Dream/Killer 

Initially released May 4, 2015

Now available on various streaming services, including Netflix and Amazon Prime

Directed by Andrew Jenks

Starring Bill Ferguson, Leslie Ferguson, Ryan Ferguson

Another informative, compelling documentary about wrongful conviction and the difficulty of achieving a reversal, even when the evidence is clear.

The Story: In 2005,  Ryan Ferguson, 20, is arrested in Columbia, Missouri, for murder, and sentenced to 40 years in prison. But his defense was bungled at best, and the prosecution was handled with malfeasance on the part of the DA. So, the young man goes to prison to languish there. But his father decides to get to work to find evidence to exonerate him.

In this 2-hour film, Canadian director Andrew Jenks dissects Ryan’s case, showing the corruptive nature of power and brutally slow machinations of the US justice system.

 

What I Liked 

* It’s a good watch, because the true-life story works as a classic drama with Ryan as the victim, the DA as the antagonist, and Ryan’s father as the protagonist/hero.

* It has a happy ending.

* Behind bars, Ryan provides a candid and intimate look at his life, with animation used to recreate his 10-year ordeal.

* The filmmaker capably orchestrates suspense (if you don’t already know the outcome), and benefits immeasurably from an immensely likable central character, Ryan’s father, who narrates his own decade-long battle to win his son’s release.

 

What I Didn’t Like 

Actually, nothing.

 

Critical Reception 

* “Tonally, the film is a mess, unable to decide if it’s a damning downer or… the inspiring story of conquering injustice.” (Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times)

* “Though the timeline and a few details could use further clarification, Dream/Killer remains fast-paced and frightening.” (Ken Jaworowski, New York Times)

* “The fact that viewers, like the Fergusons, can muster only bittersweet relief at Ryan’s release from prison is the film’s whole point: The legal system itself is so damningly captured.” (Ernest Hardy, Village Voice)

You can watch the trailer here.

Erin Brockovich 

Released March 17, 2000

Available on Amazon Prime and other streaming services

Directed by Steven Soderbergh

Starring Julia Roberts, Albert Finney, Aaron Eckhart

It had been 20 years since I had seen Erin Brockovich. I remembered it as a feel-good movie, and I half-remembered having a negative opinion of it. But I’ve been nostalgic lately for classic and vintage movies. I hit “Play.”

On this second go-around, Erin Brockovich held up quite well. It was engaging, entertaining, and even a tad inspiring. I tried to recall what it was that I didn’t like about it the first time I saw it. It was only after finding two negative reviews of the movie – one by A.O. Scott and another by Roger Ebert (see below) that I remembered: I felt the entire thing was too Hollywood. Too contrived, too simplistic, etc.

I didn’t feel that way about it this time. I don’t deny the criticism. This is not, by any means, a great movie. It does not, for example, teach us anything we don’t already know (like corporate greed exists) or dive deeply into the human condition. But it is a moving story made into a polished and successful Hollywood product. At this time in my movie-consuming life, I’m okay with that.

Erin Brockovich is a legal drama based on a fascinating true story about a legal assistant (Brockovich) who waged war against Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) over groundwater contamination at one of its plants. The acting is terrific. The direction is invisible (i.e., good). And it’s chock full of emotionally tasty little bits. (One that should be included in the Hall of Fame of Movie Clips: Brockovich rebuffing a dismissive comment by a consulting attorney by reciting, verbatim, the phone numbers and personal details of all of the clients she had developed files on.)

Given the subject matter, the success of this movie depends greatly on the performance of Julia Roberts. And she is very, very good. Ably supported by Albert Finney as head of the small legal firm she works for, and by Aaron Eckhart as her motorcycle boyfriend/nanny to her children, Roberts is in almost every scene and makes every scene work.

I found it impossible not to compare the character she created for this role to the one she brought to the screen in Pretty Woman. In both movies, she plays a woman who is unsophisticated but also quick-witted and emotionally intelligent. In Pretty Woman, she plays a cliché – the prostitute with a heart of gold. For Erin Brockovich, her character’s personality is just as compelling but more complex.

Most critics share that view. For her portrayal of Brockovich, Roberts became the first actress to win an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, a Critic’s Choice Movie Award, a Golden Globe, a National Board of Review Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award for a single performance.

 

Critical Reception 

* “Julia Roberts is flat out terrific in Erin Brockovich.” (David Ansen, Newsweek)

* “Julia Roberts carries the film in the best sense, by taking us on a human journey of genuine discovery and growth.” (Jack Mathews, New York Daily News)

* There is obviously a story here, but Erin Brockovich doesn’t make it compelling. The film lacks focus and energy, the character development is facile and thin.” (Roger Ebert)

* “After proving, for about 40 minutes, what a marvelous actress she can be, Ms. Roberts spends the next 90 content to be a movie star. As the movie drags on, her performance swells to bursting with moral vanity and phony populism.” (A.O. Scott, the NYT)

 

Interesting Facts

I’m not sure why I didn’t do this the first time I saw the movie, but after watching it this time I did a bit of research. Some of the tidbits I found:

* According to Brockovich’s website, the film “is probably 98% accurate.”

* Since winning her case against Pacific Gas and Electric, Brockovich went on to have a very successful career as an anti-pollution advocate.

* The movie suggests that the real Erin Brockovich was poorly educated but smart and articulate. It is true that she did not have a college degree, but she did have an associate degree of fine arts from Wade College in Texas. And it is not surprising that she was (is) smart and articulate: Her family was well educated. Her father was an engineer and her mother was a journalist.

* Yes, she won a beauty pageant. After working as a management trainee for Kmart in 1981, she entered the Miss Pacific Beauty Pageant and won. But she did not pursue beauty as a career.

* The PG&E case was settled in 1996 for $333 million, the largest settlement ever paid in a direct-action lawsuit in US history. Masry & Viititoe, the law firm for which Brockovich was a legal clerk, received $133 million on that settlement.

You can watch the trailer for the movie here.

Kill The Messenger 

Released October 9, 2014

Available on multiple streaming services

Directed by Michael Cuesta

Starring Jeremy Renner, Robert Patrick, Jena Sims

A gripping political/crime drama based on the true story of Garry Webb, a journalist for the San Jose Mercury Newsthat stumbles upon evidence that that the CIA was involved in trafficking cocaine to the US to support the Reagan-supported counterrevolutionaries in Nicaragua.

