Best Films of 2017

Jan 082018

January 8, 2018

thor3cute What a year it has been in film. My best list is for fantasy and science fiction films, in all their many forms, so everything from dedicated scientists in the near future to dragons and elves to evil clowns (though no evil clowns will made this list). And it has been an amazing year for genre film. It is the best year ever for superhero films. No, my favorite superhero film of all time is not from 2017. But there are four such films in my top 10. No year has come close to that. There’s also an adult fairytale, a giant monster flick, a musical, a zombie film, a space opera, and even a slasher. (If you are more interested in the worst of the year, my roundup is here.)

So here we go, the 10 genre films you need to see if you haven’t, and need to own. Starting with:

#10 Happy Death Day

Well, that was a surprise. A Slasher that is fun, clever, and well made. Huh. Happy Death Day is Groundhog Day as a Slasher. And while that sounds like a reasonable idea, it plays out better than expected, ending up as much a dark comedy as a horror film. (Full Review)

#9 The Lure

{US release 2017} A Polish, surrealistic, comedy, tragedy, fairytale, horror, art house, musical—sometimes all at once, more often swapping from one genre to the next—The Lure is as odd a film as you are likely to find. I never knew if I was about to see disco dancing, nudity, or an artery being ripped open, or perhaps several combined with some bittersweet romance. (Full Review)

#8 Spider-Man: Homecoming

Spider-Man enters the MCU and he’s treated right. Finally, he seems like a teen, and the funny one he’s meant to be. And to counter his youth we have Michael Keaton’s Vulture, a villain that has adult problems that I understood and real world anger I could feel. He just wants to take care of his family, which is a more moving motivation than Peter’s naive view of good and evil. (Full Review)

#7 Wonder Woman

Sometimes a film is about plot or theme or some tricky mystery. This one is about a character and an actress. There’s plenty to like, but it didn’t matter. It all came down to Wonder Woman, and I loved her. I don’t know if Gal Gadot is a good actress, but she is a charismatic one, and she was born for this part. (Full Review)

#6 Colossal

{Wide release 2017} This is indie art house meets geek. A daikaiju film about character. The dialog is sharp, the plot is smart, and it is shot beautifully. Colossal is by far the most original film on my top ten list. Daikaiju films often attempt to be about big themes, but few succeed. This is how it is done. (Full Review)

#5 Star Wars: The Last Jedi

As The Force Awakens was a remake of Star Wars (A New Hope), The Last Jedi is a remake of The Empire Strikes Back, but, it is a cleverly made, artistically constructed, updated and upgraded remake—a remake done right. We get all the old notes, but some are sung differently and we get a few new melodies. Which means this film is surprisingly good. There’s been grumbling from some fanboys, but ignore that as their upset has nothing to do with the quality of the film. (Full Review)

#4 The Shape of Water

This is how you revisit old material—by touching the past while reaching for something new. This is a fairytale, one that involves politics and antifascism, diversity and oppression, and loneliness and need. It is also about beauty, sexuality, hope, and love. It is Guillermo del Toro at the top of his game, and a wondrous film you shouldn’t miss. (Full Review)

#3 The Girl With All the Gifts

{US release 2017} Just when I’ve once again declared zombie films to be dead, we get The Girl With All the Gifts, an emotional, exciting, and original take on that too often used sub-genre. We simply don’t see this skill and talent in zombie films, or most films generally. Everything works on every level. (Full Review)

#2 Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

If you liked the first Guardians of the Galaxy, you’ll like this one. If you didn’t like the first film, you are an inhuman monster who should meet your end at the hands of the coolest of all heroes, Mary Poppins. Vol 2 is is everything the first was taken up a notch. It’s funnier, more exciting, and more emotional. (Full Review)

#1 Thor: Ragnarok

This is the first time that I’d call an MCU movie a comedy first, and an action picture second. The humor alone is enough to make this a great time, but the jokes serve the characters as well. Doesn’t that leave it wanting in action and drama and power? Nope, because after “comedy” the word I’d use to describe this film is “METAL.” And I don’t mean hair METAL or even Metallica METAL. I’m talking Dethklok METAL. This is the most METAL movie ever made. (Full Review)

Lists, Thoughts

The Best Films of Maureen O’Sullivan

Jan 082018

January 8, 2018

MaureenOSullivan Maureen O’Sullivan was the great ingénue. She appeared to be sensual and exciting while simultaneously being innocent and cute. It was a balancing act few have managed to pull off. Unfortunately it put her in mainly supporting roles where she was the goal—of the eight films below, only two have her as the lead. The exception was the part that brought her fame: Jane in the Tarzan franchise. For the first films, Tarzan is not the star, but Jane, and it is a Jane who is at ease scantily clad and sexy, that is until the production code caught up with the 3rd movie.

O’Sullivan’s film persona rarely varied and I’ve wondered how much of it was scripting and how much was just her. Did scriptwriter after scriptwriter just decide that her calling most males “darling” fit her character or was that part of her everyday vocabulary?

#8 – The Emperor’s Candlesticks (1937) — A lightweight and nearly forgotten period, spy, comedy and romance (as opposed to romantic comedy) starring William Powell and Luise Rainer. O’Sullivan is in a secondary role but is delightful.

#7 – Tarzan the Ape Man (1932) — The first of the Weissmuller Tarzan films that follows Jane’s father’s search for an elephant graveyard until they run into Tarzan. Weissmuller is an impressive Tarzan, but this is O’Sullivan’s show.

#6 – The Devil-Doll (1936) — A decent horror film at a time when horror films were out of vogue. It is not one of O’Sullivan’s better parts, but the whole is watchable and the best horror film of ’36 (Full Review)

#5 – A Day at the Races (1937) — The Marx Brothers are the stars, but they liked to shoehorn in a romantic pairing and O’Sullivan was the best young female they ever stuck in.

#4 – Pride and Prejudice (1940) — A romantic comedy take on the Jane Austen classic. O’Sullivan lands the supporting role of the nearly perfect sister, making it easy to believe that yes, everyone would love her. (Full Review)

#3 – Tarzan and His Mate (1934) — The best of the Tarzan films and the best lead part O’Sullivan ever had. She’s so natural, so joyful, playing in the jungle. The plot doesn’t matter. All that does is O’Sullivan and how she interacts with Weissmuller.

