After the Thin Man (1936, W.S. Van Dyke)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Dec 26, 2014
There is very little economy to After the Thin Man; instead, screenwriters Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett and director W.S. Van Dyke act with rampant abandon. The first twenty or so minutes of the film is just audience gratification–it’s a sequel to a popular film and the filmmaker read more
Flashdance (1983, Adrian Lyne)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Dec 26, 2014
Even though it’s terrible, Flashdance at least sticks with protagonist Jennifer Beals for most of the film. She’s a steel worker who dances at a club and starts dating her boss (at the steel mill, not the club, which is actually a bar). For a while, director Lyne and screenwriters Thoma read more
Fame (1980, Alan Parker)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Dec 25, 2014
It’s sort of amusing how Fame, a film about high school, gets an incomplete. The film is rigidly structured–the four years of high school, plus the auditions at the beginning for the characters to get into said high school, a performing arts school in New York. The characters’ sto read more
Grease (1978, Randal Kleiser)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Dec 25, 2014
The point of Grease isn’t the story, which is good, because screenwriters Bronte Woodard and Allan Carr do a disastrous job plotting. They also do a terrible job of writing their characters–ostensible protagonists John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John have the worst characterizations in read more
The Thin Man (1934, W.S. Van Dyke)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Dec 25, 2014
While enough cannot be said about the efficiency of W.S. Van Dyke’s direction of the The Thin Man, the efficiency of the script deserves an equal amount of praise. Albert Hackett and Frances Goodrich get in so much little character stuff for the supporting cast, it’s hard to imagine how read more
Evil Dead II (1987, Sam Raimi)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Dec 14, 2014
Instead of establishing Evil Dead II’s tone at the start of the film, director Raimi waits a while, veering between horror and comedy–pushing each to their absurdist extremes–until they meet. And, by then, the viewer is fully comfortable in the world of Evil Dead II. Bruce Campbel read more
[FYI] Thoughts on the Thin Man book now available
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Dec 7, 2014
I was lucky enough to get to participate in Danny Reid’s book of essays, Thoughts On The Thin Man: Essays on the Delightful Detective Work of Nick and Nora Charles. Danny runs Pre-Code.com, where he covers pre-code movies, and he put together this awesome idea for a Thin Man book with a bunc read more
Major League (1989, David S. Ward)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Dec 1, 2014
There’s so much strong acting in Major League and director Ward’s script has such likable characters (and such a hiss-worthy villain in team owner Margaret Whitton), the film moves on momentum alone for quite a while. It’s only in the third act, when Ward throws in an unnecessary read more
Random Harvest (1942, Mervyn LeRoy)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Dec 1, 2014
It’s hard to imagine a more supreme melodrama than Random Harvest. Almost the entire first hour (of two and a nickel), the film chronicles the blissful romance of Greer Garson and Ronald Colman. He’s an amnesiac World War I veteran, she’s on the stage–a combination of song a read more
Working Girl (1988, Mike Nichols)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Dec 1, 2014
Towards the end of Working Girl, the film seems to jump around a bit with the timeline. It seems to jump ahead, but then it turns out it doesn’t. And it only seems to jump ahead because of how director Nichols and editor Sam O’Steen structure a couple transitions. It’s not a big t read more
The Goonies (1985, Richard Donner)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Nov 29, 2014
There’s a lack of consistent mood to The Goonies. The film has its phases and the mood and tone change from phase to phase, but Chris Columbus’s script changes characterizations between these phases as well, which is rather disconcerting. For example, while the film introduces the villa read more
Mannequin (1987, Michael Gottlieb)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Nov 19, 2014
When Mannequin is at its best, it makes one forget about its worst. There’s a lot of weak writing–and some strong writing–and director Gottlieb is terrible with actors. What’s so strange about his inability to direct them (most visible with Carole Davis) is how well other pe read more
[FYI] JR Ralls has a new project (not movies)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Oct 21, 2014
If you haven’t seen Dark Dungeons, which JR Ralls produced, you need to check it out as soon as possible. Ralls primarily funded the film through Kickstarter and now he has another Kickstarter project, only this time he’s doing a movie, he’s putting together a Desert Bus video com read more
I Confess (1953, Alfred Hitchcock)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Oct 5, 2014
I Confess is unwieldy. Director Hitchcock is extremely precise in his composition, the same goes for Robert Burks' photography (especially the photography) and Rudi Fehr's editing (which changes in harshness based on the story's tone); sure, Dimitri Tiomkin's music is all over t read more
After Hours (1985, Martin Scorsese)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Sep 26, 2014
After Hours is meticulous. Director Scorsese, editor Thelma Schoonmaker and cinematographer Michael Ballhaus work with exacting precision throughout, with the first third of the film serving to prepare the viewer for the rest. The film follows boring, regular guy Griffin Dunne as he impetuously pur read more
The Mummy (1932, Karl Freund)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Sep 18, 2014
The Mummy is a strange horror movie. While there’s a definite villain–a monster–in Boris Karloff’s resurrected mummy, he poses a danger specifically to only one cast member–Zita Johann. She’s the reincarnation of his lost love and her exact importance to him isn’t clear until the last read more
Uncle Tom’s Bungalow (1937, Tex Avery)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Sep 10, 2014
Uncle Tom's Bungalow manages to be both appallingly racist and a little progressive. Director Avery turning the slave trader into the devil, poking a little fun at the angelic white girl, general mocking of Southern cultural all around…. But Bungalow just isn't a good cartoon. Ben H read more
The Bride of Frankenstein (1935, James Whale)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Sep 3, 2014
For The Bride of Frankenstein, director Whale takes a contradictory approach. It's either more is more, or less is less. More music, all the time. Franz Waxman's frequently playful music rarely fits its scenes, unless Whale is going for a melodramatic farce, which he really doesn't s read more
The Old Dark House (1932, James Whale)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Aug 27, 2014
The Old Dark House is a strange film about strange people doing strange things. Director Whale and screenwriter Benn W. Levy rarely let the film get a set tone–unless one counts the consistent mix of comedy and horror. It’s not straight comedy; the comic elements tend to be either absur read more
Men of Crisis: The Harvey Wallinger Story (1971, Woody Allen)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Aug 19, 2014
Men of Crisis: The Harvey Wallinger Story recounts the rise to power of one Harvey Wallinger, friend and aide to Richard M. Nixon. Wallinger is one part buffoon, one part creep, one part sex addict–Allen revels in the part. He opens the short with a recounting of the 1968 election with some c read more