Coming To America sequel earned less than I thought.

Not as head-over-heels as I was a few years ago. Still love a lot of the scenes. I do more with the critics that said they’d like it better if the mains could sing and dance a bit better. And oddly the side dancers were all a bit too polished in a broadway kinda way. My big gripe though is with Ryan Goslings character- he’s fundamentally unlikeable and speaks like a stereotypical old Jewish grandma for…reasons?

If you believe that specificity is the soul of narrative, then this movie only had half a soul.  Both the immigrant and the magical world stories feel overly generic. Even the love story felt more like perfunctory than something driven by a character connection.

This looks like absolute crap and feels like it’s directed by someone trying to nauseate you. But perhaps the worst offense is removing the key change in Poor Unfortunate Soul.

1. Mulholland Drive
2. In the Mood for Love
3. Phantom Thread
4. Inside Llewyn Davis
5. The Royal Tenenbaums
6. The Boy and the Heron
7. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
8. Talk to Her
9. The Incredibles
10. The Pianist

...plus 82 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

As the tagline for the comedy Friendship says: “Men shouldn’t have friends”. Prove ‘em wrong with this Showdown! Turns out, the cure to male loneliness is coming up with a list of ten of your favorite movies about guys being buds. These amigos can range from superbad boys to GoodFellas—either way, they’re hitting the mean streets in search of excellent adventures together. So have another round Goonies, outsiders and other guys, and never stop never stopping! For inspiration in selecting your midnight cowboys on their midnight runs, check out these lists by JumpingZacks, Anna, Jesse and Rahul.

• RRR
• Rio Bravo
• The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
• The Best Years of Our Lives
• Jules and Jim
• Luca
• Only Angels Have Wings
• Midnight Cowboy
• Ball of Fire
• Brian's Song

...plus 26 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• David and Lisa

Prompted by my recent viewing of Notorious, a great film. Not necessarily my favorite director, but undeniably belongs on the Rushmore. I’ve seen so few, relatively speaking. But here goes.

• Vertigo
• Rear Window
• North by Northwest
• Notorious
• Strangers on a Train
• Psycho
• The Birds
• Rebecca
• Suspicion
• To Catch a Thief

...plus 1 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

As Sacramento and The Ballad of Wallis Island release in the cool world of theaters, this Showdown is all about location, location, location. If you 🎹 wanna be a part of it 🎹, make your own atlas by listing your ten favorite films named after a landmark, a neighborhood, a city, a state, a country, even a continent. One rule: it must be a specific place. This means no No Country for Old Men, no Nomadland, no North by Northwest. Also, while there are scores of stories titled after spots in filmmaking hubs like Los Angeles and New York, we encourage you to go more global! If you need a road map, explore these lists by Energetic_nova, HDorrittie and Logan (though keep in mind that not everything in these lists are eligible—looking at you, Dune).

• Hiroshima Mon Amour
• Harlan County U.S.A.
• Bull Durham
• Nashville
• The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
• Cedar Rapids
• Rio Bravo
• Casablanca
• The Bridge on the River Kwai
• Tokyo Story

...plus 93 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• Black Narcissus
• Rashomon
• A Streetcar Named Desire
• Singin' in the Rain
• The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
• Monty Python and the Holy Grail
• Taxi Driver
• Network
• Apocalypse Now
• Stalker

...plus 21 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• Mrs. Miniver

Original AFI ranking in the notes

Everything at the end, starting at A Streetcar Named Desire, is unseen by me and just left in the original, relative order.

1. The Apartment

   80

2. Citizen Kane

   1

3. 2001: A Space Odyssey

   15

4. It's a Wonderful Life

   20

5. City Lights

   11

6. Nashville

   59

7. Do the Right Thing

   96

8. Jaws

   56

9. Taxi Driver

   52

10. The Wizard of Oz

    10

...plus 90 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. The Apartment
2. It Happened One Night
3. The Godfather
4. No Country for Old Men
5. All About Eve
6. Casablanca
7. Unforgiven
8. The Best Years of Our Lives
9. Lawrence of Arabia
10. The Bridge on the River Kwai

...plus 82 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

With Mickey 17 orbiting in theaters (and Ryan Coogler’s Sinners landing in April), twinning seems to be winning. The phenomenon of the same actor in multiple roles—be they siblings, clones, doppelgängers, dead ringers, etc.—isn’t new (hello to Drs. Strangelove and Evil!) but there’s been an undeniable influx as of late. So, for this Showdown, we ask for a simple favor: shout out your top ten favorite instances of one performer playing different characters in the same film. If you’re having trouble seeing double, check out these lists by Siegel, Cat and Daniel.