#2 – The Big Clock (1948) — One of the great Film Noirs as Ray Milland is placed in charge of an investigation to find a man who turns out to be himself. Remade in ’87 as No Way Out with Kevin Costner. O’Sullivan plays Milland’s poorly treated wife. (Full critique) [Also on the Ray Milland list]

#1 – The Thin Man (1934) — Myrna Loy is a rich socialite; William Powell is a retired detective (now living the high life on her money) who gets sucked into a murder case. Funny and charming, this introduction of Nick and Nora Charles is as good a time as you can have at the cinema. O’Sullivan plays the daughter of the missing thin man. [Also on the William Powell list & the Myrna Loy list]

Actor Best Lists, Lists, Thoughts

Why Fanboys Suck

Jan 052018

January 5, 2018

What’s truly sad is that this is now an important discussion in America. How the Hell did that happen? But fanboys are at the heart of not only the wars in lit fiction, gaming, and genre film fandom, they are at the heart of our political split. National politics has been determined by fanboys.

But OK, I’ll pull this in to film, because film is my area. And I’ll be swiping from one of my own earlier posted comments.

What’s so bad about being a fanboy? Well, it depends on how your use the term–it isn’t tightly defined. I use it one way; you may use it another. If you use it another, be clever enough to realize I’m not using it your way. I find the way I use it better because it is useful. “Fan” no longer means fanatic in popular parlance, but rather “person who enjoys X” Using Fanboy to mean “fan” or “male fan” doesn’t give us anything new. However, using it to describe a certain kind of “person who enjoys X,” one who leans into being a fanatic and has certain traits does give us a term for something that needs a term. And it is how I and many others use the term fanboy. So, lets look the two big problems–those traits–with those I label fanboys, and do it in relation to film. And those problems are nostalgia and identity.

Firstly, a fanboy’s love of a film franchise (or anything) is not directly related to the films. It is directly related to his own imaginings, his memories of how it made him feel when young, etc. It may be the film that drowned out his parents fighting or distracted him when coming home after being bullied at school. Or maybe it was what he was watching when he got his first kiss. Whatever the case, fanboys no longer can properly view the source. This makes them useless for critical discussions of film (and considering I run a film festival, etc, I’m very big on critical discussions of film). What fanboys can talk about is how they personally feel, which would be fine if they didn’t keep getting into critical discussions of film and demanding that their personal feelings are of universal importance. If a fanboy says, “I didn’t like The Last Jedi because it doesn’t give me the emotional support that RotJ did thirty years ago,” that’s perfectly reasonable (though why they need to say this to the world instead of a few close friends is another matter). If they say, “The Last Jedi is terrible because it isn’t Star Wars and destroys the childhoods of millions,” this is fetid nonsense. It is the difference between speaking about your preferences and what is good. Fanboys speak entirely subjectively, but then project that onto the objective world. (This is why there are grown adults who find they can spit out the sentence “The Transformers are great!”). Nostalgia is always going to cripple one’s ability to evaluate items or franchises–thus I am never a fan of nostalgia. But the fanboy takes it further, believing they are not crippled, and that their rose-colored glasses (or the opposite) reveal great truth.

And secondly, and this is more important to the general population, a fanboy identifies with the franchise. His own self worth is tied up with the franchise. Thus, an insult to the franchise is a personal insult to him. Someone disliking the franchise is no longer a case of different opinions, but an attack to be responded to with anger. And this is generally terrible for society (we’ve had enough problems with that sort of silliness with sports and now it is the very foundation of our political discourse). I saw this a lot in my discussions of BvS. Fanboys got very angry at me, swearing and making threats. As Superman and Batman and DC characters in general are a part of their identity, those characters must be shown respect. If they are laughed at, then this is equivalent to laughing at the fanboy. Since he has tied himself to something–in this case comic book characters–, respect for them equals respect for the fanboy, and more importantly, a lack of respect for them equals a lack of respect for the fanboy.

The fanboy’s view of reality can be twisted by this need. The fanboy needs to feel that he is good (as everyone does), and as he identifies with Superman or Star Wars or old-style SF lit or gaming, etc, then those things must be good–objectively good. So if others say they don’t like them, they must be lying. They must have an ulterior motive. And so, they end up believing wild conspiracy theories to explain other people’s opinions (Ah, critics don’t like Bat v Supes! It must be because they are all biased for Marvel due to Disney’s powerful control of them! Someone doesn’t like these stories? They must be pushing a secret Marxist agenda! Critics don’t like Bright? They must be under the thumb of film corporations trying to take down Netflix). Most people, even fanboys, agree that getting angry over different tastes is foolish, but getting angry over lies and deceit and conspiracies, that seems reasonable.

I’m seeing this with The Last Jedi, but in this case the fanboys dislike it because it is not matching the identity they cling to. Now some non-fanboys don’t like The Last Jedi. Tastes vary and that’s all good. If someone didn’t like it because it doesn’t appeal to them, then they didn’t like it. And that’s their reaction. They just shrug and find something they like. But for fanboys, changes from what they imagined, changes from their identity, are an attack. They don’t shrug. For them, it questions their identity, and that makes them angry. And we are seeing this anger now. No one who just doesn’t like something gets angry. (I didn’t like Alien 3 but it didn’t make me angry and cause me to threaten the director). So we get cursing and diatribes that grow to death threats. Because they didn’t like a movie…

And that’s why fanboys are a problem. The heart of the problem is nostalgia and identity, the foundation of conservatives and alt-right folks, and unfortunately, a far too prevalent factor in the lives of liberals too. Many of the societal problems of the moment (racism, sexism, anti-trans, etc) are directly connected to nostalgia and identity. Those two are what gave us our current president. But that’s politics, not movies, and implies it is just a right wing problem. It’s not. A majority of the people I interact with on FB (that means you) are wrapped up with one or both of those. And a significant number are fanboys. A significant number can, with a straight face, say, “Well, it was a good movie, but it was a terrible Star Wars movie and I hate it” without realizing what you just said.

No movie can destroy your childhood, or even your view of your childhood, unless there is something very problematic with your own ego–perhaps a franchise being used as a crutch. And everyone is aware that we use crutches to get better, not as life long friends.

Fanboys make discussion of art impossible. They are angered by opinions (much less facts) that differ from their view of the world. And they are easily deluded on what the world is like.

So yeah, Fanboys suck. Try not to be one.

Thoughts

Worst Films of 2017

Dec 312017

December 31, 2017

valarian It’s time for my 10 Worst Fantasy and Science Fiction Films of 2017. I’ve been ranking the films all year as I see them, and this won’t quite match that list as I want an apples to apples comparison, so I’m only including wide releases or big budget pictures. Sure, some micro-budget VOD films would break into this list, but there’s no joy in attacking those. I’m looking at the great follies of man.

First an honorable mention for Justice League, an unruly, sub-professional mess which is still better than its prequel, Batman v Superman.

Then 3 special awards:

Biggest Franchise Killer: The Mummy.
Most Artistically Empty Cash-grab: Beauty and the Beast.

