‘Night of the Hunter’ (1955) is influential … but is it good?
Throwback Thursday (Movie review): Ingenious or merely experimental, it can’t be denied that Charles Laughton’s only directorial work made its mark.
Film Noir
‘Night of the Hunter’ (1955) is influential … but is it good?
Old Hollywood meets film noir in ‘Paradine Case’ (1947)
On a Hitchcock kick (Movie review): The director closes out his pre-color period with a moody courtroom drama that’s not as strong as it could’ve been as a mystery.
‘The Conversation’ (1974) explores psychological price of spying
Throwback Thursday (Movie review): Coppola’s film from the golden age of neo-noir spy films should’ve started a national conversation. At least it remains a great film.
‘The Two Jakes’ (1990) brings ‘Chinatown’ into the ’40s and ’90s
Throwback Thursday (Movie review): We didn’t get Robert Townes’ full trilogy, but at least we got one more go-around with J.J. Gittes.
‘Stage Fright’ (1950) puts love rectangle at center stage
On a Hitchcock kick (Movie review): Though intriguing, this Hitchcock film raises the question of what degree of misinformation is fair to the audience.
‘Chinatown’ (1974) links two eras of film noir
Throwback Thursday (Movie review): Polanski blends an iconic Nicholson turn, a good political mystery and California water-utilities history in this classic.
‘Where the Sidewalk Ends’ (1950) reverses the Hitchcock formula
Throwback Thursday (Movie review): A guilty man is on the run in this engaging but flawed follow-up from the director and stars behind “Laura.”
Smart small-cast mystery makes ‘Laura’ (1944) a classic noir
Throwback Thursday (Movie review): Otto Preminger’s film pivots around the femme fatale and keeps us guessing about whodunit despite a small cast.
‘Blow Out’ (1981) blows it at the end, but is still great
Throwback Thursday (Movie review): A likeable Travolta and Allen guide this conspiracy noir through its beats, but De Palma doesn’t stick the landing.
‘All the President’s Men’ (1976) grandly caps Pakula’s ‘paranoia trilogy’
The ‘paranoia trilogy’ (Movie review): But it’s not paranoia if it really happened, and that’s the case in one of the all-time best non-fictional accounts of newspaper reporting.