‘Rosemary’s Baby’ (1968) is horror by gaslight
Frightening Friday (Movie review): Kicking off a religious-horror boom that hasn’t relented, Polanski’s classic feels timeless, if overlong.
Oscars
‘Rosemary’s Baby’ (1968) is horror by gaslight
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.
‘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.
‘Klute’ (1971) a grimy classic of Seventies noir
The ‘paranoia trilogy’ (Movie review): Rightly known for launching a new decade of noir style, Alan J. Pakula’s masterpiece is even more impressive as a romance.
‘The Third Man’ (1949) doesn’t even need a third man to be great
Throwback Thursday (Movie review): Starring Cotten and Welles, this is one of the definitive film noirs, elevated by great dialog and fascinating oddities.
‘Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes’ goes bananas with character creation
Movie review: Kevin Durand and Peter Macon are especially great as the “Apes” saga launches a new dystopian storyline.
‘A Simple Plan’ (1993, 1998) chillingly shows how easily things can spiral
Book club book report (and movie review): Smith’s book and Raimi’s film show good people’s disturbingly mundane descent into evil.
‘Ghost World’ (2001) gets more substantial on repeat viewings
Throwback Thursday (Movie review): The best movie of the first year of the millennium works on additional levels as time goes by.
‘Godzilla Minus One’ (2023) is Japan’s ‘Independence Day’
Movie review: Takashi Yamazaki’s character-driven prequel to 1954’s “Godzilla” illustrates the changing Japanese culture after WWII.
‘Suspicion’ (1941) a lesser companion piece to ‘Rebecca’
On a Hitchcock kick (Movie review): You usually can’t go wrong with Hitchcock, Grant and Fontaine, but “Suspicion” goes a little bit wrong.