Words and Movies

In this half of the episode, we're looking at Tell No One, a French film from 2006 directed and co-written by Guillaume Canet. COMING ATTRACTIONS: In our next episode we go from Hitchcock to Bergman, as we look at a pair of films styled after that director. We start with Away From Her (2006) and then to the aptly-named Bergman Island (2021). Join us, won't you?

In today's episode we explore films that look like they could be produced by Alfred Hitchcock, but they weren't. We start with Diva, from 1981.

In this half of the episode, we're reviewing the 1969 film Z , directed by Costa-Gavras. In this film we're in a European country that totally isn't Greece, and we see both sides of an ideological war between two extreme factions. It's a gripping story with an ending that's all too familiar, if you're politically cynical. COMING ATTRACTIONS: Episode 81 will be the first of three episodes where we...

In this episode, we'll be taking a look at a pair of political thrillers, both of them based on real-life events. (It should be noted, however, that one of them is definitely fiction. Thinly-disguised fiction, but fiction nonetheless.) We start with The Battle of Algiers (1966), co-written and directed by Gillo Pontecorvo. We're not talking about a military battle here so much as a story of terror...

We conclude this overstuffed episode with a look at 1976's Network, directed by Sidney Lumet and starring William Holden, Peter Finch and Faye Dunaway. Finch plays a television news anchor who decides to say exactly what's on his mind, and the audience reaction comes as a huge surprise to everyone. His bosses are only too happy to capitalize on this renewed popularity. But even though he&#...

Both Sean and I like both of these films so unabashedly that we wound up with a truly overstuffed episode. This time around we're looking at a pair of films that turned out to be oddly prophetic in their vision, although one of them missed the mark, but only slightly. In this part of the episode we examine the 1957 film A Face in the Crowd , directed by Elia Kazan and starring Patricia Neal an...

In this half of the episode, we look at When Harry Met Sally... and we learn that not all rom-coms are alike, even if most of them look alike and--unfortunately--sound alike. COMING ATTRACTIONS: Next time around we take a look at the dark side of television, starting with A Face in the Crowd (1957) and finishing up with Network (1976). Join us, won't you?

We're wrapping up our brief series of films that can definitely be enjoyed on the individual level, but the ripple effects they caused tend to make the films that follow in their wake to be somewhat less than amazing. And this week we begin with Halloween , from 1978 and directed by John Carpenter. Jamie Lee Curtis is a teenager who has some truly supernatural adventures in babysitting. This f...

In Part 2 of our episode, we review The Accidental Tourist (1986), directed by Lawrence Kasdan and starring William Hurt and Geena Davis. Hurt plays a man who's learning to navigate his life after a broken heart, a broken marriage and a broken leg. It's a truly delightful, quiet film that will warm your heart...but there's still an unfortunate side effect to deal with. COMING ATTRACTIO...

This is the first of two episodes where we look at a pair of films that don't have a ton in common with one another, but instead have created some cultural ripples that haven't always had a positive effect. We begin with Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), the first time we've ever gone to the 1939 well after more than 140 films reviewed. This film, directed by Frank Capra, stars Jame...

In this episode we review the 1981 film Thief, directed by Michael Mann and starring James Caan and Tuesday Weld. Caan plays a safecracker who's finding it quite impossible to break out of his life of crime. On the other hand, maybe he does find a way... COMING ATTRACTIONS: In our next episode we'll be looking at a pair of beloved films that have had unfortunate side effects. We'll sta...

Both Episode 75 and 76 (this one) have been called "allegory" episodes, but in the interest of transparency we should note that in both cases they're specifically anti-Capitalist allegories. Last time around it was Westerns, and this week we're looking at Gangster movies. And we begin with The Long Good Friday (1981), directed by John Mackenzie and starring Bob Hoskins and Helen...

In Part 2 of our episode, The Claim (2000) was directed by Michael Winterbottom and stars Peter Mullan, Sarah Polley, Wes Bentley and Milla Jovovich. This one has a similar theme to McCabe, though the romance side is pushed a little more forward. But there are many striking similarities between the two films, as different as they are. COMING ATTRACTIONS: In Reel 76, we look at another pair of alle...

