From ‘Dirty Harry’ and ’48 HRS’ to ‘Die Hard with a Vengeance’ and ‘Con Air,’ the action movies of the past presented a prickliness towards matters of race that was often discomforting but frequently, refreshingly honest.
Read more
Frank Capra’s 1941 drama – now streaming on Amazon Prime Video – explores political themes and ideas that are far from unique to its time.
Read more
The first sequel to “Alien,” released 35 years ago this week, pushed one of the primary themes of the series: that in an ultra-capitalist future, humans are always expendable.
Read more
J.D. Salinger famously refused to sell the movie rights to ‘The Catcher in the Rye.’ But in 1998, Wes Anderson released the closest thing to a film version we may ever get.
Read more
Spike Lee’s 1989 classic thoughtfully and provocatively explores how shared spaces – and the desire to fill them – can ignite conflict.
Read more
John Sturges’s 1960 Western – now streaming on Amazon Prime Video – is a masterfully crafted and perfectly cast blast of fireworks.
Read more
The recently departed director Monte Hellman took a wildly unconventional approach to filling the leading roles of his 1971 cult classic.
Read more
This month, we examine the woefully misguided flight attendant “comedy” ‘View From the Top,’ which Weinstein and company tastefully shelved after 9/11.
Read more
Released 30 years ago this week, ‘Terminator 2: Judgment Day’ expanded the canvas of James Cameron’s original – and explored his fascination with the limits of the human body.
Read more
Jacques Tati’s delightful 1953 comedy is, in many ways, the perfect summer movie.
Read more
The groundbreaking filmmaker and the genius of pulp fiction collaborated twice – but it was a tricky alliance, tripped up by stubbornness and ego.
Read more
On its fortieth anniversary, a look back at the unjustly overlooked breakthrough film of groundbreaking Pakistani independent filmmaker Jamil Dehlavi.
Read more