Here’s our epic list of the best war movies of all time. Aspects to remember: first, these have to take place during wars or battles that actually happened. So, that means a great war movie like Starship Troopers won’t make the cut. Second, the more warfare it has, the higher it ranks. So, while many …
Director Christian Petzold’s shattering portrait of a woman adrift in post-WWII Berlin forgoes wishful sentimentality in favor of painful re-discovery. The result is a quietly-devastating film that will haunt you for weeks to come.
Clumsiness is the name of the game with Angel of Death, extending to director Tom Harper’s egregious overuse of cheap jump scares (I started counting, and the number went into double digits), all loud boos and sudden shrieking ghost faces appearing out of nowhere for a split second, only to vanish back into the shadows. You’ll start to wish the woman in black would hurry up and just off them already, she wastes her time so much.
Fury Written & Directed by David Ayer USA, 2014 Brad Pitt’s new tank drama, Fury, is an unrelentingly grim affair that strives for greatness and occasionally reaches it. What could have been reduced to ‘300 in a tank’ has been expanded to a gripping human drama that values the soul just as much as …
We’ve seen countless films depicting the monstrosity of World War II, but The Notebook gives us an unflinching look at the monsters it created. Both observant and nonjudgmental, director, János Szász, drops us into a war zone bereft of borders or buffers. Allegiances crumble and shift like the tattered landscape, where even familial ties yield to stark necessity. This is a challenging film that reaffirms the survival of the human spirit, not through acts of courage or bravery, but by harnessing our spitefulness and hatred to outlast the enemy. Whether the soul can endure such a coldhearted transformation is left for the audience to decide.
As visual animals, to a large extent, something doesn’t truly exist until we see it. What, then, do we make of memories, which may seem just as real as any image, but are subject to degradation and bias? They are the ethereal made real; flights of fancy, fact and practical necessity. Level Five, produced in 1997 and recently restored for a limited North American release, finds accomplished film essayist, Chris Marker, questioning the nature of memory in the new digital age. Though his big ideas and haunting visuals never quite coalesce, Marker still provides a fascinating peek into the darkest corners of humanity.
We have, by now, seen so many stories set during the Second World War that to attempt a new one means that a writer has to come up with a new angle, something so fresh that no one’s seen it before. Anyone can craft a tale of a young girl’s coming of age in Nazi Germany; even if the intent is to create and develop multi-faceted characters, not just howling, evil goose-steppers, there has to be a hook. For better or worse, The Book Thief, based on the popular young adult novel of the same name, does have a hook to set itself aside from every other World War II drama. The problem is, unfortunately, that the hook is massively misguided.
Welcome to the article best of Korean cinema, in which we look at the best Korea has to offer since it explosion of quality films and output since 200. We look at everything from emotionally heightened Romances to the uniquely Korean line of comedic thrillers. This time we are looking at the output of Kang …
Victory Through Air Power Directed by Perce Pearce, James Algar, Clyde Geronimi, Jack Kinney, H.C. Potter Written by Perce Pearce, T. Hee, Erdman Penner, William Cottrell, James Brodero, George Stallings, Jose Rodriguez Starring Alexander P. de Seversky, Art Baker Watching Victory Through Air Power in 2012 is akin to being given a glimpse into a …
With Independence Day right around the corner, the new episode of Mousterpiece Cinema celebrates a part of the Walt Disney Company’s history all about protecting America. Though you may not be as familiar with the period when Walt Disney and his animators worked on wartime propaganda, there was a time when Disney focused more on …