A bleak Western classic with the Oregon wilderness standing in for Wyoming during a particularly unforgiving snowy winter. Initially, the movie kicks off with long-simmering tensions about to finally explode between a hard-driving cattle rancher (Robert Ryan) at cross purposes with the local homesteaders and settlers who are barbed-wire fencing off the gazing lands. The town is tiny, with a population of around 20, and he has been using it for years and helped establish the white Americans' dominion.

In…

Depressed, cozy Christmas season movie? Check.

A throwback to character study drama focusing on three broadly drawn (but very well-acted) characters dealing with various personal struggles, some evident and some hidden, as they are isolated together over Christmas break. The usually acerbic Alexander Payne never lets things get too acidic--in between bursts of bombast, angst, moodiness, and crankery where they annoy one another, there's sincerity and generosity between these characters. The movie has the same attitude: things never get too…

An actual, no visual cheats 90+ minutes single oner movie, where the camera has the POV of our ghostly unseen narrator moving about St. Petersburg's Winter Palace museum, pondering Russian history (mostly, things before the 1917 revolution), art artifacts, and observing various famous figures and happenings--Catherine the Great looking for a bathroom, Peter The Great being a tyrannical weirdo, Romanovs luxuriating, a dry affair of a Persian Shah's apology, and Royal Balls. Because the narrator seems to be a mostly…

A wonderful and quirky British comedy that pokes at Victorian class and gender ideas. The production and visual design are impeccable and compliment the slightly caricatured performances and characters. Laughton is the movie's preening and bellowing standout as the overbearing curmudgeon patriarch. I've still not seen a bad or unenjoyable performance out of Laughton. However, stage actress De Banzie holds her own as his driven and determined daughter, who will not accept her status as an a 30 year old…

There's an 85-minute version of this movie, where it's more ostensibly a film noir that is likely better. I often find movies about suppressing ions and guilt about breaking societal norms or being taboo as one note. This does at least have some ghost hauntings and caricatured police to spice it up. It looks great, but the thinness in characterization stands out more (along with how its casting narrows the alleged 20+ year age gap between the older woman and…