SCFZ

STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE

Seen enough to rate more. This is by very very far, like meaning in terms of light years, the best of them.

THIEF OF BAGDAD
WHITE HEAT

BETTER CALL SAUL is suitable for viewing in a public space. Behold its genius anywhere you can.

THE SIGNAL TOWER has been restored, and will be screened at the upcoming San Francisco Silent Film Festival, introduced by Kevin Brownlow, and yeah I'm psyched.

Yeah -- I'll give it a shot.

LIFE LESSONS (Scorsese)
DO THE RIGHT THING (Lee)
SEX LIES AND VIDEOTAPE (Soderbergh)

Seen enough to include more, of course, but I dislike way too many of the other films from that year, it seems. Pending final decision on the inclusion of LIFE LESSONS solo....

In the case of NEW YORK STORIES -- can we vote for individual sections of it? I'd vote for Scorsese's LIFE LESSONS, but Coppola's foul obscenity that I can't bring myself to type the name of makes it impossible for me to include the entire anthology.

THE MAGIC FLUTE -- Branagh's film of Mozart's opera. Bergman's film of this material was designed to approximate the look and feel of a theatrical production. Branagh's film has the look and feel of a blue-light special video game. Set during WWI for some reason, the overture takes place in the tren...

THE NIGHT MANAGER -- the absence of a capable or interesting lead actor makes the creaky plot feel even more familiar, for all the posh settings and scenery. Fine performances from Olivia Colman and Tom Hollander, and Hugh Laurie is having a great time doing some straight up menace, but the Replican...

GREEN BOOK is one of the "Wait For Cable If At All" movies -- usually Oscar-winning Oscar bait. The last one of those I saw in a theater was the unspeakable IMITATION GAME, after which I swore off the entire genre of British Bio-pics.

OSAKA ELEGY

The last few 3D films I saw were so underwhelming in their use of the format that I actually felt ripped off -- Pixar's inane INSIDE/OUT and Miller's MAD MAX FURY ROAD. To be fair, FURY ROAD was seen in such a shitty theater with such shitty projection that nothing would have looked good. I like 3D ...

CATCH-22 -- we're so living it, the very Bible of contemporary Republicanism.

BICYCLE THIEVES
TWO WOMEN
GOLD OF NAPLES

MR. FIX IT
ROBIN HOOD
THE GOOD BAD MAN

Poor old THE FOURTH MAN -- it seems to have just dropped off the map.

Yes. People like LA LA LAND. Because it is easy goop that makes no demands in any way on the non-discriminating moviegoer.

Clicking on "VERHOEVEN" in the banner takes me to the "WES ANDERSON" poll rather than the "VERHOEVEN" poll.

I detest the Wes Anderson's films I've seen. One of them was rather less offensive than the others, but it was so mediocre that calling it "best" feels like an abuse of the English language.

1. THE FOURTH MAN

Seen enough to rate more. There's just no fucking way.

TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD Seen enough to rate more. Mulligan's okay, but never for me made work as interesting as Ritt, Lumet or Kazan or Penn. I'd like MOCKINGBIRD more if it had more of the salt of the novel, but it's certainly a better film than Sorkin's recent nightmare adaptation is as a play. I mi...

OUR HOSPITALITY
NORTULLSLIGAN
ANCIENT LAW

Others will follow, but these are in stone.

Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson, and Galen Johnson's The Green Fog : Recreates Vertigo with clips of movies and TV shows set in and around San Francisco. If The Endless Film is underdetermined, then this is overdetermined, but I still enjoyed it greatly, and it's a lot of fun to play spot-the-source. Some...

VELVET BUZZSAW -- 6/10. Some good fun from the performances, as Jake Gyllenhaal seems to really relish his opportunity to get all Waldo Lydecker all over everybody, but a fatal lack of imagination in the script means this occasionally tasty horror thriller comedy never quite takes off the way it rea...

Ovid's METAMORPHOSES -- just got tired of the fiction on my shelves, went for some epic verse. Most engaging so far.

THE WOMAN IN WHITE (Collins) good tasty fun, but undone by a rather pat ending. 7/10

FLESH AND THE DEVIL
THE RAINS CAME
WOMAN OF AFFAIRS
THE GOOSE WOMAN

That last spot -- hmmmm. ANNA CHRISTIE's a little too stodgy in that early sound way, but Marie Dressler's genius may carry it to the fifth spot.

Yup, seen more than ten of Clarence Brown's films. Brown might be one of those directors you don't realize you've seen so many of their films until you check out a filmography and go oh yeah, that guy....

Thanks, Flip. I choose Clarence Brown. If he has already been surveyed, I'll choose Victor Fleming.

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE?
KISS ME DEADLY

Seen others. These will do.

CLOSE ENCOUNTERS A.I. -- despite the finale. WAR OF THE WORLDS -- despite that finale. Haven't seen SCHINDLER'S LIST in way too long, too long to put it on this list. SAVING PRIVATE RYAN annoyed the hell out of me, the "Earn This!" Guilt Trip at the end is simply unforgivable. Never has so...