SHANE (1953)
A (very) widescreen western about the consequences of violence, or something, which I would’ve enjoyed more if not for the super-whiny little kid.
LATE SPRING (1949)
An aggressively minimalist postwar Japanese family drama from Yasujiro Ozu, about a daughter who just wants to take care of her aging father, even though everyone else wants her to get married to literally anyone.
SOME CAME RUNNING (1958)
A mid-century melodrama in which Frank Sinatra plays a soldier returning to a small town. It has some interesting shots but never really rises above its potboiler status.
THE LEARNING TREE (1969)
The first ever studio movie from a Black director tells the semi-autobiographical story of its director growing up in 1920s Kansas, and I was actually pretty impressed with it as a movie.
THE LAST EMPEROR (1987)
Our Forgotten Best Pictures Film Festival closes with an interesting epic about the final emperor of China, who lived a fascinating life despite lacking any personal agency whatsoever.
KRAMER VS. KRAMER (1979)
Dustin Hoffman and Meryl Streep fight over custody of a mop-topped little kid who is going to need so much therapy after this.
TOM JONES (1963)
A movie set in the 1700s, released in the early 1960s, that still feels startlingly modern today. I absolutely loved it. Why did no one tell me this movie was so good? He said about the Oscar winner.
THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH (1952)
If you love circuses, good for you. This Best Picture winner is way too long and has way too much circus, and when the characters actually talk to each other it’s even worse.
GOING MY WAY (1944)
Bing Crosby plays a laid-back, musical priest in this very laid-back musical that was a huge hit in the middle of World War II but mostly forgotten today.
