Most special effects artists try to convince audiences that what they’re seeing is real—that the giant dinosaur, the 100-foot tidal wave, the alien invasion are really there and sharing the same physical space as the […]
A FACE IN THE CROWD (1957) (Criterion Collection, Spine #970) ★★★★½ When I first saw Elia Kazan’s A Face in the Crowd over five years ago, I wrote in my journal that the film, while […]
A.C. Miller All throughout John Cassavetes’ Gloria, there’s a palpable tension between the man behind the lens and the woman in front of it. Gloria Swenson, played by Cassavetes’ wife, Gena Rowlands, has an on […]
When originally released, Henry Hathaway’s Call Northside 777 was heralded as a triumph of noir realism. As the first Hollywood feature shot on location in Chicago, the film was part of the vanguard of studio-produced […]
Nicholas Ray’s The True Story of Jesse James (1957) is a film about progressive myth-making, the fabrications and recollections that produce a multifaceted yet never fully realized celebrity figure. Here, the legacy of its notorious […]
A young boy peels a carrot with a knife, chomping at the end as he readies his things to flee into the night. In his suitcase, he packs his clothes and a small collection of […]
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