It’s an amazing story – shocking even to someone like me, who is willing to believe that our military and spy organizations are involved in all sorts of illegal and unethical activities all the time.

What’s even more stunning is the role the NYT, The Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times played in trying to discredit Webb’s s reporting after it became national news.

A final shock comes at the end. I won’t give it away. But it is true. As in, “Life is stranger than fiction.”

 

Critical Reception 

*  “Evokes the detailed energy and ennui of enterprise journalism, and thanks to Jeremy Renner’s best performance outside The Hurt Locker, Webb comes across as a more meaningfully complex character than most comparable crusaders, real or imagined.” (MidWest Film Journal)

* “Kill the Messenger does a credible if not dazzling job. In fact, the movie is a lot like the reporting that inspired it: a good introduction to a diabolically tangled tale.” (NPR)

* “It’s an engrossing portrait not only of government intrigue and crusading after the truth, but of media and their tangled motivations.” (Boston Globe)

* “Kill the Messenger is a David-and-Goliath story where truth is the slingshot – a fragile weapon that needs to score a fatal hit before the big guy gets mad.” (LA Weekly)

You can watch the trailer here.

Clickbait (2021)

Available on Netflix

Created by Tony Ayres & Christian WhiteStarring Zoe Kazan, Betty Gabriel, and Adrian Grenier

There are so many good things – even great things –  to watch on screen these days. But we all have a limited amount of time. With my schedule, I have about an hour or two a day to devote to TV and movies. So, I have to be selective about what I give that time to. Why not get the highest return for my investment?

That’s the theory. In practice, I am not infrequently seduced by what my mother used to call candy bar entertainment: Delicious. Addictive. Bad for your (mental) health.

You can’t always know from reviews or trailers whether the movie or series you decide to watch will be of the candy-bar kind. But what you can do is make it a rule to push the off button the moment you realize it is.

Last night, for example, based on something K had read, we decided to watch Macho, the new Clint Eastwood movie. It was awful right from the start. So it was easy to walk away from it after 15 minutes.

About a week ago, though, I decided to try Clickbait, a Netflix miniseries recommended by a friend. Unlike Macho, Clickbait was, from the beginning, engaging and entertaining. Binge-worthy. So I watched all eight episodes in three sittings, staying up two hours past my bedtime twice.

Was it worth it?

Plot:  “Clickbait” is internet content that grabs you with an alluring promise but then fails to deliver. By naming this series Clickbait, Netflix was quite possibly promising the opposite.

The series follows the mysterious Nick Brewer (Adrian Grenier) as he struggles with his multiple roles as father, brother, son, and husband after appearing in an alarming video holding a sign indicating that once his taped confession of abuse gets 5 million views, he will die. Of course, the clip goes viral. Unsure where Nick is, his family must figure out how a man they only knew as caring found himself confessing to a secret life.

 

What I liked: 

* Clickbait was, for sure, highly entertaining – in the sense of having a fast-moving and interesting plot that kept me wanting more.

* It was a whodunit. Sort of. But it was also an exploration of many elements of social media that are changing our culture.

* I liked the acting of two of the principals: Betty Gabriel (as Nick’s wife) and Andrea Elizabeth (who played Nick’s mother). I had mixed feelings about what Zoe Kazan brought to her role, but I thought many of the secondary roles, including those of Nick’s two boys (Cameron Engels and Jaylin Fletcher) were played well.

* I liked that it depicts an interracial family without making too much of it.

 

What I didn’t like: 

* I found much of the plot to be annoyingly improbable. Everything from the romance between two of the lead characters, Pia (Zoe Kazan) and Roshan Amir (Phoenix Raei), to the scene where the villain is standing with his gun pointed at the cops and they aren’t shooting him.

* The tension and the surprises were done not through clever plotting but with fakes and feints.  The plot itself was clickbait.

* Adrian Grenier, who was perfect in Entourage,  didn’t bring enough to this role.

Roxana Hadadi, writing on the Roger Ebert website, said all of this better than I just did:

Clickbait is a reminder of why Netflix series became such hits in the first place. A cast of recognizable, serviceable actors dive with melodrama and zeal into a narrative that defies logical sense but moves at a breakneck pace, ends on cliffhangers like clockwork, and incorporates just enough zigs and zags to keep viewers guessing. The miniseries’ title is accurate enough: Clickbait grabs you, whizzes you along, and leaves you feeling satisfied before you forget everything you just watched. It’s not sophisticated, but it is highly bingeable, and its eight episodes are consistently outlandish enough to keep you watching.

 

Critical Reception:

* “Clickbait asks big questions and keeps you hooked…” (Karl Quinn, Sydney Morning Herald)

* “Alas, I finished Clickbait feeling had, as though – to use the title – I’d clicked on something that promised a bit of substance but delivered a whole lot of nothing.” (Matthew Gilbert, Boston Globe)

* “Obviously Clickbait has things to say about internet technology, misinformation, and the alarming, potentially dangerous speed of modern media. But mostly it’s just an elaborate whodunit.” (Tom Long, Detroit News)

You can watch the trailer here.

1960s Movies Redux: 14 Reportedly Great Ones I Missed

Last Year at Marienbad (1961)

Directed by Alain Resnais

Starring Delphine Seyrig, Giorgio Albertazzi, Sacha Pitoëff

Plot: In this mindbender of a romantic French drama, set in a picturesque château, a man, “X” (Giorgio Albertazzi), attempts to convince a woman, “A” (Delphine Seyrig), that they spent time together the previous year. But she has no memory of ever having met him. The question: Is there any truth to X’s story?

Reception: Rotten Tomatoes – 94% positive based on 53 reviews. “Elegantly enigmatic and dreamlike, this work of essential cinema features exquisite cinematography and an exploration of narrative still revisited by filmmakers today.”

Why it made my list: It was first recommended to me by HR, an older, pot-smoking cheerleader I had a crush on in high school. Why I never got around to watching it, I don’t know. But I’ll watch it this year in memory of her. (I heard she died a few years ago.)

 

The Exterminating Angel (1962)

Directed by Luis Buñuel

Starring Silvia Pinal, Jaqueline Andere, Enrique Rambal

Plot: Members of Mexico City’s bourgeoisie come together for a lavish dinner party that soon unravels into nonsensical scenes of chaos as a mysterious force keeps them from leaving the room.

