Π – 1998

The origin of a filmmaker is often traced back to his/her first movie. Darren Aronofsky first came onto the scene with Pi, a psychological thriller focused on the role of math in nature and human existence. The focus of the film is Max who suffers an obsession with numbers, his savant like focus on the […]

Margin Call – 2011

J.C. Chandor is an up-and-comer. He has only directed three features in his short career, but all three have been standouts. Margin Call is his first film and it is easily his most ambitious. The film focuses on the financial crisis of 2008 and is perfect in its execution and understanding of the issues that […]

Rear Window – 1954

Hitchcock is the master of suspense. He has created over a dozen great films that highlight the most terrifying aspects of human nature. Rear Window is one of his most well-known films and rightly so. The film focuses on an injured photographer whose cabin fever turns him out of the window of his house where […]

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon – 2000

It’s hard to know if Crouching Tiger is a tribute to the martial arts or an attempt to top them all. Either way, it succeeds. Ang Lee crafts a masterpiece here and it amplified an obscure genre of Asian cinema into the best film of the year. Fight scenes are like dances and they require […]

Nightcrawler – 2014

Nightcrawler sounds like it is a movie about a gaunt man who invades people’s lives and generally acts creepy. In this case, the title proves completely accurate. Jake Gyllenhaal gives the performance of his career as Lou Bloom a broke criminal who becomes obsessed with filming violent crimes and selling the footage to a local […]

Interstellar – 2014

Christopher Nolan is a filmmaker. He ascends beyond the title of director and into a territory that only some of the greats have ever achieved. Interstellar is one of his bolder efforts and it pays off handsomely, with a message that rings truer with every passing year. The film focuses on a space expedition to […]