remembering the films that the audience forgot
“I didn’t read reviews earlier in my career, but I read them now as I’m older. I read them all.”
— Steven Spielberg
Bug is a film that came and went, back in 2007, with relatively little fanfare. Which I remember finding somewhat surprising given that it was directed by William Friedkin. Although, maybe I shouldn’t have been, given that most of the general film-going public probably wouldn’t recognize the name or his place in film history.
Read MoreMarc Forster is not a director stuck to one genre. After Monsters Ball (which I didn't think was as great as the praise it received) put him on the map back in 2001, he followed that up with the wonderful Finding Neverland. Then a couple years later he gave us Stranger Than Fiction - and has since gone on to direct a James Bond film: Quantum of Solace and World War Z. He was also the man at the helm of The Kite Runner. And then there’s Stay, which he did back in 2005.
Stay is an interesting film for me to write about here, because, while I did like it, I can see where people have problems with it. However, for me, the problems seemed to bother me much less than as much as the film completely intrigued me.
Read MoreBack about a decade ago I was browsing Netflix looking for a movie to watch and Exam came up as a suggestion based on the hundreds of movies I had rated and liked/disliked, etc… Now, generally I was not impressed with these suggestion services, but in the case of Exam, Netflix did good.
The film begins with eight strangers competing for a job, entering a windowless room and sitting at their assigned desks. Then an invigilator enters the room, tells them the rules of the exam, puts 80 minutes on the clock and walks out, leaving behind the eight applicants and an armed guard.
Read MoreChinatown, Rosemary's Baby, The Pianist. When people discuss Roman Polanski’s work it’s usually those films that come to mind. However, when I think Polanski, Death And The Maiden is often first and foremost in my head. The three aforementioned films are great - but for me, Death And The Maiden, is maybe my favorite of them all (which is saying a lot given how good Chinatown and Rosemary's Baby are).
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