On the Waterfront: The End of Mob Rule

Marlon Brando. Photo: Columbia In 1949, investigative journalist Malcolm Johnson won a Pulitzer Prize for a series of articles he had written for the New York Sun. Titled "Crime on…

From Here to Eternity: Before Armageddon

Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr. Photo: Columbia This is what Michael Bay was aiming for when he made Pearl Harbor (2001) – a hopefully engaging romance that's suddenly interrupted by…

Saving Mr. Banks

In the early 1960s, P. L. Travers (Emma Thompson), the author of "Mary Poppins", finally gives in to Walt Disney's (Tom Hanks) relentless requests to make a movie out of…

12 Years a Slave: Land of the Unfree

Michael Fassbender and Chiwetel Ejiofor. Photo: Fox Searchlight Pictures The historian Sue Eakin was born in Louisiana five decades after the end of the Civil War and she specialized in…

Tokyo Story: In the Autumn Years

Setsuko Hara and Chishu Ryu. Photo: Shochiku When I saw Michael Haneke's Amour earlier this year I felt a sudden urge to pay a couple of older relatives a visit.…

The Evening Star 

In 1988, Aurora Greenway (Shirley MacLaine) has a strained relationship with her grandchildren and eventually agrees to see a therapist (Bill Paxton). The sequel to Terms of Endearment (1983) desperately…

Apollo 13: Lost Moon, Saved Lives

Bill Paxton, Kevin Bacon and Tom Hanks. Photo: Universal When producer Brian Grazer and director Ron Howard decided to turn the story about the ill-fated 1972 Apollo 13 mission into…

Dallas: Soap Opera Royalty

Steve Kanaly, Patrick Duffy, Victoria Principal, Jim Davis, Barbara Bel Geddes, Larry Hagman, Charlene Tilton and Linda Gray. Photo: CBS When we think about 1980s television, the supersoaps tend to…

Dogtooth: The Ultimate Brainwash

Photo: Feelgood Entertainment In January 2011, Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou announced to his cabinet that Dogtooth had just been nominated for a Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, going on…

Driving Miss Daisy: The Burden of an Oscar

Morgan Freeman and Jessica Tandy. Photo: Warner When people list the movies they feel did not deserve to win a Best Picture Oscar, this one often comes up. I agree.…