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100 Best Movies (61-70) Petulia (1968) A precariously thin veneer of charm helps put over this frankly amoral tale of venal users who deserve--and, surprise, almost wind up with--each other. With no hit tunes, this is a bitter pill to swallow. The Philadelphia Story (1940) A recent biography revealed that Philip Barry moved into the Hepburn family home, penned what he saw and heard, and the result was the hit play that formed the basis of this movie. Interesting, sure, but not so surprising--when was Kate Hepburn ever playing anyone but herself? Psycho (1960) Genius married with such inspiration to cheese/horror that it rises above its own self-created campiness into a lasting tour de force of taxidermied screen terror. The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985) Before there was Prozac, people tolerated the Depression by going to the movies. If there were more movies like this, would fewer people need Prozac now? |
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Queen Christina (1933) An eye-opener for anyone who believes censors caught even half of what Hollywood was up to in its heyday, this star vehicle reveals more about its star than its subject. Yes, Garbo was in on the joke. Raging Bull (1980) The cinematic record of the destruction of Robert De Niro's looks, and as moving and beautiful a film as anyone could make about an intolerably nasty, screwed-up man. Scorsese's best. Rear Window (1954) Hitchcock's suitably subversive tribute to the voyeur in every filmgoer provides plenty to ogle at, like a peak-gorgeous Grace Kelly and a sexy, curmudgeonly Jimmy Stewart stuck in a wheelchair with nothing to do but spy on his neighbors while we stare at him. That the pathetic view of the human community Hitchcock presents from Stewart's window does not squelch his or our desire to snoop says everything. Rebecca (1940) Hitchcock's brilliant argument that there's nothing spookier than marriage. |
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The Road Warrior (1981) This fun, economical, smirk-free epic of heroic post-Apocalyptic individualism wasn't made in Hollywood because it couldn't have been. Director George Miller's renovation of the loner genre was so good it won't need a new coat of paint for a long time. Especially not from Kevin Costner. Schindler's List (1993) Who the hell would've thought that immature, moneybags director Steven Spielberg would make a movie that is (a) a serious, grown-up film, and (b) the best movie made by Hollywood in years? 100 Best Movies, Part 8 (71-80) |