Abu: Arshad Khan

To read this review, go to: http://www.audienceseverywhere.net/abu/.

3/10

Funeral Parade of Roses: Toshio Matsumoto

To read this review, go to: http://www.audienceseverywhere.net/funeral-parade-of-roses/.

9/10

Despicable Me 2: Pierre Coffin, Chris Renaud

Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud's Despicable Me 2 is mostly harmless, occasionally sweet, and sparingly funny. The best scenes remain the ones where Gru (Steve Carell) is forced to be a big dad to the girls and--in a twist--a potential lover to a badass agent named Lucy (Kristen Wiig). The Minions are much more tolerable this time around, mostly because they aren't emotional audience proxies like in the first film but mere comedic relief. They're still grating, but there are a handful of moments where they're legitimately funny. Of course, everything ends happily with a big dance number. This is a non-Pixar kid's movie, after all.

6/10

Tampopo: Juzo Itami

To read this review, go to: http://theretroset.com/the-man-who-shot-tampopo-food-porn/.

10/10

Cheyenne Autumn: John Ford

Cheyenne Autumn was John Ford's last Western. That is its primary source of infamy in film circles, alongside the fact that it featured his most dignified portrayal of Native Americans, an ethnic group Ford had used as one-dimensional villains for the majority of his career. As a film historian, the film is fascinating. But as a moviegoer, it's woefully underwhelming. It's overlong, overstuffed, overly ambitious, and the best parts involve a ruckus at Dodge City involving James Stewart that's completely superfluous to the story (it was originally cut completely from the original theatrical release). More interesting than it is good, Cheyenne Autumn is a film only diehard fans and historians should trouble themselves with.

6/10

Moscow Never Sleeps: Johnny O'Reilly

To read this review, go to: https://www.theyoungfolks.com/review/105341/movie-review-moscow-never-sleeps/.

7/10

Show People: King Vidor

To read this review, go to: http://theretroset.com/an-afternoon-at-the-silent-clowns-film-series/.

7/10

Sure-Mike!: Fred Guiol

To read this review, go to: http://theretroset.com/an-afternoon-at-the-silent-clowns-film-series/.

Camera Obscura: Aaron B. Koontz

To read this review, go to: https://www.theyoungfolks.com/review/103700/movie-review-camera-obscura/.

6/10

Key Largo: John Huston

To read this review, go to: http://theretroset.com/bogart-and-bacall-a-four-film-retrospective/.

8/10

To Have and Have Not: Howard Hawks

To read this review, go to: http://theretroset.com/bogart-and-bacall-a-four-film-retrospective/.

6/10

The Big Sleep: Howard Hawks

To read this review, go to: theretroset.com/bogart-and-bacall-a-four-film-retrospective/.

6/10

Future ’38: Jamie Greenberg

To read this review, go to: https://www.theyoungfolks.com/review/104524/movie-review-future-38/.

3/10

Taxi!: Roy Del Ruth

Despite its relative importance in establishing the onscreen mythology of James Cagney--the film boasts the famous sequence of Cagney arguing with a Jewish man in Yiddish and the line that would eventually be mis-remembered as "You dirty rat, you killed my brother!"--Roy Del Ruth's Taxi! simply isn't very good. It has little idea what it wants to do with itself, and even less how to go about doing it. It begins with the promise of a gangster/revenge-thriller when an old man is inadvertently murdered by the mob when he refuses to surrender his taxi cab beat. The man's daughter falls in love with a another cab driver with a short temper. And at first we think his natural volatility will lead him to avenge her dad. But no: the film becomes a confused romance about an unstable man and the absurd lengths the daughter will go to to ignore his obviously abusive and destructive behavior.

5/10

Footlight Parade: Lloyd Bacon

[Revisit Review]

Come to Lloyd Bacon's Footlight Parade for the spectacular Busby Berkeley song-and-dance numbers, particularly the climactic triptych of "By a Waterfall," "Honeymoon Hotel," and "Shanghai Lil." But stay for the breathless enthusiasm and momentum of the behind-the-scenes story provided in large part by James Cagney's indefatigable charisma and energy. This is one of the rare Hollywood musicals of the era that's more than just the sum of its musical numbers: it's the embodiment of America's Depression-era can-do spirit.

9/10

The Dunning Man: Michael Clayton

To read this review, go to: http://www.audienceseverywhere.net/the-dunning-man-is-a-rambling-but-charming-atlantic-city-day-trip/.