Now to the 10:

#10 Kingsman: The Golden Circle

2014’s Kingsman: The Secret Service was fresh and fun, if a bit silly. This sequel is stale and drab, and extremely silly. Everything that was good about the first is missing. It takes work to go downhill so far in a single film. It gets the award for most disappointing sequel of the year.

#9 The Lego Ninjago Movie

This is a kid’s movie meant to distract a grumpy child while you are getting his juice box. Of course its message to children is to get mom and dad to buy some Ninjago toys. (full review)

#8 The Space Between Us

This is what gives young adult SF a bad name. And when did Gary Oldman give up on acting? (full review)

#7 Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets

It’s a beautiful film, and then Dane DeHaan opens his mouth and it all goes to Hell. His one positive trait is that he makes Cara Delevingne look less horrible, purely by comparison. (full reivew)

#6 The Dark Tower

No fan of the books is going to have anything nice to say about this movie. Roland, the powerful gunslinger out for revenge, is reduced to a bland babysitter for a generic magic child. Neither he nor the kid can support a film. (full review)

#5 Flatliners

The original Flatliners did little with its potentially interesting premise. This remake does less. Five med students see scary stuff occasionally. That’s it. Others have said this is the most boring film of the year. I don’t think it is memorable enough for even that title. (full review)

#4 The Circle

As edgy and deep as your aunt’s Facebook posts, The Circle makes the bold statement that a complete lack of privacy is probably a bad idea. Not exactly the deepest of philosophies. I’m beginning to question Emma Watson’s future in film. (full review)

#3 Personal Shopper

Do you like texting? Do you like to watch other people text? Well then this is your film, with over 20 minutes of texting. Yes, there’s some supernatural stuff, but we come close to the “it’s all in her head” trope without actually taking a position. Instead there’s texting and shopping and scooter riding.

#2 Transfomers: The Last Knight

Is there anything to be said? If you don’t already know a Transformers movie is going to be a dumpster fire, I’m not going to be able to convince you. As for the story and characters, who cares? (full review)

#1 Bright

Netflix’s $90 million blight on cinema, this puss-laden, wretched film is bad for the business, bad for art, and bad for viewers. That it is racist is the most positive thing I can say about it–at least that’s something. But even ethno-nationalists deserve a better made film. (full review)
bright

Lists, Thoughts

Ranking the Doctor Who Christmas Episodes

Dec 242017

December 24, 2017

It’s hard to add a tradition. Traditions take time and have to be something really special to jump the cue. The yearly Doctor Who Christmas episode has become a tradition in record time and one of my favorites. The best of these is magnificent television. The worst is… Well, up through #8 should be watched every year. Watch #14 if it happens to come on TV when you’ve nothing better to do.

Note: I said Christmas episode, not Christmas special, as there is one ep that isn’t a special, so most rankings are one short.

Starting with the least:

#14 Last Christmas (2014)

wholastchristmas Twelve, Clara
The least of the Christmas specials. Nothing original in sight. We’re given Inception‘s dream within a dream without a touch of irony, delivered via Alien‘s facehuggers. Since we know from the beginning that everything is a dream, nothing matters. It doesn’t help that the ep is dealing with the huge mistake that was the Clara/Danny relationship nor the rubbish split of The Doctor and Clara (to be fair the actress had quit and then changed her mind). However, it’s an acceptable diversion.

#13 The Return of Doctor Mysterio (2016)

WhoReturnofDoctorMysterio Twelve, Nardole
After a twelve-month drought following the spectacular The Husbands of River Song, this is one of the most disappointing moments in Who history. It isn’t a bad episode; it isn’t significant enough. It is emotionally empty. Since superheroes are all the rage, they added a costumed superhero to the Who universe, but they had no idea of what to do with one and nothing to say. There’s some lackluster villains, some ho-hum new characters, and a forgettable story. Twelve is in pretty good form but that’s not enough to make this memorable. That doesn’t mean it is a bad time. It’s a pleasant watch, but not an ep you’ll dwell on after it is done.

#12 The End of Time Parts 1 & 2 (2009/10)

whoendoftime Ten, Wilfred
I am being really kind by evaluating both parts together. Everything good—the farewell to Ten—is in the second half that was broadcast at New Year’s. So if I were to only count Part 1, it would be at the bottom of the bottom. So much is painful: Hulk-jumping, electro, super, undead Master. Turning everyone into The Master and then just tossing that plot. The misuse of Donna. Wilfred turned into a moron. Leaping Doctor. The pistol target switching. Most of this two-parter is trash, but at least it isn’t boring trash.

And then we have the ending: deeply emotional, occasionally funny, and thoughtful. The last 20 minutes are gold. It’s a proper ending for Ten.

#11 The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe (2011)

whowidowwardrobe Eleven

We had A Christmas Carol, so now we get Narnia. The Doctor is irrelevant (except for supplying a portal). This is a story of a mother rescuing her wandering children from fairyland. It is also a story of grief. It manages both of those stories well, treading carefully at times, and diving in at others. There’s a real feeling of loss and need. The Doctor may be an extra in his own show, but he acts as comic relief and this is one of the times when Smith’s gags work.

Each of the several endings is heartwarming.

#10 The Time of the Doctor (2013)

whotimedoctor Eleven, Clara
So, was there any reason any number of ships, like the papal one, didn’t just blow up the planet instantly? Eleven regenerates, after we suddenly learn the Doctor is on his last regeneration. (Really? Was there any reason not to have mentioned that a season ago and then done something with it?) We get sudden answers to multi-season-long questions that turn out not to be very interesting. And the end is a cheat. I do love the church, and Clara is quite good for Clara. It doesn’t fit together as satisfyingly as it should have, but it is about the moments, and a lot of those are good.

#9 The Snowmen (2012)

whosnowmen Eleven, Clara, Paternoster Gang
An episode that would have been greatly improved by eliminating The Doctor. He is unnecessary to the plot. Clara, Vastra, Jenny, and Strax are all that’s needed and are all wonderful. Clara would never be this much fun again while the other three prove they deserve a spin-off. Unfortunately the villain turns out to be less than advertised and the plot is equally uninteresting. I watch this for the sidekicks. Think about how good the end of S7 and all of S8 could have been if this version of Clara had become the companion.

#8 The Runaway Bride (2006)

whorunaway Ten, Donna
Donna is always a bit shrill, but here she is truly unpleasant. Her mother is… wow… Doctor Who hates mothers. Donna gets better over time; her mother does not. The story isn’t great and the FX spider is worse. It’s fast-paced, which helps, and funny, which helps more. But it is Ten that makes it all work. He switches from emotional & dramatic to funny to an action hero three times in the same scene and it always works.

