Star Wars: A Princess Calls for Help

Photo: 20th Century Fox Many people of my age grew up watching the Star Wars franchise. I never did; my movie nerd era didn’t begin until I was 16 and…

Gentleman’s Agreement: Walk in My Shoes

Dorothy McGuire, Gregory Peck and John Garfield. Photo: 20th Century Fox This film caused quite a stir on its arrival, but ended up winning an Oscar for Best Picture. Still,…

Casino 

"Ace" Rothstein (Robert De Niro) tries to run his Las Vegas casino as effectively as possible, but his doomed marriage to a hustler (Sharon Stone) and his friendship with a…

JFK: Watch Responsibly

Photo: Warner Some time after the premiere of Oliver Stone’s JFK, Roger Ebert ran into Walter Cronkite and received a “tongue-lashing” for having praised the film. In Cronkite’s view, it was full…

Rambo

When sadistic soldiers capture a group of missionaries that were brought inside Burma by Rambo (Sylvester Stallone), he feels a duty to save them. The fourth chapter is the goriest…

Caché: In Denial

Daniel Auteuil and Juliette Binoche. Photo: Les Films du Losange When I started watching Caché, I was wary. I knew that director Michael Haneke had no qualms about torturing his…

Interiors 

As a well-to-do family in New York falls apart, its members get ample opportunities to vent their anxieties and feelings of insufficiency. In Love and Death (1975) Woody Allen made…

Jaws the Revenge 

After losing her youngest son to a shark, Ellen Brody (Lorraine Gary) goes to the Bahamas to get away from Amity, but the shark follows her. I don’t know if…

Scarface

Tony Montana (Al Pacino) claims asylum in Miami and instantly makes an impact on a wealthy cocaine dealer (Robert Loggia) who offers him work. Oliver Stone did an interesting thing.…

GoodFellas: Married to the Mob

Photo: Warner Making GoodFellas a horribly realistic film took its toll. Joe Pesci had qualms about playing such an evil character as Tommy DeVito and Lorraine Bracco started thinking of…