Shame (1968, Ingmar Bergman)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jul 27, 2015
Shame has three or four sections. Director Bergman doesn’t draw a lot of attention to the transition between the first parts, he hides it in the narrative. Liv Ullmann and Max von Sydow are a married couple living on an island following a war. Not much information about the war, but they̵ read more
[Stop Button Lists] Film School in a Car, Lesson 03
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jul 23, 2015
I had good reasoning when I decided to listen to The Funhouse commentary; it’s similar to Psycho III in it being a Shout! Factory special edition, though I saw Funhouse more recently than Psycho III. It’s a horror film, but I really liked Funhouse. It’s one of my “dissenter& read more
Robinson Crusoe on Mars (1964, Byron Haskin)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jul 20, 2015
Robinson Crusoe on Mars is silly. It’s inconsistent and silly. The film survives a weak first act–the narrative trick of opening with one character (played, poorly, by Adam West) and then transferring to another (Paul Mantee) is fine, only Mantee doesn’t get any good material for read more
Mon Oncle (1958, Jacques Tati)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jul 17, 2015
Mon Oncle has a concerning amount of narrative. Way too much of the film is about Jean-Pierre Zola and Adrienne Servantie’s bourgeois ultra-modern couple fretting over their son’s affection for his uncle, played by writer-director Tati. Tati’s protagonist does not live in the auto read more
[Stop Button Lists] Eleanor Parker at MGM, 1952-60
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jul 16, 2015
I grew up avoiding Eleanor Parker movies. At least the one everyone knew about–my mom and my sister used to watch The Sound of Music all the time. My dad and I avoided it for years. When I did discover Eleanor Parker in the late nineties, I can’t remember the order in which I saw her fi read more
Neighbors (1920, Edward F. Cline and Buster Keaton)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jul 15, 2015
I’m not sure what the best thing is about Neighbors. There’s the comic pacing, there’s the comic acrobatics, there’s the story, there’s the acting. Co-directors Keaton and Cline quickly introduce this fantastic setup–Romeo and Juliet across a fence in an alley an read more
Out of the Past (1947, Jacques Tourneur)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jul 14, 2015
Out of the Past always has at least two things going on at once. Not just the double crossings, which is so prevalent lead Robert Mitchum even taunts the bad guys with it, but how the film itself works. Daniel Mainwaring’s script–which gives Mitchum this lengthy narration over a flashba read more
Jason Lives: Friday the 13th Part VI (1986, Tom McLoughlin)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jul 13, 2015
Director McLoughlin tries something new for the Friday the 13th franchise; he makes Jason Lives a monster movie. A really bland, not even slightly creepy and only once surprising, monster movie. It’s not notable for it failing to be a good monster movie, it’s notable because McLoughlin& read more
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936, Frank Capra)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jul 13, 2015
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town is astoundingly (and rightfully) confident. Director Capra and screenwriter Robert Riskin don’t shy away from anything in the film–Capra’s more than willing to go with sentimentality, but the film isn’t often sentimental. Even when Jean Arthur’s read more
Doctor Zhivago (1965, David Lean)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jul 10, 2015
When Doctor Zhivago got to its intermission, I assumed director Lean would keep things moving as fast in the second half as he did in the first. These expectations were all high melodrama. Instead, the post-intermission section of Zhivago feels utterly detached from the first, even though there are read more
The Scarecrow (1920, Edward F. Cline and Buster Keaton)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jul 8, 2015
The Scarecrow opens with a lengthy practical effects sequence. Buster Keaton and Joe Roberts are roommates and they have an elaborately designed “concise” home. It’s like IKEA’s dream, only with manually pulled ropes instead of some kind of remote control. (There’s als read more
Animal Crackers (1930, Victor Heerman)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jul 6, 2015
After initially teasing some kind of narrative, Animal Crackers gives it up and embraces not just being a stage adaptation (hope I don’t forget to talk about that aspect) but also a series of sketches. Not just comedy sketches, but also musical ones. The film takes place over a day. It starts read more
On the Waterfront (1954, Elia Kazan)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jul 3, 2015
On the Waterfront is relentlessly grim until the strangest moment in the finale. As the film finally reaches the point of savage, physical violence–it opens with the implication, but not the visualization of such violence–a supporting character (familiar but mostly background) makes a w read more
Lolita (1962, Stanley Kubrick)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jun 29, 2015
The first half of Lolita is a wonderful mix of acting styles. There’s James Mason’s very measured, very British acting. There’s Shirley Winters’s histrionics; she’s doing Hollywood melodrama on overdrive but director Kubrick (and Winters) have it all under perfect cont read more
The Grapes of Wrath (1940, John Ford)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jun 26, 2015
The Grapes of Wrath starts in a darkened neverland. Director Ford and cinematographer Gregg Toland create a realer than real Oklahoma for protagonist Henry Fonda to journey across. The locations and sets aren’t as important as how Fonda (and the audience) experience it. It’s actually ra read more
Convict 13 (1920, Edward F. Cline and Buster Keaton)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jun 24, 2015
Convict 13 has some undeniably funny stuff in it, but directors Keaton and Cline rely almost entirely on physical comedy. By physical, I mean actors doing choreographed comedy. Sometimes it’s Keaton, both for the smaller sequences and the larger, or Joe Roberts as a gigantic, revolting prison read more
The Kid (1921, Charles Chaplin), the director’s cut
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jun 22, 2015
Some time after the halfway point in The Kid, it becomes clear the film isn’t going to end badly for its leads. Charlie Chaplin is the tramp, Jackie Coogan is his ward (a tramp in training). Chaplin, as a director, is fairly restrictive. Most of the action takes place on a few streets, primar read more
Tarzan and His Mate (1934, Cedric Gibbons)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jun 21, 2015
For a film called Tarzan and His Mate, Johnny Weissmuller’s Tarzan doesn’t get much to do. He spends the film rescuing Maureen O’Sullivan (which is one of the more frustrating aspects of the film–she doesn’t exhibit any jungle survival skills until the finale) from a v read more
[Stop Button Favorites] Episode 5 | The People That Time Forgot
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jun 20, 2015
An audio commentary for Kevin Connor’s 1977 film, “The People That Time Forgot,” produced by Max Rosenberg for American International Pictures. Synced to the iTunes HD video. Subscribe on iTunes MP3 Download read more
[Stop Button Modells] THWAPP! PLOP! THWACK! THUNK! FLRBB!: The People That Time Forgot
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jun 20, 2015
An audiovisual essay concerning Kevin Connor’s 1977 film, “The People That Time Forgot,” produced by Max Rosenberg for American International Pictures. read more