Reception: Rotten Tomatoes – 93% positive based on 27 reviews. “Societal etiquette devolves into depravity in Luis Buñuel’s existential comedy, effectively playing the absurdity of civilization for mordant laughs.”

Why it made my list: The phrase: “Societal etiquette devolves into depravity.”

 

Persona (1966)

Directed by Ingmar Bergman

Starring Bibi Andersson, Liv Ullmann, Margaretha Krook

Plot: Alma (Bibi Andersson), a nurse at a psychiatric hospital, is assigned to a new patient, the famous actress Elisabet Vogler (Liv Ullmann), who has suddenly gone mute. As the women spend more time alone together, they form a powerful bond, with their personalities becoming more and more alike.

Reception: Rotten Tomatoes – 91% positive based on 54 reviews. “Arguably Bergman’s finest film, Personaexplores the human condition with intense curiosity, immense technical skill, and beguiling warmth.”

Why it made my list: In my teenage years, I did my best to love Bergman, but all I could do, at best, was admire him. Now that I’m so much older, I may feel differently – one way or the other. I’m eager to find out.

 

The Battle of Algiers (1966)

Directed by Gillo Pontecorvo

Starring Brahim Hadjadj, Jean Martin, Yacef Saadi

Plot:  French Algeria in 1954 is the epicenter of the fight for Algerian independence. The film depicts the revolution from both sides, documenting the violence and fear that pervades the country.

Reception: Rotten Tomatoes – 99% positive based on 89 reviews. “A documentary-like depiction of a nation’s real-life efforts to expel a colonizing force, The Battle of Algiers puts viewers on the front lines with gripping realism.”

Why it made my list: I know very little about the Algerian revolution, but I heard a bit about it from French academics and mercenaries when I lived in Chad, a former French colony. I like the idea that this film shows the fight from both sides.

 

Harakiri (1962)

Directed by Masaki Kobayashi

Starring Tatsuya Nakadai, Akira Ishihama, Shima Iwashita

Plot: In 17th century Japan, a samurai, Hanshiro Tsugumo (Tatsuya Nakadai), arrives at the house of a feudal lord and asks for permission to commit harakiri (an honorable form of suicide) there. The lord tells Tsugumo the story of the last samurai who made that request and how it ended. Will he still go through with it?

Reception: Rotten Tomatoes – 100% positive based on 8 reviews. “Both a thrilling character piece and a scathing takedown of authority, Harakiri is a tour-de-force and a compelling look into the facade of institutions.”

Why it made my list: Kobayasshi is considered one of the great Japanese directors, and this is said to be his masterpiece. The Japanese made some great films in the 1960s. How can it not be on my list?

 

Woman in the Dunes (1964)

Directed by Hiroshi Teshigahara

Starring Eiji Okada, Kyôko Kishida, Hiroko Itô

Plot: An entomologist, Jumpei Niki (Eiji Okada), who is collecting insects in a rural seaside village is tricked into living with a mysterious woman who spends almost all her time trying to keep her home from being swallowed up by advancing sand dunes. The two begin a bizzare and erotic relationship that stretches over years, while Jumpei’s hope for escape dims.

Reception: Rotten Tomatoes – 100% positive based on 29 reviews. “An important contribution to the avant-garde, this existential thriller offers an allegorical take on the cruel and twisted universe in which we live.”

Why it made my list: Japanese classic + 1960s avant-garde + existential + thriller = bound to please at some level.

 

Marketa Lazarová (1967)

Directed by Frantisek Vlácil

Starring Josef Kemr, Magda Vásáryová, Nada Hejna

Plot: Set in the 13th century, the film tells the story of a young virgin, the daughter of a feudal lord. When she is kidnapped by a clan of bandits pillaging the village and forced to marry one of them, her father seeks revenge.

Reception: Rotten Tomatoes – 100% positive based on 12 reviews. “Its eerie, haunting music, gorgeous cinematography from Bedrich Batka, and Miroslav Hajek’s editing make for one of the most magical cinematic assaults on the senses. It’ll razzle dazzle you.”

Why it made my list: I’m weak on my knowledge of Czech films, always in the mood for “gorgeous cinematography,”  and haven’t seen a good pillaging movie in ages. Why not?

 

Doctor Zhivago (1965)

Directed by David Lean

Starring Omar Sharif, Julie Christie, Geraldine Chaplin

Plot:  This sprawling romantic epic depicts the struggles of surgeon and poet Dr. Yuri Zhivago (Omar Sharif) during World War I, the Russian Revolution of 1917, and the Russian Civil War.

Reception: Rotten Tomatoes – 84% positive based on 50 reviews. “Despite the grim and brooding background, Zhivago has a surging buoyant spirit that is unquenchable. Doctor Zhivago is more than a masterful motion picture; it is a life experience.”

Why it made my list: Duh. Never saw it!

 

Ivan’s Childhood (1962)

Directed by Andrei Tarkovsky

Starring  Nikolay Burlyaev, Valentin Zubkov, Evgeniy Zharikov

Plot: 12-year-old orphan Ivan Bondarev (Nikolay Burlyaev) works as a spy on the Eastern front during WWII. An unlikely friendship forms between Ivan and three Soviet officers.

Reception: Rotten Tomatoes – 100% positive based on 24 reviews. “Remains one of the most remarkable debuts in all of cinema, and one of the most indelible portraits of war and childhood ever made.”

Why it made my list: “Remains one of the most remarkable debuts in all of cinema, and one of the most indelible portraits of war and childhood ever made.”

 

Army of Shadows (1969)

Directed by Jean-Pierre Melville

Starring  Lino Ventura, Paul Meurisse, Jean-Pierre Cassel

Plot: In 1942, Philippe Gerbier (Lino Ventura), a leader of the French Resistance, is arrested and sent to a concentration camp. He manages to escape,  rejoin the underground, and take revenge on the informant who betrayed him.

Reception: Rotten Tomatoes – 97% positive based on 75 reviews. “The greatness of Army of Shadows comes from the way it is able to convey many of the cruel paradoxes of war. What is an intimate and messy affair for some ends up being a remote and tactical exercise for others.”

Why it made my list: Honestly? I was sold by the title.