6/10

Bucking Broadway: John Ford

John Ford’s Bucking Broadway is a fascinating little film. It follows a cowboy named Cheyenne Harry (Harry Carey) who abandons the plains of Wyoming to win back his sweetheart from the hands of a wicked New Yorker who whisked her away to the Big City. The film spends most of its time getting into gear: the cowboy only makes it to the city about 35 minutes into its 53-ish minute runtime. But a lot of the melodrama is quite poignant, particularly the scenes when Cheyenne and his sweetheart’s father react to the news that she’s eloped to New York. There’s also a charming sequence where a “woman of ill repute” pickpockets Cheyenne before secretly returning his money to his pocket after discovering what a nice man he is. A lot of the exterior shooting is quite stilted, particularly a sequence involving breaking in horses which is bizarrely filmed in extreme long shot with the action clustered together into a small dot in the center of the horizon line, obscuring everything from view. But there is one truly great image in the film: a group of cowboys charging down the streets of New York City. Now there’s an image that I, as a lover of film and storytelling, am jealous of.

I would later go on to write about this movie more in-depth at The Retro Set. You can read my coverage here: http://natesminireviews.blogspot.com/2017/07/bucking-broadway-john-ford.html

Smart Money: Alfred E. Green

My, my, but wasn't Alfred E. Green's Smart Money a racy one? Booze, gambling, organized crime? The gangster getting to be a somewhat sympathetic anti-hero who's serenaded with Auld Lang Syne when he finally gets put away in prison at the end? And what's more, James Cagney supposedly miming the act of cunnilingus? Good stuff. Good stuff. It's remarkable how good the chemistry is between James Cagney and the lead, Edward G. Robinson. I can't believe this was the only time the two appeared onscreen together. What a natural combination! The film is pleasant enough--other than the acting, the simple story is what really sells it. If it had had bolder, riskier cinematography, who knows? It might have been as classic a film as Angels with Dirty Faces (1938).

7/10

Letters from Baghdad: Sabine Krayenbühl, Zeva Oelbaum

To read this review, go to: https://www.theyoungfolks.com/review/104116/movie-review-letters-from-baghdad/.

7/10

The Women's Balcony: Emil Ben-Shimon

To read this review, go to: https://www.theyoungfolks.com/review/103924/movie-review-the-womens-balcony/.

7/10

Wonder Woman: Patty Jenkins

Patty Jenkins' Wonder Woman is the breathe of fresh air I've been desperate for for the superhero genre: totally uncynical, unabashedly proud of its comic book roots, un-apologetically proud of its message of hope and love, empowering to all peoples, exciting, and earnestly emotional. Incredibly, it's also not naive. I won't give away the ending, but let's just say that the big reveal concerning Ares smacks a lot of Neil Gaiman's story-arc involving Lucifer in his Sandman series. It admits that people aren't perfect; the world isn't perfect. Humans are flawed, sometimes cruel, sometimes monstrous. But the good in them is worth fighting for and protecting. I also loved how there are only 4-5 actual fight sequences. The film gives itself room to breathe and develop characters. And you know a film is doing something right when you care as much for the ancillary characters like Etta Candy and Steve Trevor's spy team as you do for the protagonists. I think I like this movie more than any of Marvel's superhero movies, with the possible exception of Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014). Here's hoping that this marks the beginning of a new trend, both inside the DC Cinematic Universe and the superhero film genre in general.

8/10

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2: James Gunn

I think all my problems with James Gunn's Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 can be summarized in the scene where Star-Lord (Chris Pratt) and his father Ego (Kurt Russell) play catch. It's supposed to be one of the emotional high-points of the entire film. It's sweet and endearing. But when it happened, my entire theater burst into laughter. Why? Because by then they had been trained like Pavlov's Dogs to regard any showing of emotion with cynical derision. We were all expecting Rocket Raccoon or Drax or somebody else to pop into the frame and make some ridiculous and/or crude joke about how ridiculous the whole thing was. This film--and to a larger extent, the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe--is positively horrified of taking itself seriously and admitting its comic book roots. So it takes every single opportunity to take every singly drop of piss out of the comic book genre that Christopher Nolan meticulously put into it with his Batman films. It's exhausting. I wasn't able to empathize with the characters because the film couldn't stop giggling at how ridiculous they were. I love ridiculous humor. And I unironically adore how preposterous comic books can be. But this film's abhorrence towards genuine emotion and drama soured it to me. Also, those CGI effects were DREADFUL.

5/10

Zodiac: David Fincher

Guillermo Del Toro once described David Fincher's Zodiac as a "one-sock movie"; a movie where if you're doing the laundry and are holding one sock when it comes on TV, you'll sit down on the couch and watch so attentively until the end that you'll still be holding the sock when the credits start rolling. And I can now confirm that, yes, Zodiac is a "one-sock movie." What a mesmeric film. It starts off as a fascinating police procedural on the Zodiac killer before evolving into a tale of complete obsession as Robert Graysmith (Jake Gyllenhaal) gradually loses his mind trying to solve the unsolved (or is it unsolvable?) case. It's over two-and-a-half hours long, and it feels two-and-a-half hours long, but we don't care. We're so fascinated by it, so interested in what's happening, that we lose ourselves to it.

8/10