• Witness for the Prosecution
• Vertigo
• The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
• Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery
• Face/Off
• There Will Be Blood
• Adaptation.
• Monty Python and the Holy Grail
• Certified Copy
• The Wizard of Oz

...plus 28 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• The Gay Falcon

1. Inside Llewyn Davis
2. No Country for Old Men
3. Fargo
4. Blood Simple
5. Hail, Caesar!
6. Barton Fink
7. The Big Lebowski
8. True Grit
9. The Man Who Wasn't There
10. Miller's Crossing

...plus 4 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Yeah, we’re thinking we’re back: this week’s Gladiator II-inspired Showdown is a literal showdown. Specifically, a battle royale, which is defined as “a fight, often to the death, in which more than two combatants are engaged and the victor is the last surviving participant”. The “more than two combatants” is the most crucial here, as we’ve run a previous Showdown for best one-on-one duels. Grab your Hattori Hanzo steel and slash up a list of your ten favorite large-scale fights, be they between running men or attacking clones. For extra credit, add the particular scene in the notes, i.e. “The newscaster battle” for Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy.

• RRR
• Beauty and the Beast
• Yojimbo
• Home Alone
• Blazing Saddles
• Unforgiven
• The Warriors
• West Side Story
• Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood
• Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy

...plus 47 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• A Heidelberg Holiday

• A Face in the Crowd
• Broadcast News
• Auto Focus
• Frost/Nixon
• Wag the Dog
• Wayne's World
• Poltergeist
• Network
• Permanent Midnight
• Magnolia

...plus 5 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. My Neighbor Totoro
2. The Boy and the Heron
3. Spirited Away
4. Castle in the Sky
5. Porco Rosso
6. Ponyo
7. Princess Mononoke
8. Howl's Moving Castle
9. Kiki's Delivery Service
10. The Wind Rises

Summer is heating up, making those in the northern hemisphere feel like we’re in an apocalypse, now. Do the right thing to cope with this tropical malady by cooking up a list of the ten sweatiest films—you know, the Southland tales where you can feel the body heat of the night, see the perspiration falling down the foreheads of twelve angry men, hear the yowls of stray dogs and cats on hot tin roofs. Stay cool (like Luke’s hand) in this humid temple of doom, wild things and top guns.

• Do the Right Thing
• Airplane!
• 12 Angry Men
• Rear Window
• A Streetcar Named Desire
• In the Mood for Love
• Cool Hand Luke
• Vision Quest
• Dune
• Black Narcissus

...plus 18 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• Three Fugitives

• Cats
• Xanadu
• Office Space
• An Inconvenient Truth
• Red Dawn
• Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory
• The Third Man
• You Can't Take It with You
• Pinocchio
• Planet of the Apes

...plus 28 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• Mad Max: Fury Road

As the northern hemisphere springs forward, it’s about time to look towards things to come. If you’re feeling like the worst person in the world—you poor thing!—take a walk on the wild side and begin again in Nomadland. You could take a page from Mrs. Harris and go to Paris, or you could eat, pray, love under the Tuscan eternal sunshine at the best exotic Marigold Hotel… or you could buy a zoo. Either way, whip out those silver linings playbooks and princess diaries, then come up with your ten favorite picture shows about turning over a new leaf. For the beginners, here are some lists for inspiration, courtesy of Antoched, Andrew and Flip Screen.