 

The Human Condition III: A Soldier’s Prayer (1961)

Directed by Masaki Kobayashi

Starring Tatsuya Nakadai, Michiyo Aratama, Tamao Nakamura

Plot: Adapted from Junpei Gomikawa’s six-volume novel, The Human Condition trilogy follows the life of a pacifist, Kaji (Tatsuya Nakadai), in war-time Japan’s military. In the final part of the trilogy, trying to rise above a corrupt system, Kaji time and again finds his morals an impediment rather than an advantage.

Reception: Rotten Tomatoes – 97% positive based on 500+ audience reviews. “The film possesses a restless vitality, with hard cuts juxtaposing abject brutality with pastoral tranquility and romantic longing.”

Why it made my list: It almost didn’t. The subject matter is heavy. The review made the treatment sound daunting. I’m thinking this is going to take some energy to go through. But with 485 positive reviews out of 500, I owe it to myself to give it a go.

 

La Jetée (1962)

Directed by Chris Marker

Starring Étienne Becker, Jean Négroni (voice), Hélène Châtelain

Plot: Told mostly through a series of photos with voice-over narration, La Jetée is the story of a man in post-World War III Paris who is sent back in time in order to find a cure for the devastation faced by people in the present.

Reception: Rotten Tomatoes – 93% positive based on 27 reviews. “La Jetée pioneers new storytelling possibilities by shaving an ambitious science-fiction narrative down to its bare essentials, achieving a transporting texture with each still frame.”

Why it made my list: Another one that sounds like work. Film-student work. But I’m a student of film. Maybe I’ll like it.

 

The Virgin Spring (1960)

Directed by Ingmar Bergman

Starring Max von Sydow, Birgitta Valberg, Gunnel Lindblom

Plot: Set in 14th century Sweden, Karin (Birgitta Valberg), the beautiful daughter of a Christian landowner, is sent to deliver candles to a distant church, accompanied by the family’s servant, Ingeri (Gunnel Lindblom). Along the way, they have a shocking encounter with a group of savage goat herders… and only one of the girls returns home.

Reception: Rotten Tomatoes – 87% positive based on 23 reviews. “The Virgin Spring marks one of Ingmar Bergman’s most controversial dramas, although its uncomfortable exploration of divine justice – or lack thereof – is undeniably thought-provoking.”

Why it made my list: I think I might have seen this one. I can’t remember. If it’s the movie I’m remembering, it is grim, stark, and ultimately depressing. My good friend Ken Danz used to say, “If it’s described as grim, stark, and depressing, I know I’m going to like it.” I’ll be watching this in memory of Ken.

 

One, Two, Three (1961)

Directed by Billy Wilder

Starring James Cagney, Horst Buchholz, Pamela Tiffin

Plot: Hoping that it will get him a promotion, C.R. MacNamara (James Cagney), a minor executive in Coca Cola’s West Berlin branch, takes on the job of looking after his boss’s socialite daughter when she visits the city.

 Reception: Rotten Tomatoes – 91% positive based on 22 reviews. “Billy Wilder’s One, Two, Three is an uproarious Cold War satire, offering devastating critiques of both factions with an effortless touch and a powerhouse performance from James Cagney.”

Why it made my list: I haven’t seen many Billy Wilder films, but I know that he’s considered to be important. I like satire. And James Cagney? I’m in.

Respect

Released August 13, 2021

Available in theaters and on multiple streaming services

Directed by Liesl Tommy

Starring Jennifer Hudson, Forest Whitaker, and Marlon Wayans

K decided we would eat at home. She made a pasta. We ate in the den, where the TV is. K chose the film, recommended by two of my sisters. That was enough of an endorsement to frighten me, but it was a worthwhile investment of 145 minutes.

Respect is a musical biopic, or more properly a musical drama based on the life of Aretha Franklin. I’ve always been a fan of the Queen of Soul, but never knew a thing about her. I had no idea, and was surprised to learn, that she grew up in an upper-middle-class home, had a good education, and that her father, a successful preacher, was the driving force in her musical career. Nor did I know, and this was astonishing and disturbing, that she got pregnant and had a baby when she was still a child. The rest of her story is equally dramatic.

The movie was the filmic equivalent of a page-turner, which is to say that it was compelling from start to finish. My immediate reaction was mixed, however, because the main theme was Franklin’s struggle for success, à la A Star is Born, yet the facts of her actual life, including the trauma of that early pregnancy, were barely touched upon.

That was frustrating. But my irritation was offset the next day by the impulse to do some research about her. It’s always a plus in my book when a movie (or any work of art) prompts me to learn more about what I’ve just experienced.

And then there was the phenomenal performance of Jennifer Hudson. Again, I knew nothing about her, except that she was a finalist on one of those American Idol competitions. I can see why. Her voice is astonishing. I found myself asking: “Is she a better singer than Franklin?” Her acting was terrific, too.

You don’t have to be a movie buff or a music fan to be very satisfied with Respect. It’s a good and worthy film.

 

Critical Reception 

* “Hudson performs with the same tireless intensity Re was known for throughout her career. It’s a damn good performance and this is a damn entertaining movie. It’s going to be a hit, and like many a flawed but beloved classic, it’s gonna play on cable for decades.” (Roger Ebert)

* “Were Hudson’s performance any less persuasive, the movie – engaging enough, informative enough, sensitive enough to sustain its hundred-and-forty-five-minute span – would sink under the weight of its elisions and simplifications.” (Richard Brody, New Yorker)

* “Respect succeeds in doing exactly what is expected of it.” (Manohla Dargis, New York Times)

You can watch the trailer here.

Best Films of the 1960s:

30 Movies That Shaped My Life 

 In no particular order…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Graduate (1967)

Directed by Mike Nichols

Starring Dustin Hoffman, Anne Bancroft, Katharine Ross

Plot: Benjamin Braddock (Dustin Hoffman), a recent college graduate with no plans for the future, has an affair with Mrs. Robinson (Ann Bancroft), a friend of his upper-middle-class parents, and then falls in love with Elaine (Katharine Ross), Mrs. Robinson’s daughter.

Reception: Rotten Tomatoes – 87% positive based on 82 reviews. “The music, the performances, the precision in capturing the post-college malaise – The Graduate’s coming-of-age story is indeed one for the ages.”

Why it made my list: That memorable last moment on the bus. Life has no happy endings.

