The 100 Best American Films — From Movie Critics Around the World
Posted on July 24, 2015 at 3:46 pm
The American Film Institute has its top 100 list and the Library of Congress has its National Film Registry. But how do movie critics around the world see our films? The BBC prepared a list of the 100 greatest American films, based on the selections of international movie critics. Of course there is a lot of overlap. You know “Citizen Kane” and “The Godfather” and “Singin’ in the Rain” and “The Searchers” are going to be there. The top 10 are pretty easy to guess (though I still think “Vertigo” does not deserve to be ranked so high).
10. The Godfather Part II (Francis Ford Coppola, 1974)
9. Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942)
8. Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock, 1960)
7. Singin’ in the Rain (Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly, 1952)
6. Sunrise (FW Murnau, 1927)
5. The Searchers (John Ford, 1956)
4. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968)
3. Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958)
2. The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972)
1. Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941)
But there are some nice surprises in the rest of the list, like “Ace in the Hole,” “Heaven’s Gate,” “Marnie,” and “Imitation of Life.” Crank up that Netflix queue and add some of the ones you haven’t seen yet.
Cut to the Chase: A Brilliant Compilation of Movie Chase Scenes from Michael Mirasol
Posted on July 24, 2015 at 11:23 am
My friend and fellow critic Michael Mirasol has shared another of his brilliantly edited supercuts of movie moments, and this is one of his best. There’s nothing the movies do better than chases!
Sneak Preview of “The Descendants,” the New Disney Film About the Next Generation of Villains
Posted on July 23, 2015 at 9:55 pm
Dove Cameron, Cameron Boyce, Booboo Stewart and Sofia Carson star as the teenage sons and daughters of Disney’s most infamous villains in Disney’s “Descendants,” a live-action movie premiering July 31, 2015 on the Disney Channel.
Rated R for language throughout, and some violence
Profanity:
Constant very strong language
Alcohol/ Drugs:
Drinking, drugs
Violence/ Scariness:
Intense boxing scenes with disturbing images, gun violence, murder, suicidal behavior, child removed from her family
Diversity Issues:
Diverse characters
Date Released to Theaters:
July 25, 2105
Date Released to DVD:
October 26, 2015
Amazon.com ASIN:
B012BPM536
Copyright 2015 Weinstein Company
Didactic and unabashedly manipulative, “Southpaw” borrows from almost every boxing movie ever made. It telegraphs every development and then, in case we missed it, tells us what just happened. The dialogue is purplish and melodramatic. The filmmaking is self-consciously arty, with shadows and reflections — or smoke and mirrors. The storyline is so soapy it almost slides off the screen. As Thelma Ritter says in “All About Eve,” “Everything but the bloodhounds snappin’ at her rear end.” Scriptwriter Kurt Sutter (“Sons of Anarchy”) has to learn to trust his audience.
Heartfelt performances by Jake Gyllenhaal, Rachel McAdams, and Forest Whitaker give the story more weight than it deserves, and director Antoine Fuqua knows how to film the boxing scenes so that each is a drama of its own.
A movie hero generally has to start with nothing and get something or start with everything, lose it all, and then get it back. Gyllenhaal plays Billy Hope (this film really does hit every point home with a sledgehammer), who had nothing and now, as the movie begins, has it all, so we know he has to lose it. Hope grew up in what we used to call orphanages. All he had was a girl named Maureen who believed in him and guided him and an anger so powerful that he could use it in the ring the way Popeye uses spinach.
We see him before a title fight, his hands getting wrapped in pristine gauze under the supervision of the referees, who literally sign off on them before the gloves go on. Billy has a moment alone with Maureen (Rachel McAdams, in a richly observed performance). And then there is the fight. He gets hit until he gets furious enough to battle back with everything he has, and then he wins. He and Maureen return to their mansion, kiss their adorable daughter Leila (Oona Laurence), and go to bed. And then it is all gone, and he has to literally fight his way back, mopping floors at a dingy, inner-city gym and being trained by a crusty old pro (Burgess Meredith, no, I mean Forest Whitaker). He has to learn boxing all over again.
