If you had told me over the summer that 2019 would not only be an incredibly strong year at the movies but also home to some of my favorite films of the decade, I would have had a lot of trouble believing you. The first eight months or so of the year were pretty dire, with only a few highlights and plenty of lowlights, but once the fall season hit and the big festival fare started to show up, things turned around with incredible speed. I suddenly find myself agonizing over what hasn’t made the cut on this list, but…
Author: Steve Katz
When it comes to movies, World War I doesn’t tend to have the romanticism of World War II. Granted, there’s nothing particularly romantic about the stresses of war, but our pop culture lives have a connection to the second World War in a way we never really have with the first. Perhaps it’s because World War II came about at a time when the moving image was already an established art form. The consensus great war movies and TV shows of the modern era come from wars we could see back home like World War II (“Saving Private Ryan,” “The…
I never read “Little Women” as a kid. It’s likely I was scared off by its association (fairly or unfairly) with the Jane Austens and Charlotte/Emily Brontes of the world, which did not grab me at all when I read them by choice or assignment. It was just another one of those Victorian comedies of manners about girls and their romances with gentlemen callers. Perhaps because of this, the various film adaptations of the book were not high on my list of must-see films and generally passed by me without much notice. So what would make a new adaptation of…
It’s become a trend of late for well-established directors from the comedy world to make the jump to drama, often taking on real-world events or heavily satirical concepts that retain their comedic sensibilities as they examine more serious subject matter. Adam McKay is perhaps the most famous example of this, leaving his early days of “Anchorman” and “Step Brothers” behind and receiving sudden praise and prestige for awards season contenders like “The Big Short” and “Vice.” Just a few months ago, Todd Phillips entered the fray with “Joker,” itself likely to be a major player in the Oscar race alongside…
Josh and Benny Safdie do not make movies for the masses. The New York natives have been making features for a decade now, though they arguably didn’t become names on the independent scene until 2014’s “Heaven Knows What.” Both that film and their follow-up, the 2017 Robert Pattinson vehicle “Good Time,” take place on the grimy, slimy streets of New York – throwbacks to a bygone era of seediness with a particularly modern flair. Heroin addicts, petty criminals, the dregs of the Earth – these are the subjects of the Safdies, whose films have been marked with a kinetic energy…
Once Marielle Heller’s “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” began its festival run in September, buzz started to form around the news that its star, Tom Hanks, would be pushed in the Supporting Actor category for the upcoming awards season. That seemed like a pretty disingenuous choice on the face of it. After all, how could a movie about Mister Rogers with a high-profile actor in the role and his face plastered all over the promotional material be considered support? In truth, Fred Rogers (Hanks) looms large over the proceedings of the film, but he’s not really the protagonist. The…
We first meet Caroll Shelby (Matt Damon), one of the two central characters of James Mangold’s new biopic “Ford v Ferrari,” at the premature end of an illustrious racing career. After winning the 24-hour Le Mans race in 1959, a heart defect takes him out of the driver’s seat and into the body shop, building the cars instead of racing them. He strikes up an uneasy partnership with mercurial English driver Ken Miles (Christian Bale), whose demeanor has left him on the fringes of the racing world despite his natural talent. They don’t have a prayer of competing with the…
You’ve got to admire the guts of Warner Bros. and director Mike Flanagan. Few horror movies are held in higher esteem than Stanley Kubrick’s classic adaptation of Stephen King’s “The Shining,” and while King himself may not be among those admirers, its status is unimpeachable. For King to write a sequel to arguably his most famous book more than three decades later requires a bit of hubris, but for anyone to wade into the fraught waters of directing the film adaptation of said sequel and stepping directly into the shoes of one of the foremost directors of the last century…
A director like Noah Baumbach seems like a great fit for Netflix. He’s never been a flashy, visuals-first type of filmmaker, relying more on his skills as a writer and crafter of dialogue to create compelling stories. His movies often feel like they could be plays, focused on deep conversations in small rooms. His newest film, “Marriage Story,” continues that trend, but after a rapturous festival response at both Toronto and Venice, Netflix has given the movie a one-month theatrical release prior to its debut on the service in December. Compare this to his last film, “The Meyerowitz Stories,” which…
You’d think that Edward Norton would have directed more movies by now. The famously exacting actor who has made headlines for demanding and sometimes wresting creative control away from his directors on films like “American History X,” “Red Dragon” and “The Incredible Hulk” has only stepped into the chair himself on one occasion – the completely forgettable rom-com “Keeping the Faith” nearly 20 years ago. And he didn’t write the script for that film, so it wasn’t entirely his. For someone who seems to have such a specific and borderline perfectionist view of the art he creates, it’s surprising that…