 

Blow-Up (1966)

Directed by Michelangelo Antonioni

Starring David Hemmings, Vanessa Redgrave, Sarah Miles

Plot:  Thomas (David Hemmings), a successful fashion photographer in 1960s London, believes that he inadvertently captured a murder on film. But did it really happen?

Reception: Rotten Tomatoes – 88% positive based on 50 reviews. “Exquisitely shot and simmering with unease, Michelangelo Antonioni’s Blow-Up is an enigma that invites audiences to luxuriate in the sensual atmosphere of 1960s London chic.”

Why it made my list: I loved everything about this movie – the story, the acting, the direction, the set designs, the costuming, and, best of all, the subject matter. It was my first exposure to metafiction and the first “perfect” movie I had ever seen.

 

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

Directed by Stanley Kubrick

Starring Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood, William Sylvester

Plot: The discovery of a mysterious artifact buried beneath the surface of the moon starts a search by Earth’s scientists for its origins (with help from supercomputer HAL 9000).

Reception: Rotten Tomatoes – 92% positive based on 113 reviews. “One of the most influential of all sci-fi films – and one of the most controversial – Stanley Kubrick’s 2001 is a delicate, poetic meditation on the ingenuity – and folly – of mankind.”

Why it made my list: A visual masterpiece. It opened my mind to the importance of photography, sound, and editing in film.

 

To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)

Directed by Robert Mulligan

Starring Gregory Peck, John Megna, Frank Overton

Plot: Atticus Finch (Gregory Peck), a lawyer in a small town in Alabama, defends a black man accused of raping a white woman. Amidst the drama of the trial, Atticus and his two children are forced to confront the blatant prejudice that surrounds them.

Reception: Rotten Tomatoes – 92% positive based on 66 reviews. “To Kill a Mockingbird is a textbook example of a message movie done right – sober-minded and earnest, but never letting its social conscience get in the way of gripping drama.”

Why it made my list: It gave me a visceral understanding of the evil and the horror of racism.

 

Midnight Cowboy (1969)

Directed by John Schlesinger

Starring Dustin Hoffman, Jon Voight, Sylvia Miles

Plot: Wannabe cowboy Joe Buck (Jon Voight) ditches his life as a dishwasher in Texas to become a male prostitute in New York City. He fails miserably until he links up with a streetwise con man, Enrico “Ratso” Rizzo (Dustin Hoffman).

Reception: Rotten Tomatoes – 87% positive based on 78 reviews. “John Schlesinger’s gritty, unrelentingly bleak look at the seedy underbelly of urban American life is undeniably disturbing, but Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight’s performances make it difficult to turn away.”

Why it made my list: It helped me understand the reality of circumstance and the possibility of compassion.

 

Bonnie and Clyde (1967)

Directed by Arthur Penn

Starring Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway, Michael J. Pollard

Plot: Based partly on a true story, the infamous duo robs banks, steals cars, and terrorizes small towns in the Depression-era Southwest.

Reception: Rotten Tomatoes – 88% positive based on 64 reviews. “A paradigm-shifting classic of American cinema, Bonnie and Clyde packs a punch whose power continues to reverberate through thrillers decades later.”

Why it made my list: It made me want to be an outlaw, a want I never outgrew.

 

Lolita (1962)

Directed by Stanley Kubrick

Starring James Mason, Shelley Winters, Sue Lyon

Plot: In this tale of forbidden love, based on the novel by Vladimir Nabokov, Humbert Humbert (James Mason), a middle-aged British professor, is swept into a relationship with Charlotte Haze (Shelley Winters), his widowed and sexually famished landlady, whom he marries so that he can pursue her 14-year-old flirtatious daughter, Lolita (Sue Lyon), the object of his obsession.

Reception: Rotten Tomatoes – 91% positive based on 43 reviews. “Kubrick’s Lolita adapts its seemingly unadaptable source material with a sly comedic touch and a sterling performance by James Mason that transforms the controversial novel into something refreshingly new without sacrificing its essential edge.”

Why it made my list: It was half as good as the book, which made it twice as good as 99% of the other movies made in that decade. The final scene was heartbreaking.

 

Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961)

Directed by Blake Edwards

Starring Audrey Hepburn, George Peppard, Patricia Neal

Plot: Holly Golightly (Audrey Hepburn), a young New York “escort,” meets Paul (George Peppard), a struggling writer and “kept man” who falls in love with her.

Reception: Rotten Tomatoes – 89% positive based on 53 reviews. “It contains some ugly anachronisms, but Blake Edwards is at his funniest in this iconic classic, and Audrey Hepburn absolutely lights up the screen.”

Why it made my list: It solidified my admiration for and infatuation with truly independent woman.

 

The Wild Bunch (1969)

Directed by Sam Peckinpah

Starring William Holden, Ernest Borgnine, Robert Ryan

Plot: It’s 1913, at the height of the Mexican Revolution, and a band of aging outlaws flees to Mexico for one last showdown.

Reception: Rotten Tomatoes – 90% positive based on 63 reviews. “The Wild Bunch is Sam Peckinpah’s shocking, violent ballad to an old world and a dying genre.”

Why it made my list: It made me think, “This is cool. This is how Westerns should be made.”

 

West Side Story (1961)

Directed by Jerome Robbins and Robert Wise

Starring Natalie Wood, George Chakiris, Richard Beymer

Plot: West Side Story delivers a modern musical twist on the classic romantic tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. Two young teens from rival street gangs fall hopelessly in love, triggering a series of tragic events.

Reception: Rotten Tomatoes – 91% positive based on 79 reviews. “Buoyed by Robert Wise’s dazzling direction, Leonard Bernstein’s score, and Stephen Sondheim’s lyrics, West Side Story remains perhaps the most iconic of all the Shakespeare adaptations to visit the big screen.”

Why it made my list: It opened my mind to theater – musicals, in particular. And it helped me understand the potential and limitations of adapting stage performances to the screen.

 

Dr. Strangelove (1964)

Directed by Stanley Kubrick

Starring Peter Sellers, George C. Scott, Sterling Hayden

Plot: US Air Force General Jack Ripper (Sterling Hayden), a complete nutjob, deploys a B-52 bomber to destroy the USSR. Total frenzy ensues in the War Room, as politicians and military bigshots frantically and comedically try to block the path to nuclear war.