#7 Twice Upon a Time (2017)

WhoTwiceUponaTime Twelve, One, Bill
It leans more on nostalgia than I’d like, but new Who has rarely done it so well, and if that’s the plan, going back to the first Doctor is nice. There really isn’t a plot, although for a while the two Doctors think there is one. This is about two dying Doctors thinking about their past and if they want to go forward. The play between the two of them is good, and the nods toward your racist uncle are funny and relevant. It’s very sentimental, but then the Xmas eps usually are, and this one isn’t cloying. I wouldn’t have tossed Bill in (her ending has been mangled enough), but this is her best appearance, so it worked out.

#6 The Next Doctor (2008)

whonextchristmas Ten, Jackson Lake
A real shame that David Morrissey wasn’t the next Doctor. He would have been excellent. He’s very good in his very brief run. If there is a failing, it is that it didn’t keep the ruse going longer. Miss Hartigan is a sympathetic villain. And it is one of the best-looking episodes. The use of color is stunning. How much you like this episode seems to be based on how you feel about a daikaiju cyberman.

#5 Voyage of the Damned (2007)

whovoyage Ten, Astrid
It’s The Poseidon Adventure in space. How much you like it will depend on how much you liked that film. I liked it a lot. I’ve never understood the Astrid hate. She makes a good, if very traditional, companion. This might be more like a regular episode than many of the Xmas eps, but also feels epic.

#4 The Christmas Invasion (2005)

whochristmasinvasion Ten, Rose
The Doctor sleeps through two-thirds of the episode, leaving us with a struggling Rose, Mickey, and Jackie. It also gives us the welcome return of Harriet Jones. Once Ten wakes, it sails with David Tennant showing off some impressive acting chops (and the ability to clearly speak twice as fast as any normal human). An extra point for Santas with weapons and a buzz saw tree.

#3 A Christmas Carol (2010)

whochristmascarol Eleven, Amy, Rory
It violates one of the fundamental rules of time travel set up early on in the show’s history, and it is a version of A Christmas Carol, which is the most overused Christmas story in existence, but somehow it still works. Part of that is the music. Casting mezzo-soprano Katherine Jenkins was genius.

#2 The Unquiet Dead (2006)

whounquiet Nine, Rose
My favorite of the historical celebrity episodes. Everything is done right. It’s a spooky ghost story with well-developed secondary characters, plenty of emotion, lots of humor, and a bit of meaning. It is pretty much the perfect standard Doctor Who episode; to beat this the series had to do something unusual, and do it well. It happened, but not often.

#1 The Husbands of River Song (2015)

whohusbands Twelve, River
Peter Capaldi’s Doctor had been improving over the year but this Christmas special is where he nails it and becomes one of the best Doctors. Everything around him is as good. The script is the best the show has seen in years. There is wit, fun, and the right amount of emotion at the end. The story works, but it doesn’t matter if it did or not. This is about two characters, The Doctor and River Song, interacting, and it shines.

Lists, Thoughts

Ranking the Star Wars films

Dec 222017

December 22, 2017

Ranking the Star Wars films gives me a chance to rate them without writing full reviews. I’ve always wanted them listed on my site—to show where they fit with other F&SF films, but thought it was a bit silly to fully review the first six. The overlap between “People who do not already have a strong view on Star Wars I-VI” and “People who read my web site” is zero. Here I can just quickly state my feelings on the earlier films without bothering to go into details that no one cares about. So, starting with #11

#11 The Rise of the Skywalker

We start from scratch with new villains, a new threat, a new big bad, new allies, a new quest, and new histories. By “new” I mean re-purposed from earlier Star Wars movies, but they’re not the ones from the last two films. The Last Jedi is mostly retconned out of existence as director J.J. Abrams replaces it with “borrowed” material. He starts with a copy of Return of the Jedi and then just jams in anything he can find. There are multiple characters who exist in this film only because they existed in earlier films. We have repeated action scenes, repeated locations, and a repeated finale, all of which exist only to point to those previous versions.

For a good portion of the runtime, its three friends off on adventures, which is pleasant, if overly familiar, like an adventure serial. It’s given some emotional force by the relationship between Rey and Kylo Ren. Whatever heart and depth the film has is with them. Of course, it all looks and sounds great. And unlike the first six films in the series, the acting isn’t a detriment. It’s cheap, lowest common denominator fun that I’ve seen too many times before. The Last Jedi tried to be more. The Rise of Skywalker puts in real effort to be less. (Full Review)

#10 The Phantom Menace

Here is the beginning of a backstory we never asked for and never should have been given. Even good movies detailing Darth Vader’s history would have damaged the character and the original films, and these were not good movies. What is good about this entry? It is a very pretty film with great art design and costume design. And Ewan McGregor does the best job of acting of anyone in the first six films. The score is excellent and there’s one good lightsaber fight.

The bad? Everything else. The Jedi are idiots for no reason, with Qui-Gon Jinn being the icon for stupidity. He’s never right. No one besides McGregor can act, with Natalie Portman particularly bad. Then there’s Antisemitism, racist Asian characters, young Anakin, Shmi, immaculate conception, and the never-ending pod race. Even things that at first seem like they will be good are a mess. Darth Maul seemed “cool,” at least in the advertising, but in the actual movie, he is a void. He is given no personality at all. He is just some guy with a different kind of lightsaber. That’s his character. And of course, there’s Jar-Jar, who is not funny nor dramatic nor interesting. The general defense is that he’s “For the children,” but that’s insulting to children.

#9 Revenge Of The Sith

The biggest mistake of Revenge of the Sith is making it so self-serious. It wants to be a Shakespeare tragedy, which is odd for a series based on afternoon serials. The second biggest was Hayden Christensen. Granted, the actor never had a chance, But Ewan McGregor managed to elevate his poor dialog while Christensen drags it down from horrendous into a deep, dark pit. He is so relentlessly bad that it is almost some kind of weird victory. How could he have managed this level of ineptitude? No moment with Christensen/Anakin is good, and you can’t escape him. Of all the prequel films, this is the one truly about Anakin, which makes it even worse as his arc is constructed so poorly. Nothing about his character is human. People do not act this way, and his sudden (and it is ridiculously sudden) switch to being a villain comes off as funny. But that’s not the only unintentionally humorous moment. Killing children shouldn’t be a laugh-riot, but there’s no other way to take it.

Does this film have anything? Well, again, it looks good. The music is good. And all the lightsaber battles are nicely choreographed—even if the one that is supposed to be dramatic has that stupid “I’ve got the higher ground” moment.

#8 Solo: A Star Wars Story

Solo: A Star Wars Story exists to answer questions I wasn’t interested in having answered or specifically wanted to remain unanswered. Where did Han and Chewbacca meet? Where did Han get his trademark gun? What was the Kessel run like? How did the card game that got him the Milenum Falcon play out? If you were curious about any of these, then Solo is intended for you. I was not curious.

