Drama
Drama
Sabrina
A perfectly fine rom-com that pales in comparison to the film it remade.
Blackkklansman
Spike Lee’s complex crime thriller exploring black power, white supremacy, and the nature of political and racial violence in the 1970s begins strongly but ends with a didactic moral lesson that betrays the lack of faith it has in its audience.
Appaloosa
A rather dull, slow-paced western that is more about its dysfunctional romantic relationship than gun-slinging, horse-riding, bandit-chasing action.
Amistad
This film explores the horrors of slavery through an atypical lens in exciting and moving ways, but runs out of gas by the end and barely drags itself across the finish line.
The Red Shoes
Richly realized and beautifully shot, this tale of artistic passion and dangerous obsession is a true cinematic masterpiece.
Shanghai Express
A character drama first, and a kind of adventurous spy thriller second, this Marlene Dietrich star vehicle accomplishes a great deal despite being constrained largely to one train and two train stations.
Bicycle Thieves
The quintessential Italian neorealist film succeeds at capturing a slice of life tragedy within the context of post-war Italy, but doesn’t succeed at living up to the hype that surrounds it.
Freebie and the Bean
This early form of the buddy cop comedy has its sensibilities stuck somewhere several decades before what a modern audience likely finds acceptable.
The Big Country
This clever, compelling western epic is both of its genre, and a subversion of it, which represents a masterful piece of filmmaking.
F1
This racing movie’s slick charm, attention to real world details, and intensely fun driving sequences more than make up for its use of genre cliches and stock characters.
Gimme the Loot
This talk-heavy, Queens based indie failed to engage me in its meandering plot and abrasive dialogue.
Two For The Road
This early entry into the “decades of a relationship boiled down into a movie” genre has some clever ideas and memorable moments, but makes some of the characters too unlikable for the piece to really work.