Reception: Rotten Tomatoes – 98% positive based on 92 reviews. “Stanley Kubrick’s brilliant Cold War satire remains as funny and razor-sharp today as it was in 1964.”

Why it made my list: It introduced me to cinematic satire and made me a lifelong fan of Peter Sellers.

 

Cool Hand Luke (1967)

Directed by Stuart Rosenberg

Starring Paul Newman, George Kennedy, Strother Martin

Plot: Petty criminal Luke Jackson (Paul Newman) is sentenced to two years on a Florida prison farm, where he refuses to conform to the harsh rules of the sadistic warden.

Reception: Rotten Tomatoes – 100% positive based on 53 reviews. “Though hampered by Stuart Rosenberg’s direction, Cool Hand Luke is held aloft by a stellar script and one of Paul Newman’s most indelible performances.”

Why it made my list: It gave me a visual definition of integrity that matched my father’s view.

 

Rosemary’s Baby (1968)

Directed by Roman Polanski

Starring Mia Farrow, John Cassavetes, Ruth Gordon

Plot: When Rosemary Woodhouse (Mia Farrow) moves into an eerie New York City apartment with her husband Guy (John Cassavetes), strange things begin to happen.

Reception: Rotten Tomatoes – 96% positive based on 73 reviews. “A frightening tale of Satanism and pregnancy that is even more disturbing than it sounds thanks to convincing and committed performances by Mia Farrow and Ruth Gordon.”

Why it made my list: It scared the hell out of me in a new, non-gimmicky, organic way.

 

8 ½ (1963)

Directed by Federico Fellini

Starring Marcello Mastroianni, Anouk Aimée, Claudia Cardinale

Plot: Filmmaker Guido Anselmi (Marcello Mastroianni) struggles to come up with a vision for his new movie. In the process, he strays into the tangled thoughts of his past and present, ranging from romantic and fantastical to hopeless and chaotic.

Reception: Rotten Tomatoes – 98% positive based on 54 reviews. “Inventive, thought-provoking, and funny, 8 1/2represents the arguable peak of Federico Fellini’s many towering feats of cinema.”

Why it made my list: It introduced me to a different sort of film – one that was at once bewildering and mesmerizing.

 

The Apartment (1960)

Directed by Billy Wilder

Starring Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, Fred MacMurray

Plot: C.C. Baxter (Jack Lemmon) finds himself falling for the woman (Shirley MacLaine’s Fran Kubelik) who is having an affair with his high-ranking boss.

Reception: Rotten Tomatoes – 93% positive based on 72 reviews. “Director Billy Wilder’s customary cynicism is leavened here by tender humor, romance, and genuine pathos.”

Why it made my list: This felt new. Dangerous. Taboo. And yet true.

 

La Dolce Vita (1960)

Directed by Federico Fellini

Starring Marcello Mastroianni, Anita Ekberg, Anouk Aimée

Plot: Caught up in the “the sweet life” (la dolce vita) of early 1960s Rome, journalist Marcello Rubini (Marcello Mastroianni) spends his alcohol-fueled nights on a futile (and comedic) search for love and happiness.

Reception: Rotten Tomatoes – 96% positive based on 74 reviews. “An epic, breathtakingly stylish cinematic landmark, La Dolce Vita remains riveting in spite of – or perhaps because of – its sprawling length.”

Why it made my list: I was seduced by Marcello Mastroianni, Anita Ekberg, and most of all by Anouk Aimée. After that, I watched every film they were in.

 

Á Bout de Souffle (Breathless) (1960)

Directed by Jean-Luc Godard

Starring Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jean Seberg, Daniel Boulanger

Plot: A petty thief, Michel Poiccard (Jean-Paul Belmondo), steals a car, kills a policeman, and flees to Paris to hide. He takes refuge with a beautiful American student, Patricia Francini (Jean Seberg), and tries to talk her into helping him escape to Rome.

Reception: Rotten Tomatoes – 97% positive based on 69 reviews. “Breathless rewrote the rules of cinema – and more than 50 years after its arrival, Jean-Luc Godard’s paradigm-shifting classic remains every bit as vital.”

Why it made my list: Another genre of film and filmmaking that was thrilling to discover. I became an instant and forever Jean-Luc Godard fan.

 

The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964)

Directed by Jacques Demy

Starring Catherine Deneuve, Nino Castelnuovo, Anne Vernon

Plot: Set in a charming 1950s French town, this musical tells the story of star-crossed lovers torn apart by distance and war.

Reception: Rotten Tomatoes – 99% positive based on 67 reviews. “Jacques Demy elevates the basic drama of everyday life into a soaring opera full of bittersweet passion and playful charm, featuring a timeless performance from Catherine Deneuve.”

Why it made my list: My first love affair with Catherine Deneuve.

 

Belle de Jour (1967)

Directed by Luis Buñuel

Starring Catherine Deneuve, Jean Sorel, Michel Piccoli

Plot: Séverine (Catherine Deneuve) and Pierre (Jean Sorel) appear to have a picture-perfect marriage. In reality, though she loves her husband, the beautiful Séverine is frigid. She fantasizes about sexual encounters with complete strangers, and eventually becomes a high-class prostitute during the day, while her husband is at work. The “action” of the film, which is highly erotic, takes place almost entirely in her imagination.

Reception: Rotten Tomatoes – 95% positive based on 57 reviews. “Belle de Jour is a film that’s ambiguous and alluring in equal measure, and while that can be alienating for modern audiences, this is a film that is still radical, thought-provoking, and enticing.”

Why it made my list: Now I get to see Deneuve as a femme de la nuit?

 

Planet of the Apes (1968)

Directed by Franklin J. Schaffner

Starring Charlton Heston, Roddy McDowall, Kim Hunter

Plot: In this science-fiction classic, three astronauts crash-land on a planet ruled by apes.

Reception: Rotten Tomatoes – 86% positive based on 59 reviews. “Planet of the Apes raises thought-provoking questions about our culture without letting social commentary get in the way of the drama and action.”

Why it made my list: By today’s standards, it is primitive in almost every way. Back then, it was a technological wonder.

 

The Great Escape (1963)

Directed by John Sturges

Starring Steve McQueen, James Garner, Richard Attenborough

Plot: Based on a true story, The Great Escape depicts an ambitious mass escape by POWs from a German prison camp during World War II.