Solo avoids the lows of previous installments, but also never hits the highs. The basic story of a failed heist leading to a bigger heist and people and groups not being what they originally appeared is a workable foundation for a film. My only complaint with the movie they made is that the cinematography is too dark.

Of course the real problem is that this isn’t the movie they should have made. Phil Lord and Chris Miller were planning on making a comedy, but executives got scared and brought in workman director Ron Howard to make a safer film. The failure of Solo is in imagination. It takes no risks. It sits comfortably within the Star Wars canon. It was tailor-made for the fanboys who were upset that The Last Jedi wasn’t exactly what they imagined when they were six. You should never give the fans what they want, and more often than not, they will decide they didn’t really want it after all. (Full Review)

#7 Attack Of The Clones

This film has a vast advantage over the other two prequel films: it has parallel stories. The Anakin stuff is again pretty bad, with Christensen putting in a career-mutilating performance as he and Natalie Portman utter uncomfortable “romantic” dialog. But with this film, if we removed the bad material, there’s still something left. Obi-Wan has his own quest with no Anakin in sight and that stuff is all pretty good. There are huge swaths of the film that aren’t embarrassing, which is a triumph for a prequel film. It also helps that segments near the beginning and at the end that do involve Anakin are large ensemble action scenes, thus he can’t completely destroy those. Yes, every time Christensen says anything “dramatic” it is cringe-worthy, but we aren’t stuck with him, and when we’re off on the water planet, I can just sit back and enjoy the movie. And as an added plus, there is Yoda with a lightsaber; when he broke that out, the entire theater cheered.

I also have a better view of this film than others because of how I first saw it. In 2002, IMAX films were shown on 2-hour reels and often if a film went over 2 hours, they would cut it. So my first viewing of Attack of the Clones was an IMAX version with 20 minutes cut—and they did a good job of cutting. It was 20 minutes less of Anakin. If I was ranking just that version, I’d move it up at least one place. That shows that this film, unlike The Phantom Menace and Revenge Of The Sith, is still salvageable. A good fan edit turns it into a very good film.

#6 Return Of The Jedi

This film is a lot of fun, no question. I enjoyed it when I first saw it and still do. That doesn’t mean it isn’t a disaster, just an enjoyable disaster. The problems really start with the acting. Yes, all the first six films have poor acting but among the original trilogy, it stands out here. This is partly due to the actors’ displeasure with the script. Harrison Ford wanted Han to die and when not only did he not, but he was forced to say sub-par dialog, Ford tossed in the towel. He wasn’t trying, and it shows. The rest of the cast isn’t good either. There’s also the repeated plot elements (another Death Star and another run of little ships to blow it up) and the Ewoks. There’s no getting around those teddy bears; they could have been cute or transgressive (if made vicious), but instead they scream out Mattel. By this time it was clear that much of the films were about selling merchandise, but couldn’t it have been done inconspicuously? Even things that would have been good in the first film were feeling old by now. The cycle chase is a bore, and I’ve already mentioned the final space battle. And no, they did not “always know” that Leia was Luke’s sister (a reveal that does not bear up to scrutiny). It’s a clunky retcon.

So what’s good? As always for the franchise, it looks good. We’re given the iconic Slave Leia that gets a bonus with the strangulation scene. The final lightsaber duel is excellent (though that is interrupted by the Emperor—he’d have won if he just shut up). And that’s about it.

#5 The Force Awakens

Star Wars 7 is a construction more than a film, made up of pieces from the other six films (mainly the original three and primarily A New Hope). It’s all homages and repeats. It’s well done, with every aspect meticulously crafted. We may have seen it all before, but the new paint looks good. The actors do better than under Lucas’s care, and so do the characters. It supplies exactly what the audience asked for. I don’t believe art involves supplying just what an audience asks for. That’s the job of hucksters and conmen. This is the finest movie you are likely to see that demonstrates the emptiness of the blockbuster business. It’s a bullseye on a low target. It’s hollow corporate fun. It would have never created a legend, but it can live off of one.

#4 Rogue One

The narrative stumbles in the first half, with time wasted on needless travelogues and meeting characters of no importance, while we are distracted by obvious call-backs to earlier films. Re-watching Rogue One, the first hour comes off even worse than on first viewing.

Then it turns it all around. Suddenly it knows its direct kin: The Dirty Dozen, Where Eagles Dare, and The Guns of Navarone, with behind-enemy-lines skirmishes and a few actions that would keep our protagonists out of polite society. This isn’t the heroism of special folks, but of soldiers in a war, that comes with hard choices, violence, and real sacrifice, and it makes for the most satisfying Star Wars film since 1977. The ending makes sitting through the failings of the first act worthwhile. This isn’t the film to bring the magic back to the Star Wars franchise, but it is the one to bring back meaning and emotion, and that’s better. (Full Review)

#3 The Empire Strikes Back

Note: For those grabbing torches and pitchforks, I am giving Empire a good rating. I know here is where people will get upset with me as many want to rank Empire as #1, but it just doesn’t belong there. Yes, the cinematography is a little better, but it was good in Star Wars {A New Hope}. Yes, the acting has improved, but it still isn’t that good. And the SFXs might be a touch better, but that’s insignificant and they were a wonder already in the first film. And I do not give it points for introducing Boba Fett. Why does anyone care about some tertiary character with a so-so costume?

Sure, Empire has some great battle scenes. It also has one of my favorite lightsaber duels. And while character development is shaky and nothing deep is delivered, it isn’t embarrassing either. This is a good film; I don’t think I need to convince anyone of that.
But it has some problems. First, it’s a bridge film. It has no plot, but is only a couple chapters in the larger story. It starts nowhere and ends nowhere. Then there is the reveal where the response is unearned. The only reason anyone thinks it is a big deal that Vader is Luke’s father is if they themselves would find this a big deal in their own life. The film does nothing to sell this. Why does Luke care? Why does he scream out in that pathetic way? If Aunt Beru had been Vader, I can see why that would have had some emotional resonance; he knew her. Luke is a whiny kid with daddy issues, but that isn’t enough to explain it, nor is it a good thing that our hero turns out to be more of a child here than when we started with him. But besides the film not making this moment important, it has the effect of shrinking the universe as well as shifting the message. In A New Hope, the universe is vast and anyone could become a hero. Now everyone you run into is family and the saga has shifted to being one of royalty and chosen ones. It would be a very long time before this failing was repaired.

#2 The Last Jedi

As The Force Awakens was a remake of Star Wars {A New Hope}, The Last Jedi is a remake of The Empire Strikes Back, but it is a cleverly made, artistically constructed, updated and upgraded remake. It is shocking how the same this movie is while managing to feel really different.