• Kiki's Delivery Service
• Stripes
• Black Narcissus
• Martha Marcy May Marlene
• Annie
• Into the Woods
• Barbie
• Gone with the Wind
• I Know Where I'm Going!
• Where the Boys Are

...plus 18 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

For Women’s History Month, we’re calling all heartbreak kids, sweeties and she-devils to come up with a list of the ten best under-seen women-directed films. Only movies watched by fewer than 25,000 are eligible—that means no lady birds, no little women, no petites mamans. But it’s more than possible: just take a long walk down that red road, cross Delancey and Hester Street, somersault through Sugar Cane Alley and sure enough you’ll be in the lovely and amazing blazing world of women with brilliant careers. If you’re struggling, no fear, no die: check out these lists from Jack, Annie and UntrueDetective, sort by ‘Film Popularity’ and scroll to the end.

• Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles
• Harlan County U.S.A.
• Vagabond
• Wanda
• The Beguiled
• Clueless
• A League of Their Own
• Lady Bird
• Zero Dark Thirty
• Point Break

...plus 90 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• City Lights
• Grand Hotel
• King Kong
• It Happened One Night
• A Night at the Opera
• Modern Times
• Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
• You Can't Take It with You
• Only Angels Have Wings
• The Philadelphia Story

...plus 83 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. The Royal Tenenbaums
2. The French Dispatch
3. Rushmore
4. The Grand Budapest Hotel
5. The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
6. Moonrise Kingdom
7. Fantastic Mr. Fox
8. Asteroid City
9. Isle of Dogs
10. The Darjeeling Limited

Trying for one film per director in the top X

1. The Third Man
2. The Apartment
3. It's a Wonderful Life
4. Rio Bravo
5. Vertigo
6. Nashville
7. 2001: A Space Odyssey
8. City Lights
9. Do the Right Thing
10. Black Narcissus

...plus 119 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. Only Angels Have Wings
2. The Royal Tenenbaums
3. Broadcast News
4. The Hustler
5. In a Lonely Place
6. No Country for Old Men
7. Sherlock Jr.
8. Fargo
9. Being John Malkovich
10. Sweet Smell of Success

...plus 90 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• North by Northwest
• A Matter of Life and Death
• Alive
• United 93
• The Horror at 37,000 Feet
• Apollo 13
• Only Angels Have Wings
• Mutiny on the Bounty
• Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
• The Poseidon Adventure

...plus 8 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• The Gold Rush
• Alive
• Blazing Saddles
• Step Brothers
• Paddington 2
• Cool Hand Luke
• 9½ Weeks
• Tom Jones
• PlayTime
• Beauty and the Beast

...plus 49 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

He had it coming.” Not just dames to kill for, but to die for. They’re gun crazy wild things who may go by different names—Gilda, Laura, Rebecca, hell, even Jessica Rabbit—but were all born to be bad and kiss deadly. Out of the past swagger Ladies Shanghai, Snowblood and Vengeance, here to dig under the skin and exchange some body heat to coax out a simple favor: come up with a list of your ten favorite femme fatales in film. Scour your noir knowledge, or shake down other genres (why not audition the love witches and rabid incubi of horror?)—follow your basic instinct. C’est diabolique!

• The Third Man
• Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles
• Who Framed Roger Rabbit
• What We Do in the Shadows
• Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
• Black Narcissus
• Mulholland Drive
• The Lady Eve
• Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans
• King Kong

...plus 29 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Welcome to the Weird Barbie dollhouse. This Showdown is for the strange and unusual girls who cause trouble every day then walk home alone at night. Black swans and lady birds who go west, get possessed, are obsessed. Here, weird sisters like April, May and Juno inhabit ghost worlds, the poor things: some work at the Chungking Express, some are masochistic piano teachers and some are submissive secretaries poring over diaries written by misfit teenage girls, inept princesses and, of course, Bridget Jones. Whether your ten films center on thoroughbred heavenly creatures or delusional cyborgs, that’s ok; all are welcome to our fight club, hosted by Marla Singer. Bottoms up!

• Bringing Up Baby
• Sunset Boulevard
• Johnny Guitar
• Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles
• Grey Gardens
• Mary Poppins
• Broadcast News
• Ninotchka
• The Lady Eve
• The Major and the Minor

...plus 28 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Fire walk with us down the lost highway of moon-soaked movies—then meet Mikey and Nicky after hours for a good time before sunrise. Under cover of darkness lurk the taxi drivers and blade runners, the warriors and fallen angels, the repo men and working girls: they’re all cruising the mean streets of sin cities that never sleep, with some even committing crimes of ion. For this Showdown, dream up a variety of ten films that take place in the twilight, under a new moon or a lunar eclipse—as long as most of the action is pre-breaking dawn. No need to restrict your selections to stories set over just one singular night on Earth either. Don’t keep those eyes wide shut, midnight cowboys; it’s a nocturama!

