By John H. Foote With his first film since his Academy Award-winning Best Picture, director Steve McQueen goes as mainstream as he ever has before with this excellent caper film featuring an ensemble to die for, all who deliver superb performances, a couple Oscar worthy. When a robbery, led by Harry (Liam Neeson) goes very…
By John H. Foote There are times an actor can elevate a film with their performance, which could be so magnificent you forgive the aspects of the film that are clearly weak. Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep come to mind in the bleak Ironweed (1987), Morgan Freeman as the dangerous pimp in Street Smart (1987),…
By John H. Foote KING KONG (2005) (****) In 2005 I saw one better film than the remake of King Kong (2005) and that was Brokeback Mountain (2005). Peter Jackson had tried to remake King Kong in 1996 before his success, and Academy Awards for his sublime The Lord of the Rings trilogy, but he was…
By John H. Foote Cool Hand Luke (1967) (****) “What we have here is, failure to communicate!” – Warden (Strother Martin) When the great counterculture films of the sixties are discussed, I am stunned how often Cool Hand Luke (1967) is left out of the discussion. Very few films tapped into the disdain for a…
By John H. Foote A. I. Artificial Intelligence (2001) (****) Let me state here and now, that I believe this to be among the finest, most daring films of Spielberg’s’ career and among the best five films of 2001. That it failed to find an audience is of no consequence to me, I loved it…
By John H. Foote “My name is John Ford, I make westerns,” he said at one of the most infamous meetings of the Directors Guild of America. Humbly, but always with undeniable force, Ford defended his friends William Wyler and Billy Wilder, whose patriotism was under attack by Cecil B. Demille, a director Ford did…
By Nick Maylor 2018 has been an exceptional year for actors-turned-directors. John Krasinski received widespread acclaim for his directorial debut A Quiet Place, co-starring his wife Emily Blunt. Bradley Cooper knocked it out of the park with his first outing behind the camera; the Oscar-bound remake A Star is Born. Although not his first outing as a…
By John H. Foote Beloved (1998) is not the sort of film that wins awards, however, it was clearly made TO win awards. It is called Oscar-baiting when high minded, self-important folks think they are making an important, lofty work they hope the Academy will recognize. Instead, the film, or performances within, are pretentious. Oscar-baiting…
BY John H. Foote His very image or photograph is instantly recognizable around the globe and immediately associated with cinema even though it has been nearly one hundred years since the time of his greatest popularity. The baggy pants, bowler hat, the cane, the silly little moustache, the oversized shoes that saucy demeanor is instantly…
By Alan Hurst You always hear some older movies described as “the perfect rainy-day movie” (I’ve done it myself numerous times). But I think Now, Voyager truly is that movie. It’s one of the great bittersweet romances in film history, the ultimate depiction of the ugly duckling turning into a swan, and one of the…