The Stop Button

The 39 Steps (1935) D: Alfred Hitchcock. S: Robert Donat, Madeleine Carroll, Lucie Mannheim. Early Hitchcock spy thriller has a good first half as average man-in-a-plot Donat flees London for Scotland, complete with good chemistry opposite spy Mannheim. Then Carroll comes in as the actual love interest, and the film stumbles and the pacing never recovers. Fine Scotland visuals only help so much. Even the decent finale is clunkily constructed.

The Bad Sleep Well (1960) D: Akira Kurosawa. S: Toshirō Mifune, Masayuki Mori, Kamatari Fujiwara. Kurosawa in prime form–an office-politics thriller starts with a twenty-minute wedding scene. Mifune’s protagonist isn’t even revealed for another twenty. The film builds through impossible situations with unexpected tenderness and playfulness. There’s a loose HAMLET framework, which never overwhelms the corruption storylines. Kurosawa and Mifune are also a lot more tender than HAMLET. It’s a great one.

Best Defense (1984) D: Willard Huyck. S: Dudley Moore, Eddie Murphy, Kate Capshaw, George Dzundza, Helen Shaver, Peter Michael Goetz, David Rasche. Abysmal military-industrial complex comedy about goof-off engineer Moore putzing around with spies and trade secrets while trying not to get laid off again. The film tested so poorly they added Murphy (commanding Moore’s tank in the field) to salvage it. Murphy’s not funny, but he’s fine. Rasche’s hilarious. The rest’s terrible, notably Moore (and the script).

Boogie Nights (1997) D: Paul Thomas Anderson. S: Mark Wahlberg, Burt Reynolds, Julianne Moore. Dazzling technical achievement follows Wahlberg’s rise and fall in ’70s porn industry. The first half’s upbeat comedy gives way to brutal second half, with Anderson torturing his dimwitted characters until they sweat humanity. Incredible ensemble with standouts in Reynolds, Don Cheadle, and Thomas Jane. Almost too well-made for its own good–NIGHTS works despite its formula constraints.

Citizen Kane (1941) D: Orson Welles. S: Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Dorothy Comingore. Structurally brilliant and emotionally devastating Welles masterpiece about a newspaper tycoon’s rise and fall. KANE’s melodramatic framework conceals subtle moments between stellar performers (Welles, obviously, but also Comingore, Cotten, and everyone). The newsreel opening, disorienting timeline, and withheld conclusion demand engagement. Welles crafts an unsentimental film about a sentimental subject, with impeccable technicals like Gregg Toland’s photography.

Dune (2021) D: Denis Villeneuve. S: Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Jason Momoa, Stellan Skarsgård, Josh Brolin, Zendaya. The Frank Herbert novel gets the mega-epic adaptation (complete with splitting it into two parts) but outside the magnificent production design, there’s not much to DUNE. Chalamet rarely gets to lead the movie, with director Villeneuve instead relying on his dream sequences to promise character development. Skarsgård’s great as the odious villain; otherwise, it’s by the numbers prestige.

Dune: Part Two (2024) D: Denis Villeneuve. S: Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, Javier Bardem, Austin Butler, Florence Pugh, Stellan Skarsgård. Some better acting this entry, but a worse screenplay (by director Villeneuve and PART ONE scripter Jon Spaihts) takes out any substantial gains. Villeneuve hasn’t got any (good) new tricks left for this entry (the black-and-white sequence is sad more than anything else). Who knows, maybe they should’ve just trusted Chalamet to lead his own messiah movie…

The Golden Child (1986) D: Michael Ritchie. S: Eddie Murphy, Charles Dance, Charlotte Lewis, J.L. Reate, Victor Wong, Randall “Tex” Cobb, James Hong. Terrible Murphy vehicle curbs the language at PG-13, gives him a chemistry-free romance with Lewis, and leverages his likability way too much. Murphy can’t make up for CHILD’s mind-bending choices, like demons. And make-up villains. It’s almost a curiosity given the flexes, but it’s also awful. It’s an attempted family-friendly movie about child sacrifice.

If Beale Street Could Talk (2018) D: Barry Jenkins. S: KiKi Layne, Stephan James, Regina King, Teyonah Parris, Colman Domingo, Michael Beach, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor. Beautiful, rending adaptation of James Baldwin’s novel. James is recently imprisoned for a crime he didn’t commit. Pregnant girlfriend Layne and her family work to get him free. Layne’s narration provides a structure, with flashbacks revealing James and Layne’s love story. Breathtaking, layered, patient work from Jenkins, Layne, James, and King (as Layne’s mom). It’s a splendid, devastating film.

King Kong (1933) D: Ernest B. Schoedsack. S: Robert Armstrong, Fay Wray, Bruce Cabot, Frank Reicher, Victor Wong, James Flavin, Sam Hardy. Adventurist director Armstrong picks up down-and-out actress Wray for the chance of a lifetime in his next picture… which will co-star a giant ape on an island lost to time. The groundbreaking stop motion effects still astonish. The film never forces sympathy for Kong but does create the space. Even the hasty New York finale works.

The Lady Vanishes (1938) D: Alfred Hitchcock. S: Margaret Lockwood, Michael Redgrave, Paul Lukas, May Whitty. Early Hitchcock mixes comedy, mystery, and action (in roughly that order) and delivers the purest entertainment. On a European train, where Lockwood tries to find mysteriously missing fellow passenger Whitty. Pretty soon Redgrave’s involved–he and Lockwood have excellent chemistry–and Lukas also figures in. Lukas is particularly fantastic here. It’s an outstanding picture. A technical delight as well. Naunton Wayne and Basil Radford’s cricket-obsessed passengers return in NIGHT TRAIN TO MUNICH.

Shock Corridor (1963) D: Samuel Fuller. S: Peter Breck, Constance Towers, Gene Evans, James Best, Hari Rhodes. Provocative noir tracking reporter Breck’s adventures after committing himself to a mental hospital to solve a murder. Uneven but often brilliant exposé of American social issues–especially Rhodes’s spellbinding performance as a Black student driven mad. The second act procedural soars, while the problematic premise and rushed conclusion disappoint. Fuller’s ambition exceeds his execution, but it’s outstanding work.

The Third Man (1949) D: Carol Reed. S: Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli, Trevor Howard, Orson Welles. Post-WWII noir masterpiece follows hapless American Cotten through occupied Vienna searching for old friend Welles. Phenomenal work from Reed–breathtaking, stark expressionist visuals throughout. When Welles finally arrives–otherworldly and magnetic–the film shifts into both thriller and profound anti-war statement. Every technical is superlative, including Anton Karas’s haunting zither music. THIRD MAN’s a perfect motion picture.