My 25 Favorite Montages & Cross-cutting Sequences
What’s the opposite of a long take? The first four top 25 lists I put together for this blog were matching pairs: scariest scenes and funniest scenes, endings and beginnings. […]
Tag Archives: Star Wars
Mister Rogers’ America
The height of my political idealism (or naïveté, as you please) was around the year 2015. Amid all the usual rancor, I felt optimistic that things could improve. One of […]
Oscar 2018
It’s Oscar nominations morning once again, and the big story, from a personal standpoint, is that I’ve actually seen the movies this year! No more Well, I’ve seen two Best […]
Both Versions: Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Steven Spielberg’s pivotal status in film history can be pretty well summed up by the example of Close Encounters of the Third Kind, his second major blockbuster. A lifelong passion project, […]
My Most Anticipated 2017 Movies
I’ll get the hang of this eventually, trust me. As I prepared another top ten list of upcoming movies, it occurred to me that I had absolutely no idea how […]
Both Versions: Star Wars
For the twentieth anniversary of his greatest accomplishment, George Lucas brought Star Wars (now known, for clarity’s sake, as Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope) back into theaters with new digital […]
Both Versions: The Exorcist
On the all-time box office top 100 list (adjusted for inflation), The Exorcist, ranked at number nine, is the only straight horror film (with Jaws and The Sixth Sense being arguably borderline, and […]
Oscar 2016
Can it be that I’m getting less cynical about the Academy Awards? Looking over last year’s post, I find that I was a little grumpy for some reason. Maybe it […]
My Favorite Movies: The Empire Strikes Back
When I was young, I assumed the striking back of the title referred to the climax — Han Solo’s capture and Luke Skywalker’s defeat in a duel with Darth Vader. […]
Both Versions: The Gold Rush
(This is the first post in a new bimonthly series.) Around the time that the home video era got started, the process of adding color to old black-and-white movies became […]
Geppetto's Clocks 