• Sweet Smell of Success
• Midnight Madness
• Die Hard
• Diner
• Rebel Without a Cause
• The Night of the Hunter
• Marty
• Rear Window
• American Graffiti
• Airplane!

...plus 10 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

There’s some hocus pocus going on and Mystery Inc. is on the case, at G-force speed. Round up the stray dogs, dancing cats, showbiz crocs and chatty ravens because we have one question: what doest thou want? To talk to humans, of course! This Showdown takes an incredible journey into the world of inter-species communication. From asshole bugs to Narnian lions, the only rule is that animals must communicate with humans in human languages, whether telepathically or verbally. Counted: humans who’ve been turned into animals; animated films in which humans and animals communicate. Not counted: films in which animals only talk to each other within their own animal worlds (sorry, Babe). Are you hot to trot? Now let’s split up, gang! Guide thy hand to thouest Letterboxd list, and tell us your ten favorite talking-animal movies.

• Harvey
• Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy
• Sorry to Bother You
• Who Framed Roger Rabbit
• Grizzly Man
• The Wizard of Oz
• Pinocchio
• Alice in Wonderland
• Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
• Rocky

...plus 34 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. Inside Llewyn Davis
2. Drive
3. Phantom Thread
4. The Grand Budapest Hotel
5. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
6. Sorry to Bother You
7. Paddington 2
8. Parasite
9. La La Land
10. Get Out

...plus 21 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

There’s trouble in paradise. A clash by night. A dark victory, under a new moon. But it didn’t just happen one night, and it could happen to you. The ages of cinematic time are lined with the notorious splendor of unmade beds. The dreamers, the spoilers who come out of the past, the accidental husbands, my favorite wife—can you see the green light? It’s the talk of the town! Of all the films centered on a love triangle—however you read it—fling open Bridget Jones’s notebook and list the favourite. Luckily, you don’t have to choose just one—make it a full ten. This Showdown is going places (and we’ll always have Paris).

1. The Philadelphia Story
2. Bull Durham
3. Vertigo
4. Toy Story
5. Y Tu Mamá También
6. The Earrings of Madame de...
7. Jules and Jim
8. The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
9. Being John Malkovich
10. The Apartment

...plus 51 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

I thought music was noise, I thought art was bullshit, and then I realized: all the world’s a stage, including movies! This Showdown pulls back the crimson curtain to celebrate the topsy-turvy double life of actors playing characters playing other characters; the fabulous artifice of the plays-within-plays and musicals-within-films and all that jazz. So give a girl a break and pay recognition to the braves, the traveling players performing a new old play. List your top ten films that depict stage productions as part of their narrative. Let’s take Manhattan and Montreal. It’s opening night and there’s love on the ground. You can drive my car to the theater, we’ll meet at the stage door.

• The Red Shoes
• Wag the Dog
• Topsy-Turvy
• Nashville
• The Act of Killing
• Network
• The Sting
• Synecdoche, New York
• Drive My Car
• To Be or Not to Be

...plus 46 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

SHOWDOWN
Real Genius
Best scientists in film

Add a list
or tag with showdown:science

It’s time to enter the biosphere, baby! From the city of lost children to the island of lost souls, this Showdown is a primer on films that feature science and scientists as integral to the story: the university professors, chemistry teachers, lab-techs and astro-scientists working to cure ills, contain outbreaks, bend minds… or meddle with mortality. From beyond your altered states, think of your ten favorite films that splice science into the frame. Whether they use a dangerous method or an imitation game, hollow men or hidden figures, this is a radioactive situation. Strap them to the slab, while the band plays on.

• Monkey Business
• Ghostbusters
• The Informant!
• Adaptation.
• Raiders of the Lost Ark
• Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
• Young Frankenstein
• Jaws
• Monty Python and the Holy Grail
• The Muppet Movie

...plus 16 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.