Best Picture: #31Original Release Date: June 25, 1958Rating: GRuntine: 1 hour, 55 minutesDirector: Vincente Minnelli Quick Impressions:I can’t help thinking that the idea of restoring one’s joy in life by cavorting around with young women in the first bloom of youth is somewhat distastefully vampiric. (Then again, I hang around …
Rating: RRuntime: 1 hour, 35 minutesDirector: Jason Woliner Quick Impressions:I paid to see the first Borat twice. That’s because the first time I tried to see it, I started vomiting during the previews. Ordinarily, I wouldn’t let that deter me, but then I continued vomiting, and you can really only …
Best Picture: #30Original Release Date: December 14, 1957Rating: PGRuntime: 2 hours, 41 minutesDirector: David Lean Quick Impressions:Doing this Best Picture project with my daughter has caused me to think of 1950s film in a new way. I’ve always associated movies from this era with the childhood of my mother (who …
Rating: RRuntime: 2 hours, 9 minutesDirector: Aaron Sorkin Quick Impressions:There are some huge gaps in my knowledge of American history, and this movie covers yet another of them. I’ve been ridiculously excited to see The Trial of the Chicago 7 because it’s a potential Best Picture contender that we can …
Best Picture: #29Original Release Date: October 17, 1956Rating: GRuntime: 2 hours, 47 minutesDirector: Michael Anderson Quick Impressions:“Is this a children’s movie?” my daughter would ask in concern every few minutes. “I don’t think they would have conceived of it that way at the time,” I kept answering. “It has an …
Rating: PG-13Runtime: 1 hour, 31 minutesDirector: Andrew Patterson Quick Impressions:It’s almost Halloween, and my husband loves true stories about unexplained phenomena and U.F.O. sightings, so when I was looking for something to watch for date night, this Twilight-Zonesque fictional tale of a strange frequency haunting a small New Mexico Town …
Best Picture: #28Original Release Date: April 11, 1955Rating: Not RatedRuntime: 1 hour, 30 minutesDirector: Delbert Mann Quick Impressions:Marty is that rare thing–a Best Picture winner that my mother actually likes. (There are others, of course. She’s a Casablanca fan, too, but in general, my mom and the Academy have vastly …
Rating: RRuntime: 2 hours, 14 minutesDirector: Charlie Kaufman Quick Impressions:I read somewhere that the Netflix Original movie Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom was out this week. It’s not. Did I get ahold of bad information? Did the release get postponed? Did the film release at a festival or in select theaters? …
Best Picture: #27Original Release Date: July 28, 1954Rating: ApprovedRuntime: 1 hour, 48 minutesDirector: Elia Kazan Quick Impressions:On the Waterfront is a great film. As far as entertainment goes, it is every bit as suspenseful and captivating as more recent movies about crime syndicates and whistle blowers (movies that have the …
Rating: RRuntime: 2 hours, 34 minutesDirector: Spike Lee Quick Impressions:Thanks to COVID-19, I haven’t been to a movie theater since March, and because I don’t know when I’ll go back, I’ve been pointedly avoiding all the Oscar-related articles and videos I normally devour rapaciously on a daily basis. (Why sadden …