Rey, Poe, and Finn have previously hidden depth. And Kylo Ren is significantly less annoying, no longer appearing to be whining Anaken 2.0. Rose is a nice addition, carrying half the theme. And Luke finally comes into his own as a character.

The Last Jedi has humor without ever getting campy, and cute critters that don’t get on my nerves (like Ewoks…). And damn is it pretty. There are some sets (the throne room) and some shots (overhead of the speeders on the salt planet) that are magnificent. Plus, as the most layered Star Wars film, it finally undoes the damage of Empire by stepping away from the elite nobles and special chosen ones that have infested the franchise for too long. Finally, we are not in the saga of one family, but in a universe where heroism doesn’t depend on blood. (Full Review)

#1 Star Wars {A New Hope}

It all started here. It was all new. I’d never seen anything like this before and it was breathtaking. The first scene, with the rebel ship flying overhead followed by the star destroyer, is amazing and has never been equaled. Star Wars took old stories and myths and icons, tossed them into a sandy blender, and came up with something new. It isn’t perfect. The acting is…rough, and the dialog is rougher. Luke is an annoying git and the emotional states of the characters don’t hold up under inspection. But all is forgiven here. The later films don’t get a pass on their weaknesses, but being first counts. No one had seen a lightsaber before and they’ve never been as good. The Death Star was incredible (Death Stars 2 & 3 were not). Darth Vader was a forceful and scary villain; simply due to familiarity, he could never manage this again. Star Wars is exciting and beautiful and opens up alien worlds and a galaxy far, far away. It could only be done once, and once is enough.

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The Best Films of Ronald Colman

Dec 172017

December 17, 2017

RonaldColman The best film stars are defined by their voices and none had a finer voice than Ronald Colman; I would bet it has been imitated more often than any other. His good looks got him parts in silent cinema, but when the talkies came along, he really bloomed—the man with the mellifluous voice. But even with that liquid gold voice, great parts were few and far between, and even this list of his best films gets a bit weak toward the end.

Before his top eight, an honorable mention to Raffles (1930), which defined the “gentleman thief” in film.

#8 – Lost Horizon (1937) — It’s a bit long, and has a dim philosophy, but it also has some nice adventure moments and no doubt felt like the answer to all things for people in the Great Depression.

#7 – My Life With Caroline (1941) — A wild farce with a basic premise that would be hard to believe if the film cared about you believing it. Every few years his wife takes up with a new man, forgetting she’d done it before, and he must persuade her to return.

#6 – Random Harvest (1942) — Colman is a war vet with amnesia who falls in love, gets married, then gets amnesia again and wanders off. It’s a weepy melodrama, but a well-made one.

#5 – A Tale of Two Cities (1935) — It does a passable job of translating a great novel for the screen, and while the directing is mediocre and several actors fail, Colman is excellent; it is one of his best performances. [Also on the Basil Rathbone list]

#4 – Kismet (1944) — A non-musical version of my favorite musical. It’s Arabian fantasy with all sorts of dashing about and romance and swordplay.

#3 – If I Were King (1938) — A witty costume comedy/drama that is really a series of brilliant conversations between Colman (as a roguish poet) and Basil Rathbone (as the king). [Also on the Basil Rathbone list]

#2 – Champagne for Caesar (1950) — In this zany comedy, Colman plays a brilliant man who decides to bankrupt an arrogant businessman by winning a quiz show. Vincent Price is the businessman. [Also on the Vincent Price list]

#1 – The Prisoner of Zenda (1937) — A magnificent Swashbuckler, easily intertwining romance, humor, and heroics. Douglas Fairbanks Jr., playing one of the great cinematic villains, almost steals the show… Almost.

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The Best Films of Basil Rathbone

Dec 142017

December 14, 2017

basilrathbone An actor with both one of the most distinctive profiles and most distinctive voices in Hollywood, Basil Rathbone became identified with Sherlock Holmes to his dismay. He should have taken more joy in the connection as few of his other lead roles have been remembered. He was in a large number of classic films, but, except for Son of Frankenstein, always as a supporting player and usually as a villain. It’s lucky for viewers that he made a superb villain. He was in some of the very best films ever made as the antagonist.

But before getting to those masterpieces, some honorable mentions—far more than normal if I counted separately some movies I’ve grouped together. First, a few cases where he excels but the film does not: Rathbone’s pre-code charmer in Sin Takes a Holiday (1930), his most psychotic villain in A Night of Terror (1937), and his comedic pick-pocket instructor in Heartbeat (1946). Then an honorable mention for the comedy Tovarich (1937), where Rathbone has only a small part. And a big honorable mention to his 14 Sherlock Holmes films, particularly The Hound of the Baskervilles (1939) and The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1939). And finally an honorable mention to The Court Jester (1955), a rollicking Swashbuckling comedy starring Danny Kaye. and #9 on the list below if the list went to 9.

#8 – A Tale of Two Cities (1935) — It does a passable job of translating a great novel for the screen, and while the directing is mediocre and several actors fail, Ronald Colman is excellent. Rathbone is very good in a small role. [Also on the Ronald Colman list]

#7 – If I Were King (1938) — A witty costume comedy/drama that is really a series of brilliant conversations between Ronald Colman (as a roguish poet) and Rathbone (as the king). [Also on the Ronald Colman list]

#6 – Son of Frankenstein (1939) A surprisingly good third entry in the franchise. It is seeped in German expressionism. Karloff gets a reduced role; Rathbone is the lead, but Bela Lugosi steals the film in what is probably his best performance. (My Review) [Also on the Bela Lugosi list and the Boris Karloff list]

#5 – The Dawn Patrol (1938) — One of the finest war pictures, with Rathbone, David Niven, and Errol Flynn as WWI pilots in horrible situations, having heroism forced upon them. [Also on the Errol Flynn list]

#4 – We’re No Angels (1955) — Humphrey Bogart’s last great performance, with Rathbone as the villain. It is a Christmas comedy and absolutely lovely. (Full Review) [Also on the Humphrey Bogart list]

#3 – Captain Blood (1935) — The first of the three great Errol Flynn Swashbucklers. Rathbone plays a pirate who ends up on the wrong side of Peter Blood. (Full Critique) [Also on the Errol Flynn list and the Olivia de Havilland list]

#2 – The Mark of Zorro (1940) — No Swashbuckler is more fun. Tyrone Power is the masked swordsman who pretends to be a fop. Rathbone is a ruthless general. (Full Critique)

#1 – The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) — The best classic Swashbuckler and one of the Best films ever made. It also contains the finest cinematic sword-fight of all time between Errol Flynn and Rathbone. (Full Critique) [Also on the Errol Flynn list and the Olivia de Havilland list]

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The Best Films of Ginger Rogers

Dec 122017

December 12, 2017

gingerrogers Ginger Rogers will forever be known as the dancing partner of Fred Astaire; they fit together. Together they made some of the greatest film musicals of all time. She could manage the steps, as well as both the sophisticated and common attitudes needed for the comedy and romance. Astaire danced with others who were technically better, but no one who was such a perfect partner. Apart from Astaire she strove to have a “serious” career (after a group of “let’s put on a Broadway show” films) that led to a string of turgid melodramas that she could never pull off—not that anyone could have made Kitty Foyle watchable. Her best “solo” works were comedies.