This week (and next) we'll be looking at films that use genre as an overlay for their larger message. And we begin with two films that use the Western genre to convey their messages. We start with McCabe and Mrs. Miller (1971), directed by Robert Altman and starring Warren Beatty and Julie Christie, along with several others from the Altman stable of actors. We often see this film listed as an...

In Part 2 of our episode, we look at There Will Be Blood (2007), directed by Paul Thomas Anderson and starring Daniel Day-Lewis, along with Paul Dano and Kevin J. O'Connor. Day-Lewis is one of the early oil tycoons whose greed takes him down a strange and destructive path. COMING ATTRACTIONS: In our next episode, we look at Westerns being used as an anti-Capitalist allegory. What? Yes, indeed,...

Never mind what Gordon Gekko told you, for lack of a better term. Greed almost invariably leads to a downfall of some kind, and in some cases people learn their lesson and in others, they don't. In this episode we see both sides of that coin, and we start with The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948), directed by John Huston and starring Humphrey Bogart, Tim Holt and Walter Huston. They're...

In Part 2 of our episode, we look at A Most Wanted Man, a 2014 film directed by Anton Corbijn and starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, Rachel McAdams, Willem Dafoe, Robin Wright, and a host of others. Again, a powerful cast of actors. Hoffman stars as the head of a covert German team that's trying to root out Islamic terrorist cells. While it's not a Cold War story specifically, there is some...

We conclude our series of spy films with another pair of movies based on the novels of John LeCarre. In Episode 72 we had a strictly Cold War vibe going on; this time it's more of a mixed bag. So we'll start with a Cold War story with Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy , the 2011 film directed by Tomas Alfredson and featuring an amazing ensemble cast including Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Tom Hardy, B...

In Part 2 of our episode, we look at 1990s The Russia House, starring Sean Connery and Michelle Pfeiffer. This film, directed by Fred Schepisi, features Connery as a British Intelligence agent (wait...what?) who's looking for the author of a sensitive Soviet manuscript whose contents, if true, could mean a great deal to the Intelligence Community. COMING ATTRACTIONS: Next time, we stick with L...

Our look at Spy films takes a more serious turn with this look at a pair of movies based on John LeCarre novels. We start with The Spy Who Came In From the Cold (1965), directed by Martin Ritt and starring Richard Burton and Claire Bloom. It's a tale of a spy who chooses one more mission instead of coming in after a Cold War mission goes wrong. In Part 2, we'll move on to The Russia House,...

In the second half of our episode, we're reviewing the Zucker/Abrahams/Zucker parody Top Secret! starring Val Kilmer playing an Elvis/Beach Boys pop star who is invited to perform in East Germany as a means of distraction from a plot to destroy NATO submarines. Typical of most ZAZ films, it's chock full of weird sight gags, bent cliches and multi-layered jokes that don't distract (much...

What happens when you're an Ordinary Schmoe who suddenly gets sucked into the spy game? This is what we're exploring this week, as we look at a pair of films dedicated to the proposition that anyone can become a spy, if they're stupid enough. We start with The In-Laws , from 1979 and directed by Arthur Hiller. Peter Falk and Alan Arkin are soon-to-be in-laws who get caught up in an int...

In Part Two of our episode, we review Cold War, a film from 2018 that follows a couple that can't seem to get their act together, not until the very end, when it's far too late to do anything about it. Wiktor and Zula find themselves on opposite sides of several things, ultimately on opposite sides of the Iron Curtain. He's smitten enough to return to Communist Poland, sacrificing his...

Welcome Back! Sean and Claude took a little Spring Break and we hope you were able to do the same. For our 70th episode, we take a peek at two films that involve couples dealing with life on the other side of the Iron Curtain. Part One features The Unbearable Lightness of Being, directed by Philip Kaufman and starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Juliette Binoche and Lena Olin. In this film we have a couple...

In this half of the show, we jump to the early 1960s as four more icons come together ONE NIGHT IN MIAMI...(2020). This meeting is a little more contentious than in INSIGNIFICANCE, and while this meeting didn't happen, the characters and their reactions have a truthful feel that allows you to believe it would have been exactly like this. COMING ATTRACTIONS: Next time around, we look at love du...