The Karate Kid (1984, John G. Avildsen)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on May 9, 2015
James Crabe’s photography gets The Karate Kid through the rough patches. The film’s incredibly uneven–Bill Conti’s score initially seems like it’ll be a plus, ends up being a minus, and the editing is strange. Director Avildsen, with two other editors, can’t seem read more
Paths of Glory (1957, Stanley Kubrick)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on May 8, 2015
Paths of Glory takes place over four days, runs just under ninety minutes and has thirteen or so significant characters. It’s hard to identify the most significant character–Kirk Douglas’s protagonist the viewer’s way into the film, but he’s not the most significant. T read more
The Last Detail (1973, Hal Ashby)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on May 4, 2015
Even though Jack Nicholson gets top billing and the most bombastic role in The Last Detail, Otis Young has the harder job. He’s got to temper Nicholson, both for the sake of the audience and of the narrative. The film introduces the two men simultaneously–Robert Towne’s script alm read more
The Hearts of Age (1934)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on May 3, 2015
The Hearts of Age is a funny short film. It’s weird funny, but it’s also funny funny. The weird has these grotesquely made up people–the film centers on an old woman, sitting on a bell, being pulled from below by this servant (in blackface). People pass her, going down these stair read more
Repulsion (1965, Roman Polanski)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on May 1, 2015
At around the seventy minute mark, Repulsion finally gives Catherine Deneuve some personality. Sure, she’s gone completely insane at this point, but she sings a little lullaby to herself. And Deneuve is in at least sixty-five of those seventy minutes without any personality (she loses it agai read more
The Parallax View (1974, Alan J. Pakula)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Apr 27, 2015
Not quite halfway through The Parallax View, the film loses its footing. Director Pakula keeps the audience a good three car lengths from not just the action of the film–with long shots in Panavision–but also understanding the action of the film. Parallax even goes so far to introduce p read more
Mystery Train (1989, Jim Jarmusch)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Apr 24, 2015
Mystery Train is a comedy. It’s many other things–an examination and comparison of various kinds of differentness–but it’s also a very funny comedy. In fact, Jarmusch keeps characters around for nothing else. Train is the interconnected story of seven people (across three ch read more
House Specialty (1978, Sophie Tatischeff)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Apr 22, 2015
House Specialty chronicles the last few minutes of a day at a pastry shop in a small French town. The short’s credits are incomplete, but it appears the lead–the clerk–is played by Dominique Lavanant. She’s an attractive young woman surrounded either by old men or almost old read more
Ace in the Hole (1951, Billy Wilder)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Apr 20, 2015
Ace in the Hole moves while the script–from director Wilder, Lesser Samuels and Walter Newman–never races. In fact, it’s deliberate and methodical, maybe even redundant at times (especially in the first act). The redundant moments aren’t actually a problem since Kirk Douglas read more
Friday the 13th Part III (1982, Steve Miner)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Apr 13, 2015
Friday the 13th Part III is shockingly inept. Director Miner has a number of bad habits, some related to the film being done in 3-D, some just with how he composes the widescreen frame. Miner favors either action in the center of the frame or on the left. The right is unused. Miner’s shooting read more
Evening Classes (1967, Nicolas Ribowski)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Apr 8, 2015
Evening Classes is a bit of a surprise; without Jacques Tati’s involvement, the short would almost work more as an examination of his films. With his involvement, Classes certainly has some outstanding moments, but director Ribowski and Tati (who also wrote the short) don’t really have read more
Seven Miles of Bad Road (1963, Douglas Heyes)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Apr 5, 2015
Once you get past Jeffrey Hunter (at thirty-seven) playing a character about fifteen years younger–and some other significant bumps, Seven Miles of Bad Road isn’t entirely bad. It shouldn’t be entirely bad, even with those bumps, but it’s an episode of “The Chrysler Th read more
All Quiet on the Western Front (1930, Lewis Milestone)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Apr 3, 2015
For the first act or so of All Quiet on the Western Front, director Milestone very gently puts the viewer amid the naïveté of the film’s protagonists, a group of students who drop out to enlist (in the first World War). He opens with this gorgeously complicated shot–brilliantly edited read more
Nightmare at 20,000 Feet (1963, Richard Donner)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Mar 29, 2015
Nightmare at 20,000 Feet races. Director Donner and writer Richard Matheson pace out the episode perfectly–though it being a “Twilight Zone” episode means they can also utilize some of the series’s credit formula to great effect. The episode has a few phases. Introducing Wil read more
Diary of a Country Priest (1951, Robert Bresson)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Mar 27, 2015
Diary of a Country Priest is a somewhat trying experience, as so much of the viewer’s experience watching the film requires him or her to empathize with the titular protagonist, something that character is apparently incapable of doing. Much in the film is made of the protagonist’s inex read more
[Stop Button Modells] Templeton Bradley: The Razor’s Edge
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Mar 20, 2015
An audiovisual essay about Edmund Goulding’s 1946 film, “The Razor’s Edge,” produced by Darryl F. Zanuck for 20th Century Fox. read more
Keep Your Left Up (1936, René Clément)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Mar 18, 2015
Keep Your Left Up is a genial little short set in a small French country town. The arrival of the postman sets off the short, which eventually has local do-nothing Jacques Tati in the ring against boxer Louis Robur. The charm comes mostly from the setting, Clément’s excellent composition and read more
Angels with Dirty Faces (1938, Michael Curtiz)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Mar 16, 2015
Angels with Dirty Faces runs less than ninety minutes, but doesn’t really fill them. The first fifteen minutes of the film are flashbacks, tracking James Cagney’s character from troubled boyhood to juvenile detention to prison. Once the present action starts, Cagney immediately reunites read more
Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981, Steve Miner)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Mar 13, 2015
When director Miner finally does a decent sequence in Friday the 13th Part 2, it comes as something of a surprise. Amy Steel is on the run from the masked killer and, even though it’s stupid, it’s somewhat effective. Steel probably gives the film’s best performance (she’s st read more
Ride the High Country (1962, Sam Peckinpah)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Mar 13, 2015
Ride the High Country is a fine attempt. It’s not a successful attempt, but it’s a fine one. Director Peckinpah seems to know what he wants to do, but he’s too trapped in Western genre tradition. Having icons Joel McCrea and Randolph Scott as his leads (they’re both great), read more