Gyllenhaal’s physical transformation, so soon after his skeletal appearance in “Nightcrawler,” could be stunt-ish — or just a chance for him to get back in shape. But he makes us feel the almost feral elements of Billy’s understanding of the world around him, and he shows us the way his growing understanding of himself as he has to take responsibility for his choices is reflected in the ring. His scenes with McAdams are deeply felt, tender, and sexy. The movie gets a split decision, but Gyllenhaal and McAdams are a knockout.
Parents should know that this film has constant very strong language, sexual references and a non-explicit situation, brutal and bloody boxing matches, gun violence, drinking and drugs, sad deaths of a parent and a young teen, references to domestic abuse and prostitution, child removed from family, suicidal behavior and assault.
Family discussion: Why did Tick make Billy clean the gym? Was the judge right to take Leila away? Why did Billy need to change his style of fighting?
If you like this, try: “Rocky,” “Warriors,” and “Body and Soul”
Rated PG-13 for some language, drinking, sexuality and partial nudity -- all involving teens
Profanity:
Some strong and crude language
Alcohol/ Drugs:
Teen drinking
Violence/ Scariness:
Dead body, references to suicide, some bullying and peril
Diversity Issues:
None
Date Released to Theaters:
July 25, 2015
Everyone has one. That unobtainable dream we longed for when we were first learning what it felt like to be in love. For most of us, these impossible-to-attain objects of our desire are like training wheels to keep us from wobbling as we begin to understand our feelings. Like the Garth Brooks song, “Unanswered Prayers,” we end up grateful to apply the lessons we learned in our wiser choices. But movies often grant us the magical chance to make our fantasies a little more real by showing us characters who do find a way to love with the ones they adored from afar.
So we have certain expectations when Quentin (Nat Wolff) tells us in the beginning of “Paper Towns” that (1) everyone is entitled to one miracle and (2) that he has been deeply in love with his next door neighbor Margo since she moved in when they were kids. And those expectations are confirmed when he tells us what good friends they were as kids and how, now that they are about to graduate from high school, they barely speak. She has passed out of his league. “Her life had become a series of unbelievably epic adventures.”
Think of all the high school movies where this led to an ending that surprises everyone on the screen and absolutely no one in the audience and yet leaves us all warm and happy. But John Green (“The Fault in Our Stars”) is not about delivering warm and happy. He is about wise and illuminating and human and heartfelt, and this film is all of that.
Margo (supermodel Cara Delevingne) appears in Quentin’s bedroom window one night, as she used to when they were kids. She invites him on an adventure. “I have nine tasks to accomplish and more than half of them require a getaway car.” It turns out that her handsome athletic star of a boyfriend was cheating on her with one of her best friends and she wants revenge. “We are righting wrongs and then we are going to wrong some rights,” she promises. “Basically, it’s going to be the best night of your life.”
She soon has him feeling like a knight or a ninja as they carry out her plans, which are well thought out and involve only minor mayhem and semi-major embarrassment for the transgressors. He finally gets to bed, happy and looking forward to seeing her in school the next day.
But she has disappeared. She has run away before and her parents are ready to give up. But Quentin is not. He is certain she has left clues behind and with the help of his friends Radar (Justice Smith) and Ben (Austin Abrams) and Margo’s friend Lacey (Halston Sage), they try to figure out where she is. When Quentin thinks he knows, they all decide to drive there together and find her, and Radar’s girlfriend (Jaz Sinclair), even though it is 1200 miles away and everyone but Quentin really wants to make it back in time for the prom.
It turns out that this trip is the best part of the film, and it turns out there’s a reason for that. Each of the characters is real and interesting and appealing. Each has some self-awareness and each approaches the lessons along with road with grace. The guys have an easy chemistry, the kind people have when the most important thing they have in common is their history, and they know, in their hearts, that once they leave for college that won’t be enough to hold them together the same way again. That poignance turns out to be essential in setting the stage for what Quentin will find at the end of his journey. The best thing about giving up those early romantic dreams, whether about people or about love or about getting what we deserve, is that it opens up our hearts for something even better, and it is good for people of any age to see how that story is told.
Parents should know that this film includes teen drinking and drunkenness, crude sexual humor and other sexual references and non-explicit situations, some nudity, strong language, suicide, gun, and some pranks and law-breaking.
Family discussion: How big is your comfort zone? What is your miracle?
If you like this, try: the book by John Green and “The Fault in Our Stars” and find out what DFTBA means
