Movie reviews from a film ignoramus turned fanatic.
Until Straight Story (1999), I never got David Lynch. I remember myself proclaiming: "Lynch CAN make a good movie, but he just doesn't want to." After watching that one, and I hope to write my thoughts on it soon, I watched The Elephant Man (1980), and I once again had the same thought. It took... Continue Reading →
Given an amateur student project, John Ford would have made it into an Academy-award winning feature. I was familiar with Ford's work, but to me he was always the western guy. When I first watched The Grapes of Wrath (1940), I realized what an incredible director he was. Anyone can realize they're watching a Ford... Continue Reading →
When I started watching His Girl Friday (1940), I didn't know what to expect, and I was just there because Howard Hawks directed it. I mean, THE Howard Hawks, the magician director of the western movies, what is he doing in a screwball comedy? Well, here it goes. Until I watched Some Like It Hot,... Continue Reading →
When a person mentions Fellini, it always invokes the familiar titles in one's mind: Amarcord, La Dolce Vita, and, of course, 8 1/2. But for me, Federico Fellini is Nights of Cabiria, which tells the story of a prostitute roaming the streets and finding nothing but misery along the road. Giulietta Masina's Cabiria is similar... Continue Reading →
In 1931, Fritz Lang directed a thriller film called M, with a German subtitle Eine Stadt sucht einen Mörder, i.e. A City Searches for a Murderer. In 1930, when Lang placed an advert that his next film is dealing with a child murderer, he began receiving threatening letters, and was banned to shoot the film... Continue Reading →
Initially, Night of the Hunter (1955) was not a critical nor box-office success, and Charles Laughton never directed another film. However, over the years, it has come to be regarded as one of the best movies ever made. I watched it a couple of months ago, sad for missing it when it was first screened... Continue Reading →
The film starts with an X-ray of a man's stomach while the narrator announces that our protagonist is dying of stomach cancer. There is no traditional suspense. We don't get that in life either. This is not a question of whether our hero will live or die. This is the story about whether he'll be... Continue Reading →
The saddest story of all time comes from Tokyo. Yasujirō Ozu's Tokyo Story (1953) depicts a universal heartbreak by telling a story of an elderly couple — Tomi and Shūkichi — who travel to Tokyo to visit their children. The film does not exploit the moments in which children ignore their parents because they're busy... Continue Reading →
In 2017, BBC conducted a poll to announce the funniest movie ever made, and the winner was Billy Wilder’s Some Like It Hot (1959). Its plot is a classic screwball plot: two musicians dress in drag and go through an adventure, with romantic elements along the way. Curtis and Lemmon as Josephine and Daphne. Joe, played by Tony Curtis having... Continue Reading →
In my early twenties, the thought of watching a black and white film was already devastating, but watching a silent black and white film seemed like, well, it’ll be a cold day in hell before I do that. Turns out, with the apocalypse and everything around us, that might be the case. I watch my... Continue Reading →
I Hated Black And White Movies 