12 Angry Men – 1957

The most powerful legal drama ever made, of that there is little argument. This film takes the murder trial of a teenage boy and turns it into a battle between twelve men over the young man’s life. The film features standout performances from Henry Fonda and Lee J. Cobb as opposing forces on the jury, […]

The Wicker Man – 1973

Thrillers have a lot of common elements, they all build in intensity and eventually reach a critical moment from which tghere is no coming back. In the Wicker Man a policeman is called to a small island community to investigate the disappearance of a young girl, but what he discovers is a broader conspiracy. The […]

Fantastic Planet – 1973

A remnant of a very odd time, this film is bizarre. The concept of the film focuses on hundred-foot tall blue aliens who keep tiny humans as pets. One of the pets begins to learn like the aliens and escapes to join a rebellion against the aliens. There are a number of striking things about […]

A Ghost Story – 2017

David Lowery is an up-and-coming director and if it was in doubt before, this film proves it. The film might seem like a ridiculous concept, a ghost who is literally a sheet, but it never feels absurd and it is a truly heart-warming film about the love shared between a husband and wife, even after […]

Akira – 1988

Anime is a form of animation that originates from Japan. It isn’t my favorite animation style, but it is fairly realistic. Akira turns Tokyo into a nuclear wasteland, where motorcycle gangs battle each other nightly and the police shoot resistance members daily. The film also explores the concept of human evolution as scientist experiment on […]

Arsenic and Old Lace – 1944

There’s a lot of truth to the idea that screwball comedies were better in the forties, because really they were. Cary Grant is a great actor, but he isn’t his usual reserved self in this film. Here he’s an exasperated man trying to cover up a series of murders committed by his elderly aunts. His […]