An honorable mention goes to the anthology film, Tales of Manhattan (1942) simply for the large number of golden age stars in it.

#8 – The Major and the Minor (1942) — 31-year-old Rogers pretends to be a child to get a half price train ticket and ends up with Ray Milland at a military school. As this is a romantic comedy, they’d never make it today. [Also on the Ray Milland list]

#7 – Carefree (1938) — A lesser Astaire/Rogers film which is more of a screwball comedy than their typical musicals.

#6 – Star of Midnight (1935) — A ripoff of the Thin Man series; if I can’t get another real one, close is good enough. William Powell is a gentleman detective—this time a lawyer—and Rogers is the girl who wants to marry him.

#5 – Flying Down to Rio (1933) — The first pairing of Astaire and Rogers, though not as the leads. It was intended as a vehicle for breathtaking Mexican actress Dolores del Rio and she’s good, but the pair steal the film. Beyond the music, there’s the exquisite and totally unreal world. Brazil never looked like this but I wish it did. This is a pre-code film; jokes about rounded heels (look it up) and what South American women have that’s better below the equator would have been censored a few years later. Likewise the transparent tops of the female wing-walkers. [Also on the Fred Astaire list]

#4 – Swing Time (1936) – The 6th Astaire/Rogers film, it has some of the best dance numbers, but with a weaker script than their earlier films. The humor fails and the world is not as magical, none of which matters when Astaire sings “The Way You Look Tonight.” [Also on the Fred Astaire list]

#3 – Shall We Dance (1937) – Another Astaire/Rogers, with another assist from the always good Edward Everett Horton and Eric Blore. I find this to be the funniest Astaire film with Astaire playing a jazz dancer who has made it in ballet so must put on a persona of an arrogant Russian. The songs are solid, with “They Can’t Take That Away from Me” the standout. [Also on the Fred Astaire list]

#2 – The Gay Divorcee (1934) – The 2nd Astaire/Rogers film, and the first with them as leads, this one has Rogers attempting to get a divorce from her absent husband and mistaking Astaire as the gigolo she planned to use for cause. Horton and Blore appear again. [Also on the Fred Astaire list]

#1 – Top Hat (1935) – The 4th Astaire/Rogers picture and they’d perfected the routine. The jokes are solid and the fantasy world of shining marble is wondrous and where I want to live (much less depression era audiences). And of course the dance numbers are fantastic. Rogers falls for a very forward Astaire until she incorrectly deduces that he’s the husband of her good friend. Horton, Blore, and Helen Broderick add to the comedy. [Also on the Fred Astaire list]

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The Best Films of Ray Milland

Nov 282017

November 28, 2017

RayMilland Handsome and debonair, Milland’s early career was mainly in romantic comedies and light action films. His big break came with The Jungle Princess (1936), which made Dorothy Lamour a star as The Sarong Girl. His reputation changed with The Lost Weekend (1945) which won multiple Oscars, but is hard to view as anything other than suffering-porn now—it lacks a plot and an ending. It was no doubt important for people who never realized that alcoholism was bad. But this did alert Hollywood to his skill as a serious actor.

An honorable mention for The Thing With Two Heads (1972), which is terrible, but hey, it is called The Thing With Two Heads. Also an Honorable mention to the sappy, but surprisingly moving Love Story (1970). And a big honorable mention for his portrayal of Mephistopheles in Alias Nick Beal (1949). And another for Irene (1944), a breezy music comedy with little music.

Now for his eight best:

8 – The Lady Has Plans (1942) — A spy comedy as light as fluff. With Paulette Goddard, Milland’s frequent co-star.

7 – The Major and the Minor (1942) — 31-year-old Ginger Rogers pretends to be a child to get a half price train ticket and ends up with Milland at a military school. As this is a romantic comedy, they’d never make it today. [Also on the Ginger Rogers list]

6 – Ministry of Fear (1944) — A light thriller with Milland just out of an asylum facing Nazis. It screams Hitchcock.

5 – Easy Living (1937) — A Preston Sturges penned romantic comedy entwined with the misunderstandings of the very rich.

4 – Dial M for Murder (1954) — Milland plots to murder Grace Kelly. This one is Hitchcock.

3 – The Big Clock (1948) — One of the great Film Noirs as Milland is placed in charge of an investigation to find a man who turns out to be himself. Remade in ’87 as No Way Out with Kevin Costner. (Full Critique)

2 – Beau Geste (1939) — The definitive Foreign Legion film, with Milland one of three brothers who run off for the sake of honor.

1 – The Uninvited (1944) — The greatest ghost film, and the mold for most of those that have followed. Milland and his sister buy a house which turns out to be haunted. (Full Review)

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Ranking the Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes Films

Nov 212017

November 21, 2017

Basilrathboneholmes Basil Rathbone starred as Sherlock Holmes in 14 films, with Nigel Bruce as a blustering, foolish Doctor Watson. When I watched these as a child—broadcast one each week by a local TV station—I treated them like a TV show, with all of the movies being approximately the same. They aren’t.

The first two were made for 20th Century Fox with a reasonable budget. Then Universal pictures took over, shrinking the budget and updating the story to 1940s wartime. Stopping Nazis was the goal and Holmes was more spy than detective. As the war wound down, the films took on more of a Gothic feeling, with crumbling castles and frightened peasants. The setting was still “current” times, but with locations in Scottish villages and cutoff manor houses to decrease the effects of modern technology. A few were standard mystery films (no Gothic mansions), but while the 1940s were more visible than in the more Gothic ones, these mystery films could have been transported to the 1880s with few changes.

Ranking the Rathbone/Holmes films is pretty straightforward. The Fox films are best, followed by the Gothic Universals. Standard mysteries slot in next, with the later films (where Rathbone was tired of playing the role—and being quite vocal about it) and the spy films vie for worst. Starting with the best:

#1. The Hound Of The Baskervilles (1939) — The first of the Fox films and the most famous Holmes tale. Rathbone never had a chance to stretch as much again. This Holmes has a sense of humor. (My review)

#2. The Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes (1939) — The second Fox film and the last one set in the proper decade. This is the defining Sherlock Holmes movie. George Zucco, one of the great character actors, takes a turn as Moriarty.