Reception: Rotten Tomatoes – 94% positive based on 49 reviews. “This is one of the all-time great war movies, a POW adventure from director John Sturges that celebrates the indomitable spirit of the Allied forces even when their backs were to the wall.”

Why it made my list: Great plot. Great characters. Steve McQueen.

 

Night of the Living Dead (1968)

Directed by George A. Romero

Starring Duane Jones, Judith O’Dea, Karl Hardman

Plot: Chaos and fear descend on the Pennsylvania countryside when the dead inexplicably come back to life.

Reception: Rotten Tomatoes – 97% positive based on 70 reviews. “If [Romero’s] original vision of the undead looks dulled by today’s standards, his embedded political commentary on racism feels just as sharp.”

Why it made my list: My introduction to zombies. What theatrical invention was ever cooler than zombies? And how can you possibly top a George A. Romero depiction of them?

 

Psycho (1960)

Directed by Alfred Hitchcock

Starring Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, Vera Miles

Plot: Marion Crane (Janet Leigh), a secretary fed up with her job, impulsively steals $40,000 from her boss and goes on the run. Night falls and a heavy rainstorm forces her to seek shelter in the creepy looking Bates Motel run by Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins), a painfully shy man with a dark secret.

Reception: Rotten Tomatoes – 96% positive based on 104 reviews. “Infamous for its shower scene, but immortal for its contribution to the horror genre. Because Psycho was filmed with tact, grace, and art, Hitchcock didn’t just create modern horror, he validated it.”

Why it made my list: My introduction to Alfred Hitchcock and his genius in setting scenes.

 

The Birds (1963)

Directed by Alfred Hitchcock

Starring Rod Taylor, Tippi Hedren, Jessica Tandy

Plot: Melanie Daniels (Tippi Hedren) and Mitch Brenner (Rod Taylor) “meet cute” in a pet shop. Finding him attractive, she follows him to his hometown, and love blossoms. But then, suddenly and inexplicably, the birds in the town begin to act strangely, gathering by the thousands and viciously attacking people.

Reception: Rotten Tomatoes – 95% positive based on 57 reviews. “Hitchcock prolongs his prelude to horror for more than half the film, playing with audience suspense with comedy and romance while he sets his stage. The horror when it comes is a hair-raiser.”

Why it made my list: Birds? I was sure I wouldn’t be scared, but this movie gave me nightmares. I had to think about how Hitchcock did that. I’m still thinking about it.

 

Dr. No (1962)

Directed by Terence Young

Starring Sean Connery, Ursula Andress, Bernard Lee

Plot: British secret agent 007, James Bond (Sean Connery), is assigned to the West Indies to investigate the mysterious disappearance of another British agent. He encounters deadly assassins, femme fatales, and a notorious megalomaniac.

Reception: Rotten Tomatoes – 95% positive based on 59 reviews. “Featuring plenty of the humor, action, and escapist thrills the series would become known for, Dr. No kicks off the Bond franchise in style.”

Why it made my list: I had read several James Bond books before I saw Dr. No, and when I saw Sean Connery, I knew he was the only actor that could possibly play that role for me. He still is.

 

The Hustler (1961)

Directed by Robert Rossen

Starring Paul Newman, Jackie Gleason, Piper Laurie

Plot: “Fast Eddie” Felson (Paul Newman), a second-rate pool shark attempting to break into the lucrative world of professional pool hustling, falls for a woman with self-destructive impulses almost as bad as his own.

Reception: Rotten Tomatoes – 98% positive based on 45 reviews. “Paul Newman and Jackie Gleason give iconic performances in this dark, morally complex tale of redemption.”

Why it made my list: Cool Hand Luke. And now Fast Eddie? Paul Newman defined not just integrity but cool.

 

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)

Directed by George Roy Hill

Starring Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Katharine Ross

Plot: At the turn of the 20th century in Wyoming, Butch Cassidy (Paul Newman), the leader of a band of outlaws, and his sidekick, the Sundance Kid (Robert Redford), flee to Bolivia after a train robbery goes awry.

Reception: Rotten Tomatoes – 88% positive based on 52 reviews. “With its iconic pairing of Paul Newman and Robert Redford, jaunty screenplay, and Burt Bacharach score, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid has gone down as among the defining moments in late-60s American cinema.”

Why it made my list: Okay, there must have been a Paul Newman movie I didn’t love back then. I just can’t remember one. And Robert Redford did a pretty good job, too.

 

The Time Machine (2002)

Directed by George Pal

Starring Rod Taylor, Alan Young, Yvette Mimieux

Plot: Inspired by the H.G. Wells novel, The Time Machine, is a cautionary tale. Scientist and inventor George (Rod Taylor) builds a time machine in the year 1900 and uses it to journey thousands of years into the future, discovering a dismal post-apocalyptic world.

Reception: Rotten Tomatoes – 76% positive based on 38 reviews. “Its campy flourishes tend to subdue its dramatic stakes, but The Time Machine brings H.G. Wells’ story to life with plenty of sci-fi charm and a colorful sense of visual design.”

Why it made my list: I believed it. I was sure it would come true. And it did.

 

In the Heat of the Night (1967)

Directed by Norman Jewison

Starring Sidney Poitier, Rod Steiger, Warren Oates

Plot: After the murder of a wealthy white factory owner, Mississippi police accuse African-American detective Virgil Tibbs (Sidney Poitier) of committing the crime. After Tibbs proves his own innocence, Chief of Police Bill Gillespie (Rod Steiger) reluctantly joins forces with him to track down the real killer.

Reception: Rotten Tomatoes – 95% positive based on 55 reviews. “Tense, funny, and thought-provoking all at once, and lifted by strong performances from Sidney Poitier and Rod Steiger, director Norman Jewison’s look at murder and racism in small-town America continues to resonate today.”

Why it made my list: Racism was (and is) real. This movie helped me understand it in a different, more topical way than did To Kill a Mockingbird.

 

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966)

Directed by Sergio Leone

Starring Clint Eastwood, Eli Wallach, Lee Van Cleef

Plot: Set in the Southwest during the Civil War, an unlikely trio (a professional gun slinger, a hitman, and a wanted outlaw) set out to find $200,000 worth of buried gold coins.

Reception: Rotten Tomatoes – 97% positive based on 77 reviews. “Arguably the greatest of the spaghetti westerns, this epic features a compelling story, memorable performances, breathtaking landscapes, and a haunting score.”

