One of the most beautiful American films ever made. Richard Gere and Brooke Adams star as migrant workers and secret lovers who decide to dupe wealthy farmer Sam Shepard. Heartbreak and tragedy ensue. The breath-stopping ravishment of Terence Malick’s magic-hour shooting schedule is leavened perfectly by the vinegar and innocenc more »

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Nothing like an Éric Rohmer film to remind you of how Mickey Mouse most cinema is when it comes to how people and their relationships actually work. Jean-Louis Trintignant plays a stoic engineer who pines for a woman he sees in church. Or maybe he should pursue the more libertine woman with whom he has a charged overnight encoun more »

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Writer/director Paul Schrader’s most underrated film? It’s a crowded field, but his Dantean descent into the ‘70s porn underworld is a contender. George C. Scott’s Calvinist Midwesterner ventures to Los Angeles to find his missing teen daughter with Peter Boyle’s sleazy private eye and Season Hubley’s sexworker as his guides. Th more »

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Like nothing else you will see onscreen this year. Made and banned in pre-revolution Iran and unseen again until 2020, Mohammad Reza Aslani’s film rarely leaves the walls of an oppressively opulent house as a family squabbles over an inheritance. Betrayal, murder, and other less tangible dreads rear their heads. Do not miss. -Le more »

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Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s final film adapts Jean Genet’s novel into a queer seaside fever dream. Brad Davis stars as the titular sailor amid a hotbed of vice, drug dealing, murder, repressed (and flagrant) man love, and everybody sleeping with everybody else, plus the director’s signature theatrical flair and lurid vibe. What’s more »

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A film romance unlike any other. WWII bomber pilot David Niven falls for radio operator Kim Hunter as his plane goes down in flames. His impossible survival sets off an interplanar incident as life and afterlife wrestle with the power of their love. Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s use of brain-boggling design, practical more »

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The director behind French cult animation classic Fantastic Planet and French comics god Möbius teamed up on an animated film? Vraiment! René Laloux and Jean “Möbius” Giraud did collaborate on this space adventure, in which a team of explorers race to save a child marooned on a hostile planet. Sort of like the trippiest episode more »

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Bette Davis’s wealthy married woman shoots a man who is not her husband dead on her front steps. Dozens see her do it. It’s up to a lawyer/family friend played by James Stephenson to get her off on self-defense. But is she as innocent as she seems? William Wyler’s noir benefits from his expert direction, the sweaty tropical sett more »

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The focused madness of Werner Herzog’s filmmaking obsession found its purest expression in his account of a European (Klaus Kinski) who hatches an elaborate scheme to bring grand opera to the backwaters of the early 20th-century Amazon. All he has to do is drag a steamship over a mountain. Animating feat aside, it remains one of more »

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True story: Yours truly saw Disney’s quasi-Nordic animated juggernaut in the theater the Saturday afternoon of its opening weekend, and as soon as the end credits rolled, the little girl in the row behind us leapt to her feet to bellow along to “Let It Go”—she already knew the words. Such is the precision-tuned power of Disney. more »

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Tim Burton followed up Batman, his boffo Hollywood breakout, with one of his most Tim Burton-y films ever—a tale of a childlike loner with Tim Burton hair and slashing blades for fingers, played by a rarely better Johnny Depp. All of the director’s quirks and tics work for him here in a harmony he would rarely find again. more »

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Die Hard is famous for badass one-liners, but the reason the film remains so watchable is woven deep in the sharp script, credited to Hollywood pros Jeb Stuart and Steven E. de Souza. For one example, there’s a weird throwaway line in the very first scene from a character you never see again. Around 20 minutes in, it pays off. A more »

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Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger not only made their best film here, they set a new standard for cinematic art at the time. Moira Shearer plays the young ballet dancer torn between art (Anton Wallbrook’s imperious impresario) and love (Marius Goring). It’s a masterpiece by any standard, but if you’ve never seen “The Red Sho more »

