Dan O’Bannon’s offbeat entry into zombie horror (released 40 years ago) throws in wild humor, punk aesthetics, and cranial desire to create a stew of delightfully odd gross-outs and scares.
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When Akira Kurosawa made this Russian co-production 50 years ago, his career (and life) was at a low point— and yet he came up with one of his most unusual and affecting pictures.
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Now streaming on the Criterion Channel as part of its Summer Romances series, Elia Kazan’s 1961 melodrama of sexual frustration is overheated in the best possible way.
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Eddie Murphy’s 1984 super-smash is a true crowdpleaser with a fascinating backstory.
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A film with a tangled history almost as convoluted as the story it tells, Orson Welles’s “Mr. Arkadin” has a playfulness that belies its ramshackle nature.
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Stuart Rosenberg’s 1984 adaptation of Vincent Patrick’s novel is a fairly conventional “Mean Streets” riff, noteworthy for the pair of peacocking actors at its center.
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Frank Borzage’s 1940 political drama packs perhaps an even bigger punch now than ever.
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Even with the sexuality of its source material toned down, Billy Wilder’s playful, lust-filled fantasia (released 70 years ago this week) is a lively and funny showcase for Marilyn Monroe.
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Fassbinder’s riff on “Sunset Boulevard” depicted the decline of a movie-star in post-war Germany with stunning cinematography and a total sense of hopelessness.
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Mark Rydell’s adaptation of Ernest Thompson’s play may be formulaic and it may be treacly, but it offers the opportunity to bask in the considerable glow of three movie legends.
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Released 75 years ago this week, Nicholas Ray’s brutal, bleak noir features Humphrey Bogart at his hard-boiled best.
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This early feature from Francis Ford Coppola is far from his best, but it boasts several signs of a genuine, budding talent.
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