“Annie Hall contains more intellectual wit and cultural references than any other movie ever to win the Oscar for best picture… no wonder it’s just about everyone’s favorite Woody Allen movie.” – Roger Ebert La-di-da, la-di-da, la la A commercial and critical hit, and winning four of the five Academy Awards it was nominated […]
Author: Shane Scott-Travis
Pulling Focus: Deliverance (1972)
“[Deliverance] is the best film I’ve ever done. It’s a picture that just picks you up and sends you crashing against the rocks. You feel everything and just crawl out of the theater.” – Burt Reynolds Men without women Savagely compelled to defend themselves as the laws and measures of civilization no longer affect […]
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The 30 Best Comedy Movies of the 1980s
Growing up in the 1980s with my little brother, we spent a great deal of time watching comedies either at the cinema, on pay TV, late night cable, or via the video store. We used to pride ourselves in our encyclopedic knowledge of one-liners, comic performers, and pratfalls from the movies that cracked us up […]
Pulling Focus: Down By Law (1986)
“It is a sad and beautiful world.” – Roberto (played by Roberto Benigni) I fought the law and the law won Incidental encounters and tough luck reluctantly come together in writer-director Jim Jarmusch’s deeply distinctive third feature from 1986, Down By Law. Existing in its own even tempered and hermetically sealed cosmology, joyfully noncommercial […]
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The 20 Best Movies About Mysteries That Remain Unsolved
Who doesn’t enjoy a good mystery? A puzzle or an element of suspense that gradually reveals itself––often with a detective figure or maybe even a supernatural ingredient to elevate the stakes or uncertainty? It’s often in genre films that we get the most tangible of mysteries, in horror, crime, sci-fi, or maybe a hardboiled noir […]
Pulling Focus: Safe (1995)
Being and time The oft antagonistic American indie filmmaker Todd Haynes first forced my attention with his 1995 revisionist art house horror film Safe, and I’ve been a supporter of his ever since. His sophomore film (following his impressive debut from 1991, Poison, and a string of exceptional short films), Safe is a masterpiece of […]