True Romance (1993)
True Romance (1993) – Quentin Tarantino is hailed (rightly, in my opinion) as one of the greatest directors working in film today. While nowadays he’ll spend years working on Django Unchained or Inglourious Basterds before actually making it, back in the day he had more scripts than he had time to film himself. Wisely choosing … Continue reading
Savages (2012)
Savages (2012) – So Oliver Stone is known primarily for political films like JFK, Nixon, and W. Or films with a message like Platoon or Wall Street. But sometimes Stone just goes wild and crazy and that’s when he gives us movies like U-Turn or, more to the point, Natural Born Killers. Natural Born Killers was … Continue reading
Margin Call (2011)
Margin Call (2011) – I think Oliver Stone’s Wall Street is overrated and its 2010 sequel is deservedly forgotten two short years later. So what is the great Wall Street movie? Not strictly speaking a true story but very much based on the events that unfolded at Goldman Sachs during the 2008 financial crises, Margin … Continue reading
Game Change (2012)
Game Change (2012) – I am of the belief that film criticism should be based on nothing more than the quality of a film. However, human beings are fallible and not beyond their own biases. A film like Game Change seems impossible to separate from one’s own political predispositions so allow to me to state … Continue reading
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2011)
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2011) – I would not go quite as far as to call this one of the worst films of 2011 as some people have (though there a certain kneejerk reaction to some of the film’s more objectionable aspects that makes me want to). I will go so far as to … Continue reading
Talk Radio (1988)
Talk Radio (1988) – This is the second of two films I saw in December based on a play by Eric Bogosian. Like subUrbia, the film was made by a director who I tend to be rather fond of (Richard Linklater for subUrbia, Oliver Stone for Talk Radio). Sadly both films I’ve found a little … Continue reading
J. Edgar (2011)
J. Edgar (2011) – Clint Eastwood, Leonardo DiCaprio, Dustin Lance Black, and J. Edgar Hoover: this seems like a combination that can’t go wrong. Clint Eastwood has been a gifted film-maker wince the 1970s but in the past decade he has hit a stride that makes him one of the more interesting elder statesmen of … Continue reading
Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (2010)
Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (2010) — So this movie ends up falling into the “decent” category, which is a shame because the material obviously has the potential to be the defining film of this whole economic crisis. Instead Oliver Stone pisses a lot of that away. I was with this movie most of the … Continue reading
Wall Street (1987)
Wall Street (1987) — You know it always bugged me when people watched Scarface and missed the point. Tony Montana is a cautionary tale of what NOT to do and who NOT to be. Instead a bunch of morons idolize him. I think a quick look at headlines confirms that the same problem has befallen … Continue reading
Persistence of Vision 