Deeply disturbing and difficult to watch. Bergman has a way of getting under my skin–usually in a good way–but this one was more than a hair off the rails. That didn’t make it bad, just…unsettling, as you’d expect a good Swedish movie about generational trauma to be. It brought to mind the darkness of Vintergerg’s… Read More Cries and Whispers (1972)

Don’t know why this was called Klute, because this movie was owned top to bottom by Jane Fonda’s Bree. Raw, mature, assured–it’s a fantastic performance and I was glad to see she won the Oscar. It didn’t feel like it quite succeeded as a thriller, I think partially because it didn’t feel like it conjured… Read More Klute (1971)

Wasn’t sure what to make of this one. Doesn’t hold up for me in the same way as some other New Hollywood pictures, but it did have some striking moments of poignancy (not least the terrific downbeat ending.) Nicholson’s iconoclast character felt very of a time, in a way that doesn’t compare favorably to Bonnie… Read More Five Easy Pieces (1970)

Couldn’t take my eyes off this movie–you know it’s good when it keeps me up way past my bedtime. The titular salesmen in the movie were at once so weird and creepy but also charming and inviting. It was like watching vampires who walk in the day, as you see them wear down the defenses… Read More Salesman (1969)

Absolute trash. I’m not one of those people who enjoy bad movies or thinks something can “be so bad it’s good.” This movie was just bad, which makes it bad. How can anyone take Heston seriously as an actor? Just ridiculous on every level.

Shocking, revelatory movie–completely unlike anything I’ve ever seen. Not so much acted as choreographed, the whole movie was just this exquisite series of moments that captured a very particular malaise of modernism. The sets were sparse and beautiful, especially the incredible sequence set in the apartments. The sound design was amaaaazing–I watched this using my… Read More Playtime (1967)