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Martin Scorsese made better, more Important films, but he never made any more seductive than Goodfellas. That’s the point—his camera glides over the clothes and clubs and crimes so that it’s impossible to miss what Ray Liotta’s around-the-way kid and Lorraine Bracco’s mob wife see in them, until the whole thing collapses in lies more »

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With all due respect to Casablanca, The Third Man makes it look like a soap opera. They’re remarkably similar in many respects—a wartime liminal zone, an attractive woman looking for transit papers, various nationals playing various sides against each other. But Carol Reed’s made a sardonic mystery with a noir-black core, not a more »

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Wherein Wes Anderson’s movies turned into Wes Anderson Films. Fortunately, the director was able to hire Gene Hackman for a vigorous pre-retirement turn as the Peter Pan patriarch of a New York clan straight out of the pages of yellowed old issues of The New Yorker, which is where Anderson copped it all in the first place. -Lee more »

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There was once a time when newspaper columnists were powerful and feared hahaha. Burt Lancaster plays the Manhattan scribbler with the juice to make or break. Tony Curtis is the hustling press agent trying to curry favor and not lose his soul in the bargain. They battle it out with Clifford Odets’ zingy dialogue amid James Wong more »

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Italian crime films from the ‘70s tend to overpromise and underdeliver, but not Caliber 9. Icy-eyed Gastone Moschin (The Conformist, The Godfather Part II) plays a hood fresh out of prison for swiping a pile of cash. The cops and his old cronies both want him to cough up his stash. Does he care? What do you think? RIYL tough guy more »

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The quest for the Holy Grail has failed, and without a quest, King Arthur’s knights turn on each other. Lancelot (Luc Simon) is both their model and their shame, thanks to his affair with Queen Guinevere (Laura Duke Condominas), which makes him a target. Robert Bresson’s deadpan realism imbues fresh power to this oldest of tales more »

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There’s been an spurt of nerd interest in arty Euro exploitation auteurs like Dario Argento and Walerian Borowcyzk, but props to Belgian dark-horse Harry Kümel for making the greatest nekkid-vampire film ever. Fassbinder diva Delphine Seyrig captivates as a mysterious countess who cozies up to a pair of hot honeymooners at an of more »

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Jean-Pierre Melville’s final film distills his work to its essence. Weary cops (led by Alain Delon) chase calculating crooks who pull elaborate heists under gray skies and then take refuge with gorgeous women (Catherine Deneuve). The real-time heist at the center of the film is so elaborate that Melville had to stage part of it more »

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On one hand, Harmony Korine’s debut feature is an indulgent fever dream that it would be easy to tar as arthouse slumming. On the other, it’s a deep dive into an America that cinema rarely sees or respects. Which is not to say that Korine isn’t trolling a bit here, but Gummo remains an indelible, even poetic screen experience. A more »

World War II just ended, and a company of Japanese soldiers struggle to cope. A private played by Shoji Yasui tries by attempting to get a hold-out company of countrymen to surrender to the British and is drawn into a personal and spiritual odyssey. Kon Ichikawa’s classic was adopted from a young-adult novel and bears some of th more »

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While looking for a war in Africa, Jack Nicholson’s disaffected journalist stumbles across a dead businessman who looks a lot like him. He takes up the corpse’s ID and slips into a netherworld of international intrigue and blurring identity with both his old life and his new life on his heels. Michelangelo Antonioni’s cinematic more »

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Not as capital-”g” Great as Citizen Kane, but just as skilled and way more fun. Charlton Heston plays a Mexican (!) narcotics cop investigating a cross-border murder that drags him and his new gringa wife (Janet Leigh) into a world of trouble. Director Orson Welles not only conjures a memorable milieu of sleaze and corruption, h more »

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It’s fitting somehow that Tim Burton made his best film to date about the world’s worst filmmaker. The inherent layers of stylization—a period setting, shot in black and white, amid the schlock cinema milieu of Ed Wood Jr.— subsume Burton's self-conscious peccadilloes, leaving a funny, sweet story of friendship and dreams anchor more »

