The Deer Hunter (1978)
Winner of Best Picture of 1978, The Deer Hunter was the first major release to deal with the troubling issue of Vietnam head on, with an often unflinching portrayal of the horrors of the war,...
Category: Drama
Cutter’s Way (1981)
Originally released under the book’s title of Cutter and Bone, Cutter’s Way is a film that has a purposely unfocused way of telling a story, languishing in some scenes in lackadaisical fashion, and as such, it...
State of Grace (1990)
At its heart, State of Grace isn’t really a new kind of film in the small-time gangster genre, but it is an example of one that follows the formula with well-oiled precision. What these movies all...
Last Embrace (1979)
Twelve years he would put his type of influential thriller on the map in The Silence of the Lambs, Jonathan Demme made an homage to the master of the contemporary thriller himself, Alfred Hitchcock. Last Embrace may...
A Walk in the Clouds (1995)
Director Alfonso Arau made a splash with his previous effort, 1992’s Like Water for Chocolate, and he returns to the whimsical romance genre for the English language A Walk in the Clouds, mostly to lesser but...
Layer Cake (2004)
Adapted by J.J. Connelly from the novel of the same name, Layer Cake was slated to be a Guy Ritchie project, but instead, the producer of Ritchie’s movies, Matthew Vaughn, gives himself the nod as...
The Sea Inside (2004)
Compelling and absorbing from start to finish, Alejandro Amenabar delivers another terrific film to add to a small but very impressive body of work. The Sea Inside tells the true story of Ramon Sampedro (Javier...
More Than Friends (1978)
Over ten years before Rob Reiner would direct the great romantic comedy, When Harry Met Sally, he wrote this very similar piece for ABC television, which featured a very similar premise of two best friends...
Crash (2004)
With its large cast and interweaving storylines of tragedy, the comparisons to Magnolia are probably warranted, although Paul Haggis’ Crash doesn’t come close to capturing the inspiration and artistic heights of the film it emulates. Still, the...
Heaven Can Wait (1978)
Harry Segall’s play became the basis for a popular film way back in 1941 with Here Comes Mr. Jordan, and while Heaven Can Wait may not quite live up to the classic status of that film, it...