Monday, December 29, 2014

My 150 Favorite Movies - #46

The Thin Man (1934)
 
Arguably the greatest screen team ever, Myrna Loy and William Powell made, all told, 14 movies together. Of those 14, six were Thin Man movies, of which the first is undoubtedly the best. Based on Dashiell Hammett's novel of the same name, "The Thin Man," in actuality refers not to Powell's character, but to the victim of the piece. The wit and sparkle of the interplay between Loy and Powell was rarely matched, and certainly not bested, in the history of cinema. The Thin Man also features early appearances by Maureen O'Sullivan, Cesar Romero, and, perhaps most famously, Asta, the charismatic wire-haired fox terrier who appeared in all six films, as well as other films throughout the 1930's.

Thursday, December 18, 2014

My 150 Favorite Movies - #47

All That Jazz (1979)

Roy Scheider shows off his song-and-dance chops, in this thinly disguised autobiographical account of director and choreographer Bob Fosse, here called Joe Gideon. Gideon's entire life as visualized by director Fosse, is one long bout of self-destruction, set to music, basically. Absolutely riveting, this film is both visually and aurally entertaining, dramatic and engrossing. Selected for preservation in the National Film Registry, it won four Academy Awards, and also won the Palme d'Or at the 1980 Cannes Film Festival.

Sunday, December 07, 2014

My 150 Favorite Movies - #48

Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)

Woody Allen has directed so many great movies, that it's difficult to pick just one. So here's another one: Hannah and Her Sisters, in which Woody directed Michael Caine in his first ever Oscar-winning role. The plot is a bit complex, but it takes place between two Thanksgivings, as we witness one family's dynamic, mainly centering around Hannah, played by Mia Farrow, and her two sisters, Lee (Barbara Hershey), and Holly (Dianne Wiest, another Oscar winner), and their various domestic dramas. Suffice to say there's  a lot of comedy, mixed in with all the drama, mainly relating to Woody's character, who's a suicidal hypochondriac (yes, it IS funny!) Maureen O'Sullivan, Farrow's real-life mother, plays her mother in this movie, and gets some of the best lines, including one of my all-time favorites: "this haircut that passes for a man!"