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Catherine Deneuve’s reserved bourgeois newlywed loves her handsome young husband, but doesn’t want to have sex with him. She’d rather fantasize about being whipped and dominated. Or maybe turn tricks with random strangers in the afternoon while he’s at work. It boggles the brain that Luis Bunüel made this film nearly 60 years ag more »

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You probably know the catchphrase that spoils this ‘70s sci-fi staple, but behind it lies a not-as- kitschy-as-you’d-think screen dystopia. It’s 2022 (!) and the earth is hot and crowded. The poor scrape to survive and the rich get away with murder, or they will if a police detective played by Charlton Heston can be bought or th more »

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Mothra is for the ladies. No, really, that was the idea behind Toho’s benevolent giant moth monster and her tiny twin spokesfairies. Her debut divides its time between world- building and a plot swiped from King Kong until, at last, the star finally unfurls her wings. One of the odder and more lovable entries in the kaiju sweeps more »

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It’s no surprise almost everybody got "Jennifer’s Body" wrong on its initial release. As with Megan Fox’s title character, they made assumptions based on looks. Rather than a teen horror comedy with a heavy dose of sex, Karyn Kusama made a wicked-smart, funny/not-funny exploration of female friendships, in all their intimacy an more »

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Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger contributed to the war effort with this heartfelt and charming tribute to England, old and new. Three travelers (Dennis Price, Sheila Sim, and John Sweet) follow in the footsteps of Chaucer’s pilgrims en route to Canterbury during World War II only to end up waylaid by various light mysterie more »

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Kiyoshi Kurosawa is one of the most underrated Japanese filmmakers of the last 30 years. Pulse’s eerie vision of a haunted internet still chills for all the reasons you might expect —specters materializing, creepy settings, uncanny sound design, and more. But it sticks with you because Kurosawa got that the ‘net can be a technol more »

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It’s the circle of life, innit? You watched it as a kid, and now you bring your kids. Or you’re bringing your grandkids. Or you want to see it again yourself—no wonder, it’s great! Jeremy Irons gets the best songs, despite the fact that he can’t really sing, ha. Just make sure you see this one. That one with the CGI lions . . . more »

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Though rooted in vintage tech like UHF broadcasting and videotape, Videodrome feels like the first 21st-century film. James Woods’ hustling TV programmer happens across what seems like the future of his prurient little channel: literal torture porn. But the signal unleashes hallucinations and sucks his character into a supremely more »

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Retcon it all you like. This is the only truly great 'Star Wars' film, the only one that can exist without the others, the only one made without consideration for a galaxy- spanning intellectual property and shareholder value. And a powerful, inspirational piece of filmmaking it is, for all its clunky bits and post-release tinke more »

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Meet Tiny, Rat, Dewayne, and a handful of other teenagers hanging on the streets of Seattle in the '80s. They panhandle, turn tricks, fight, dumpster dive, and talk tough. And then filmmaker Martin Bell gets them to talk about their futures, and they dream about the riches, cars, homes, and regular families slipping further from more »

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Robert Zemeckis seized on nascent CGI tech to insert 40-year-old cartoon characters into an IRL period detective yarn with a plot cribbed from Chinatown. The passage of nearly 40 more years only intensifies the question of who was this supposed to be for? Fortunately, it still looks pretty good and the conspiracy against public more »

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This version, ostensibly remade from unused footage, is meant to redeem the longtime cinema punchline from ignominy. But it’s not as if a film about the most notorious Roman emperor directed by a softcore auteur was likely to end up a tasteful bore. Caligula redux lacks the hardcore-porn inserts and tells a more coherent story b more »

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The film that inspired a generation of the most chud-like male behavior imaginable has dated in some respects—sooo many CGI fly- throughs! But it remains as light on its feet as a flyweight, dancing and landing dark comedic jabs even as its testosterone-poisoned “philosophy” inspires eyerolls. Say what you will about Brad Pitt—h more »

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