Scanners (1981, David Cronenberg)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Feb 3, 2017
About a half hour into Scanners, the film starts to run out of its initial steam. Director Cronenberg (who also scripted) opens the film with some dynamic set pieces–lead Stephen Lack mind frying a mean woman, Lack on the run from goons, Patrick McGoohan chaining Lack down and torturing him (appare read more
Temple Grandin (2010, Mick Jackson)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Feb 1, 2017
The best thing about Temple Grandin is Claire Danes’s performance. She even gets through the parts where she’s thirty playing fifteen. It’s a biopic, there a lot of flashbacks. Director Jackson tries to use a lot of visual transitions for them, but they really succeed because of the teleplay and read more
Resident Evil: The Final Chapter (2017, Paul W.S. Anderson)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jan 29, 2017
Resident Evil: The Final Chapter opens, as usual (I think), with a recap of the previous Resident Evil movies. Star Milla Jovovich narrates; even after six movies, it always seems like Jovovich is just about to have a great scene as an actor in one of these movies and it never comes to pass. It’s read more
Personal Velocity (2002, Rebecca Miller)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jan 28, 2017
Personal Velocity: Three Portraits. Writer and director Miller (adapting her own collection of short stories) ties together three very different stories, each with its own structure, each with its own narrative approach. Velocity is short too–under ninety minutes–so Miller is fast to establish her read more
Peyton Place (1957, Mark Robson)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jan 28, 2017
Peyton Place takes over a year and a half starting in 1941. Director Robson has a really slick way of getting the date into the ground situation. Robson and cinematographer William C. Mellor go a little wild with Peyton Place–there’s a lot of location shooting and Robson tries hard to make the view read more
Hidden Figures (2016, Theodore Melfi)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jan 22, 2017
In the first scene of Hidden Figures, the film makes it immediately clear there’s going to be quite a bit of self-awareness. The film is based on the true story of three black women who were instrumental to NASA’s–and the space program’s–success. They’re working at NASA in the early sixties, read more
Once Upon a Spy (1980, Ivan Nagy)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jan 22, 2017
Once Upon a Spy is a strange result. I mean, it’s a TV movie (pilot) for a spy series, complete with a kind of great James Bond-lite seventies music from John Cacavas, Christopher Lee in a electronic wheelchair with a rocket launcher, spy mistress Eleanor Parker working out of a secret headquarters read more
No Looking Back (1998, Edward Burns)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jan 21, 2017
No Looking Back runs just under a hundred minutes. The first half of the film–roughly the first half–evenly relies on its cast. In fact, top-billed Lauren Holly almost has less than either Jon Bon Jovi and director Burns (acting, second-billed) in the first half. It’s a love triangle and she’s read more
Vigil in the Night (1940, George Stevens)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jan 17, 2017
Still of the Night is supreme melodrama. I mean, in its first ten minutes, the film manages to establish a small English town’s hospital, introduce stoic nurse Carole Lombard and her flighty sister Anne Shirley, throw them into tragedy and crisis, and kick Lombard into an entirely new setting. Stil read more
Operation Chromite (2016, John H. Lee)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jan 16, 2017
There’s no indication there’s a better movie anywhere in Operation Chromite. Director Lee just doesn’t have a handle on it. The script’s an uncomfortable mix of predictable and manipulative–director Lee and co-writer Lee Man-hee lay on the war movie jingoism so thick, it actually takes a while read more
It’s a Wonderful Life (1946, Frank Capra)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jan 15, 2017
It’s a Wonderful Life is going to be a tough one. When I was a kid, during the public domain days, Wonderful Life was omnipresent. It became a joke because of that omnipresence. But also because it’s undeniably sappy. And it has angels in it. It’s so saccharine, I didn’t even notice my eyes read more
Rear Window (1954, Alfred Hitchcock)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jan 14, 2017
Rear Window is an absurdly good time. It’s breathtakingly produced and the set is a marvel on its own, but it’s also an absurdly good time. You’ve got Thelma Ritter chastising James Stewart not just for peeping, she also chastises him for not being serious enough about Grace Kelly. How could it read more
My Bodyguard (1980, Tony Bill)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jan 13, 2017
My Bodyguard is more than a little frustrating. Alan Ormsby’s script either completely changes in the second half–just in terms of how he constructs scenes, how much willful suspension of disbelief you need, whether or not lead Chris Makepeace is ever going to have a story of his own–or director read more
Django (1966, Sergio Corbucci)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jan 6, 2017
Right away, Djano sets itself to have a problem–gunfighter Franco Nero is just way too good. Just when he’s too unstoppable, too unbeatable, the film finds a way to make him even more unstoppable, more unbeatable. The first act of the film has him taking on a band of Confederate soldiers who have read more
Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974, Michael Cimino)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jan 2, 2017
Thunderbolt and Lightfoot is the story of men in all their complexities. Their desire for money, their desire for women, their desire for stylish clothes. Whether a young man–Jeff Bridges–or an older man–Clint Eastwood–how can any of us truly understand these deep, complex beings. I wish the read more
The Big Easy (1986, Jim McBride)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jan 1, 2017
There’s not much script structure like The Big Easy’s script structure. It’s an exceptionally constructed screenplay. The film’s great, but it all hinges on how Daniel Petrie Jr.’s script works. As previously introduced (whether onscreen or off) come back into the film, expanding on their read more
The Tiger and the Pussycat (1967, Dino Risi)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Dec 31, 2016
The Tiger and the Pussycat tells the sad tale of forty-five year-old businessman, Vittorio Gassman. He’s just become a grandfather. His college-age son wants to have long hair. All of his wife’s friends are abandoned women; their husbands have run off with younger women. Gassman is dissatisfied. read more
She’s the One (1996, Edward Burns)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Dec 27, 2016
She’s the One has a fantastic first act. Some of the banter doesn’t connect, but all of the performances are strong and when the banter does connect, it makes up for the rest. Director, writer, and star Burns relies a little too much on “gentle” homophobia for the banter between his character read more