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

Recency bias is a tough firewall to fight through, but even if you keep your wits about you when digesting the year that was 2019, curbing your desire to be superlative about things you've just seen, it sure seems like this is a special year and a capstone on a strange, transitional decade of film. … Continue reading My 10 Favorite Movies of 2019

"I know this sounds silly... like this is the scene in the movie where the guy's trying to get ahold of the long-lost son, you know... but this is that scene. And I think they have those scenes in movies because they're true, you know? Because they really happen. See, this is the scene in … Continue reading Goodbye Stranger: MAGNOLIA at 20

The bigger the movie, it seems, the worse the think pieces. It certainly seems to be the case in 2019, with everyone able to voice their opinions on a film at a moment's notice. This fall, once the (mostly positive) Tarantino discourse died down after Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood, it was time for … Continue reading Ignore The Bad Takes, Anna Paquin is a Crucial Part of THE IRISHMAN

Looking back on Cop Land, James Mangold's breakout 1997 police drama that helped fortify the Miramax stronghold on independent cinema throughout the decade, what's most striking is the cast. It's incredible. These faces and these bodies, ones of movie stars at different points in their career, seem to have gone back in time and lived as … Continue reading COP LAND, James Mangold’s Breakout Film, Only Gets Better With Age