#3. The House Of Fear (1945) — This one is fully Gothic and all the better for it. At a seaside estate, the members of a club are being murdered one by one after receiving an envelope containing orange seeds. It feels nearly like a horror movie, which is a genre Universal was skilled with. (My review)

#4. Sherlock Holmes Faces Death (1943) — The first of the Gothic films, breaking away from the three propaganda ones before it. It is a dark house mystery, with Holmes trying to find the murderer of the head of a rich and old family among the strange characters staying at the house. (My review)

#5. The Scarlet Claw (1944) — Holmes verses a supposed marsh monster in Canada. The setting is a strangely isolated (since it is 12 miles form a major city), tiny village cloaked in fog and surrounded by marshland. The superstitious dread of the people gives it a nice tone, but side characters (and villain) lack needed personality.

#6. Terror By Night (1946) — Holmes plays in Agatha Christie’s realm as he investigates a murder on a train. The train car is filled with a number of unusual characters, any one of whom might be the killer.

#7. The Pearl Of Death (1944) — Another criminal mastermind is in London along with his massive brute of a killer. He stole a pearl but had to hide it. Holmes races to find it, deducing that a series of murders is related. This is one of the standard mystery films.

#8. The Spider Woman (1944) — Important men are being driven to suicide for their insurance. Holmes knows the villain is a woman since it is a cruel and controlling crime. Yeah, Holmes being sexist isn’t a shocker. Gale Sondergaard is a lot of fun as the Spider Woman, but the story is weak.

#9. Sherlock Holmes And The Secret Weapon (1942) — Holmes must stop a bomb site from falling into Nazi hands. It’s WWII spies again, but at least with a mystery. Moriarity (this time played by the always reliable Lionel Atwill) feels like an odd villain to drop into this war pic that would have been better served by a SS officer.

#10. Dressed To Kill (1946) — The final film has criminals missing the auction of three music boxes that contain a musical code, so Holmes races to find them first. The mystery is both overly simple and unsolvable for the audience, but if feels like a good old Holmes and Watson case and Patricia Morison makes a memorable villain.

#11. Pursuit To Algiers (1945) — This 12th entry takes us back to spies. Holmes acts as escort (wouldn’t a few armed guards be better for that purpose?) for the heir to the throne of Rovinia. It’s a fun film, but isn’t a Holmes film—it feels more like something by Agatha Christie. There’s a group of peculiar characters with secrets, cut off from the outside (this time on a ship), and the constant threat of murder. I like it, but would like it better without Holmes.

#12. The Woman In Green (1945) — Young women are being gruesomely murdered around town and Holmes disagrees with Scotland Yard that it is the work of a madman. He knows it to be Moriarty, this time played by Henry Daniell. This is one of the normal “case” type films, though a bit darker, but it doesn’t come together very well.

#13. Sherlock Holmes In Washington (1943) — Not a mystery at all, but a spy caper where everything is known. It feels like an old time serial, with shootouts and secret lairs as Holmes must retrieve a secret document and rescue a girl from evil Nazi agents. It’s nice to see both George Zucco and Henry Daniell as villains (neither playing Moriarty as they both did in other films), though neither have much to do.

#14. Sherlock Holmes And The Voice Of Terror (1942) — The first and the most over-the-top of the WWII spy films has our hero trying to stop a stream of disasters that are first predicted in a Nazi radio broadcast. It ends with Holmes giving a propaganda speech that would have been too much even in 1942.

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The Best Films of James Stewart

Nov 172017

November 17, 2017

JamesStewart Stewart had a more varied career than most actors and far more than most leading men of the golden age. He not only was in, but was known for, comedies, dramas, melodramas, family films, romances, thrillers, and Westerns. Early in his career, he was in a string of sentimental Frank Capra movies, with It’s A Wonderful Life being the most famous. I’m not a fan of these as they tend to go over the top with shmaltz, letting both real human interaction and humor die for the sake of sentimentality. The worst offender is You Can’t Take It with You, a wonderful play that is gutted by Capra. Luckily, Stewart had other moments, with strong turns in comedies before becoming one of Hitchcock’s two favorites (Cary Grant being the other).

Stewart’s performances were unusual too. He pushed the edges, and his brilliant performances were often one twitch away from a ham mess. When he held it just right, he was a master at frustration, anger, hatred, and loss. When he let it go too far…

Honorable mentions go to Vivacious Lady (1938)—a romantic comedy with Ginger Rogers, Destry Rides Again (1939)—a comedy western with Marlene Dietrich, Call Northside 777 (1948)—a detective crime drama, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)—a western with John Wayne and Lee Marvin.

And for the best:

8 – The Mortal Storm (1940) — The movie that upset the Nazis; Hollywood finally took a stand on what had been going on in Europe. Stewart plays the friend of a “non-Aryan” family during the rise of the Nazi party in Germany.

7 – Bell Book and Candle (1958) — This should be on everyone’s Halloween viewing list, or Christmas. Stewart is a bit gray for his starring role in a supernatural romantic comedy, but Kim Novak is breathtaking as a powerful, sexy witch and Ernie Kovacs, Else Lanchester, and Jack Lemmon are all marvelous. [Also on the Jack Lemmon list]

6 – Vertigo (1958) — A second Hitchcock film, this one even more over-hyped than the last having replaced Citizen Kane as the greatest movie of all time according to Sight and Sound. It’s still a good flick, with Stewart as an obsessed and troubled man. While it is shot as a thriller, it is really a character drama.

5 – Rear Window (1954) — A Hitchcock thriller seeped in voyeurism. It’s become hip to love it in recent years, but don’t let that dissuade you. It is a nicely tense work.

4 – Anatomy of a Murder (1959) — A courtroom drama that questions our prejudices. Stewart attempts to defend an unpleasant and violent defendant with a promiscuous wife from a murder everyone would be happy to hang on him.

3 – Harvey (1950) — A happy man with a giant invisible rabbit as his best friend upsets his uptight family. This may be Stewart’s best performance. It is certainly his most unusual.

2 – After the Thin Man (1936) — Stewart plays third banana to William Powell and Myrna Loy. Taking place soon after The Thin Man, Nick and Nora are summoned by Nora’s snobbish family because a husband is missing. The relationship material is wonderful, the humor is spot on, and the mystery is engaging. [Also on the Myrna Loy list and the William Powell list]

1 – The Philadelphia Story (1940) — This is the essential romcom, and was the perfect vehicle for its three leads, Stewart, Cary Grant, and Katherine Hepburn. None of them ever had a role that more completely played to their strengths. This is as witty as film gets. [Also on the Katherine Hepburn list and the Cary Grant list]

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