The films of John Cassavetes have quite a bit in common, thematically and aesthetically, with one of the most famous and most obvious being the function of actors in his style. In a Cassavetes picture, performance isn’t necessarily important because of how it reveals character, but because of how it reveals the process of performing: […]

The initial response to Martin Scorsese’s New York, New York was fairly unanimous: it was a failure. Time has been fairly gentle on this film, but it’s not hard to see why audiences and critics in 1977 were so disappointed: if nothing else, the director’s earlier films like Mean Streets, Alice Doesn’t Live Here Any […]

Outside of cinephiliac circles, it is my suspicion that these days, Sam Peckinpah’s Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid is remembered – when it is remembered at all – largely as “that Dylan Western,” or even “wow, I didn’t know that ‘Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door’ was from a movie.” And thanks to Todd Haynes and […]

I am happy to present this feature’s second Altman film, and the first not to hold the distinction of being the worst thing he ever made. Robert Altman was good at many, many things, but one of his stocks in trade was the genre-bender: making a war movie, or a film noir, or a Western, […]

Martin Scorsese. Does any name from the 1970s’ cinema conjure up such a complete and fully-formed picture of his preoccupations as a filmmaker? Urban blight mixed with destructive men who pursue individuality to the point of psychosis, with ephemeral women placed beyond the human as beacons of pure goodness. Add a rock soundtrack and lots […]