SPOILERS: I plan on discussing certain elements of this movie that should be seen without any prior knowledge. There isn't much to spoil, but just be warned that I will be discussing the magic tricks that are part of this unique experience.  There is a fifteen-minute dream sequence early in the second half of Capone, Josh … Continue reading Make No Mistake, CAPONE Flirts With Greatness

As the 20th century came to a close and the world waited anxiously for the Y2K calamity that never happened, there was no bigger movie star - no bigger celebrity - in the world than Leonardo DiCaprio. As a 23-year old with cutting eyes and matinee idol hair, DiCaprio stormed the cultural landscape in 1997 … Continue reading Defending THE BEACH (2000)

Once in a while a film full of stars, loaded with promise and equipped with a wide release plan, will come and go without making so much s a ripple in the zeitgeist, lost in the infinite growing back catalogue of cinema. Sometimes, these flippant dismissals are warranted; other times, they're confounding. Occasionally, but rarely, … Continue reading Forgotten Films Archive, #1: Jonathan Glazer’s BIRTH (2004)

It's been an interesting quarter century of action cinema. Ever since the white heat of Jean Claude Van-Damme and Steven Seagal began to cool in the mid-90s, the genre has gone through a variety of phases. For a brief moment, the end of the millennium belonged to John Woo, who brought his balletic gunplay and … Continue reading 25 Years of BAD BOYS, 25 Years of Michael Bay

For almost a decade, by 1995, Oliver Stone had firmly secured his share of the zeitgeist as the angst-ridden, conspiracy-fueled, brilliantly bilateral cinematic voice of American politics and culture. He won his Oscars in the spring of 1987 for his Vietnam melodrama Platoon, and he'd seen acclaim and financial success in equal measure with his 1991 … Continue reading NIXON is Oliver Stone’s Greatest Film

New movies can be invigorating because they’re original, or because they’re a welcome change to the status quo, or they spring from the imagination of a thrilling new filmmaker; but even with originality, there will always be the perfect double feature pairing somewhere in cinema’s past. Every movie shares an unshakable bond with another movie, … Continue reading STRAIGHT TIME, the Perfect Double Feature for UNCUT GEMS

The deck seemed stacked against Sam Mendes's 1917 from the get go. The trailer for the World War I thriller bared a heavy resemblance to Christopher Nolan's recent time-centric WWII thriller, Dunkirk, and the big marketing buzz focused on the fact that Mendes and legendary cinematographer Roger Deakins made the film to appear as if it were all … Continue reading 1917: From Afterthought to Awards Contender

This was an impossible task, one where great films likely didn't make the cut, and personal films triumphed. As I reached the top ten, I could feel the personal connection to the films I was discussing growing stronger, so I can attest this is definitely a favorites list more than some line drawn in the … Continue reading My 50 Favorite Movies of The Decade