Aliens (1986, James Cameron), the special edition
The Stop Button Posted by on Jul 6, 2012
I always think of Aliens as a precisely choreographed ballet. Director Cameron moves his large cast–though it does winnow over time–around in these cramped sets and everyone has something to do; Cameron draws the viewer’s attention to one character, but the rest are in motion sett read more
Decade for Decision (1957)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jul 5, 2012
Decade for Decision isn’t the best documentary short subject. It’s a collection of shots of colleges with narration. The information, however, is (historically) outstanding. For example, Decision opens talking about how American students are years behind their foreign (in this case, the read more
Winter (1964, Piotr Kamler and André Voisin)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jul 3, 2012
Winter is a music video for Vivaldi’s violin concerto of the same name. Kamler does an amazing job with the video–it’s technically unbelievable at times–but it’s just a music video. The concerto, the parts Kamler uses, is in three segments. The first two segments have read more
The Return to Reason (1923, Man Ray)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jul 1, 2012
The Return to Reason doesn’t so much study movement as exhibit experiments in movement. Whether they’re photographic tricks or recognizable objects–or unrecognizable ones until you watch carefully–director Ray isn’t putting them together to solve a puzzle. Unless, of c read more
The Iron Man (1931, Harry Bailey and John Foster)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jun 30, 2012
The Iron Man‘s protagonist is not the Iron Man itself (himself?), which shows up after the halfway point. The protagonist is a cantankerous old man with some magic powers. He lives amongst all the adorable cartoon animals who sing and dance happily and he does what he can to ruin their days. read more
The Ex-Mrs. Bradford (1936, Stephen Roberts)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jun 29, 2012
With a better director, a competent editor and a slightly stronger screenplay, The Ex-Mrs. Bradford might be more than an amusing diversion. While William Powell and Jean Arthur are great together, the film underuses them in general and her in particular. There’s this great dinner scene where she’s read more
The Mystery Man (1935, Ray McCarey)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jun 27, 2012
I hope Robert Armstrong got paid well for The Mystery Man, because it doesn’t do him any other good. While it’s nice to see Armstrong in a lead role, the film’s so incompetently produced, it’s sometimes painful. Armstrong acts well but director McCarey doesn’t know how to compose shots. You’ll read more
Captain Kidd’s Treasure (1938, Leslie Fenton)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jun 26, 2012
Captain Kidd’s Treasure runs into a problem I’m unfamiliar with for a docudrama. Its fictive license posits itself as fact, which makes entire short puzzling. There’s a brief recount of Captain Kidd, his execution and his treasure island. I think I’ve heard the name before, read more
Blind Adventure (1933, Ernest B. Schoedsack)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jun 25, 2012
Blind Adventure is a genial, nearly successful comedy thriller. Robert Armstrong, playing an unexpectedly wealthy working class American who’s vacationing in London, heads out into the fog and finds himself on a wild night. He encounters espionage, British society, a damsel in distress (Helen Mack) read more
The Man with the Twisted Lip (1921, Maurice Elvey)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jun 24, 2012
The Man with the Twisted Lip is not a particularly exciting narrative to begin with, but director Elvey does keep the story moving at a decent pace. He paces most of Lip like a play, albeit one with flashbacks. Elvey cannot, however, make it interesting. Some of the problem is the adherence to the read more
The Best Legs in Eighth Grade (1984, Tom Patchett)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jun 23, 2012
The Best Legs in Eighth Grade aired on HBO. Apparently, their original programming has gotten a lot better since the eighties. It’s difficult to describe Legs. Bruce Feirstein’s script seems to be meant for stage–the biggest surprise isn’t just he’s had a career since, read more
Snow Time (1930, Mannie Davis and John Foster)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jun 21, 2012
Snow Time is another strange cartoon from Foster. It’s wintertime in cute cartoon animal land and everyone’s having a swell time skiing, synchronized skating and so on. Until this cat’s tale gets cut off because he’s messing around in a ski lane. But Foster and co-director D read more
Wonder Woman (1967, Leslie H. Martinson)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jun 16, 2012
Here’s a weird one. A short pilot for a “Wonder Woman” sitcom. Ellie Wood Walker’s Diana Prince lives at home with her mother (Maudie Prickett), who wishes her daughter would just find a man. The pilot consists mostly of their bickering, which isn’t unfunny–thoro read more
Super-Hooper-Dyne Lizzies (1925, Del Lord)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jun 12, 2012
Super-Hooper-Dyne Lizzies explores the dangers of electric cars. Basically, they can be taken over by radio waves and made to do crazy things. If it weren’t for the gasoline dealer (John J. Richardson) being the villain, one could almost see it as twenties gas company propaganda. The short is read more
The Mischief Makers (1957, François Truffaut)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jun 10, 2012
The Mischief Makers is undeniably well-made, with great photography from Jean Malige (if lousy editing by Cécile Decugis) and Truffaut’s deliberate and panoramic composition. It’s an adaptation of a short story, about a group of adolescent boys who playfully torment a young woman they&# read more
No Noise (1923, Robert F. McGowan)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jun 9, 2012
In some ways, No Noise has it all. Kids getting high off laughing gas, then enjoying a little electrocution, there’s some cross-dressing… it seems like there’s even more. The threat of Farina being operated on by the Our Gang kids. Actually, Farina’s practically in drag too. read more
My Science Project (1985, Jonathan R. Betuel)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jun 8, 2012
It’s hard to say what’s worse in My Science Project, Beutel’s lame characters or his direction of the actors playing those roles. And I’m not counting Dennis Hopper, who plays an ex-hippie in the picture. While Hopper certainly has a poorly written character and Beutel’ read more
His Trysting Place (1914, Charles Chaplin)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jun 7, 2012
The best thing about His Trysting Place is probably Frank D. Williams’s photography. Chaplin’s athletics are impressive, but he doesn’t have much use for them. They’re most exciting during his food fight with Mack Swain. The food fight itself isn’t particularly funny&# read more
Christine (1983, John Carpenter)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jun 6, 2012
John Carpenter does some amazing work on Christine. He’s got help from his cinematographer, Donald M. Morgan, but the first forty-five or fifty minutes of the film are simply masterful. Carpenter has a wide variety of scenes–high school, ominous, family scenes, conversations–and a read more
Ménilmontant (1926, Dimitri Kirsanoff)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jun 5, 2012
I’m hesitant to call parts of Ménilmontant brilliant. There are some great moments, with amazing composition and editing, but there are also some painfully pedestrian ones. If those sequences were the only problem, I suppose I would. But director Kirsanoff also displays an abject lack of self read more