Why it made my list: It set the standard for a great B-Movie genre. And it introduced me to Clint Eastwood and his amazing career.

Halston (2021)

Available on Netflix

Starring Ewan McGregor, Bill Pullman, Rebecca Dayan, and Krysta Rodriguez

Halston is a limited-series Netflix production about the life and death of Roy Halston Frowick (1932-1990), the man behind the Halston fashion franchise.

I’d heard mixed reviews about the series, but ever since I saw the Alexander McQueen exhibition at MOMA, I’ve had a surprising (to me) interest in fashion generally and particularly in the artists behind haute couture.

The Halston series didn’t wow me, but it held my interest throughout. And it got me thinking about it for days afterwards. Knowing nothing about the field, I was asking basic questions, like:

*  Considering the small market for haute couture, why does it even exist?

*  Is it like Formula One racing for auto manufacturers?

*  Marketing is a huge part of the business. How big a role does artistry play in success?

*  How important is the image of the designer?

*   Why do gay men – rather than women or heterosexual men – predominate in this field?

One of these days I’m going to do some research to find the answers. In the meantime, I’ll go to shows and exhibitions and watch biopics.

Halston is several stories in one – all worthy ones. It is the story of Halston, who got his first break when Jackie Kennedy wore one of his hats to her husband’s inauguration and then went on to achieve the American dream of fame and fortune through innovation and hard work. It is the classic modern tragedy of the artist who destroys himself through drugs and hubris. It’s also the story of the rise of American fashion to international stardom, and the story of the insanely promiscuous sexual environment whose epicenter was Club 54 in the 1970s and the scourge of AIDs that followed it.

Bonus: Lots of good performances, including great ones by Ewan McGregor as Halston and Krysta Rodriguez as Liza Minelli.

 

Critical Reception 

Click here to read a good review by Dana Feldman in Forbes.

You can watch the trailer here.

 

Oslo (2021)

Available on HBO

Directed by Bartlett Sher

Starring Andrew Scott, Ruth Wilson, and Jeff Wilbusch

Oslo is the story of negotiations that took place in Norway in 1993 between Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organization. The negotiations were conducted in secret because Israeli policy forbade interacting with or otherwise acknowledging the authority of the PLO. They were facilitated by a Norwegian couple that had no authority to run them. But they did. And after nearly 6 months, they succeeded with a historical agreement between Israel’s Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO leader Yasser Arafat, presented in Washington, DC, with US President Bill Clinton (who had nothing to do with it) standing beside them.

 

What I Liked 

* It’s an amazing story. Worth watching only to understand what an insanely ambitious idea it was, how difficult it was to pull it off, and how resourceful and persistent the Norwegian couple had to be to make it happen.

* Very good acting by everyone, with a standout performance by Salim Daw as the finance minister of the PLO.

 

What I Didn’t Like 

* The interaction between the two lead characters – the couple that actually made the negotiations happen. There was no real chemistry between them. The movie didn’t work when they were in the scene.

* It looked like it was based on a play – meaning there are lots of speeches and the movement of the actors is generally confined. I looked it up and, yes, Oslo was adapted from the Tony award-winning play of the same name by J.T. Rogers. There are many moments when you can imagine how much better the scene might have been on stage.

 

Critical Reception 

* “Rogers’ stage play is a smart, mature piece of writing, but one that transfers rather clumsily to the small screen, in part because its makers don’t show quite the same confidence in their audience’s intelligence.” (Peter Debruge, Variety)

* “Oslo serves as a haunting portrayal of what was, and a sobering reflection on conditions as they currently exist.” (Brian Lowry, CNN)

* “The film is at its strongest when it uses their individual journeys during the negotiations to serve as metaphors for the complicated emotions and human suffering intertwined in the larger Israeli-Palestinian mess.” (Lorraine Ali, Los Angeles Times)

You can watch the trailer here.

Time (2020)

Available on Amazon Prime

Produced and directed by Garrett Bradley

Featuring Sibil Fox Richardson and Robert Richardson

Time, an Academy Award-nominated documentary, is the story of Sibil Fox Richardson (aka Fox Rich), mother of six, pursuing the early release of her husband, Rob, serving a 60-year prison sentence in Louisiana.

It isn’t particularly clever. It wasn’t beautifully shot. And it doesn’t even have a compelling message. I can’t say it changed me, but it did remind me of some things I’ve come to believe about the world.

Time is ostensibly about what’s wrong with America’s prison system. That’s what Fox Rich said on camera. I agree that our carceral system is seriously flawed, but that wasn’t the message I got from this film.

Time is about familial love. It’s the story of one person’s intelligent, resourceful, and amazingly persistent efforts to raise six promising children during the 18 years that their father was absent.

For several years when K and I were starting out in our marriage, I had the opportunity to have an inside view of an extended African-American family that lived near us in Washington, DC. And one of things I was most impressed by during that time (and since, in other situations) was the role that African-American women play in their culture. It is, IMHO, a much larger role than White women play.

Not only do they take care of all the quotidian needs, and the emotional needs, and spin the thread that holds the social fabric of the family together, they also in many cases bring in all or most of the family’s income. And this was especially true for my and my parents’ generations.

I read somewhere that Garrett Bradley had intended to make this a short film. But when shooting wrapped, Fox Rich gave him a bag of tapes containing some 100 hours of home videos that she had recorded over the previous 18 years… and he turned it into a feature.

It is those bits and pieces of amateur B-roll clips that give the 80-minute documentary its depth and reality. (Accomplished with a pitch-perfect musical score and amazing editing.)

If you are looking for a movie to further the argument about the problems with prisons in the US, Time won’t meet your expectations. But if you want to be inspired by the role that Black women play in Black America, or you want to be inspired by the story of one amazing person, Time will satisfy.

 

Critical Reviews 

* “This is a beautifully shot film that’s as interested in studying the changing faces of its subjects as laying out their struggle from end to end.” (AV Club)

* “Time, Bradley asks us to remember, is what we lose. Only in a movie can we entertain and engineer the fantasy of getting it back, rewinding the clock, restoring presence to a loved one’s absence. Thank God, then, for movies. This one especially.” (Rolling Stone)

* “[Time] tells a story as urgent and beautifully human as almost anything on screen this year.” (Entertainment Weekly)

You can watch the trailer here.