4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Films on April 25, 2026

I was a high school student decades later, and I’ve only taught in a classroom on a very limited basis. And yet, these experiences made me recognize one of the continual ironies of public education. Sometimes it feels like th   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Films on April 23, 2026

Some Kind of Wonderful announces itself in all its ’80s glory with a montage of drums, synths, working-class grease monkeys tinkering on cars, and a pair of teens making out. There’s no doubt it’s a John Hughes movie, and though Howard Deutch   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Films on April 21, 2026

Wargames is a movie for the age of “Star Wars,” and by Star Wars, I’m referring to Ronald Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative. Because, despite detente, these are still the days of the Cold War, mutually assured destruction, and the threat of nuclear holocaust. Warm and fuz   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Films on March 25, 2026

Taking nothing away from Judy, it does feel like there’s something propitious about Astaire and Rogers getting back together one last time instead. Because Easter Parade is such a delight, it also makes what we missed out on a little less painful, and what we got in its place all...   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Films on March 23, 2026

Fred Astaire as Dr. Tony Flagg is quite the piece of casting, and the situation gets more outlandish when she happens to overhear some of his condescending dictation about the female psyche. By the time he calls her in for psychoanalysis with perfect candor, she’s already wise to him becoming   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Films on March 18, 2026

Fred Astaire stars as a gum-smacking sailor, Blake Baker. He wears the abrasiveness lightly because he was always an appealing personality beyond his graceful taps. Randolph Scott takes on the role of the best bud, Bilge Smith, as they continue their pairing from Roberta. Astaire similarly   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Films on March 16, 2026

The boys need a fallback plan fast. Huck Haines (Fred Astaire) vaguely knows a girl named Lizzie, and John Kent (Randolph Scott), well, his aunt just happens to be the most famous dressmaker in the city. Only in the movies… Time is of the essence, and so he pays the...   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Films on February 26, 2026

For others, it’s a moneymaking proposition. For him, it’s solely mercenary. The first sign of real dough, and he parlays it into a trip to England. It seems ludicrous, but it also shows how determined Clay is to get there. The question remains, why? With this one jump across the...   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Films on February 24, 2026

There’s an agreeable nostalgia to watching the dying breed of programmer. It opens and feels a bit like a Leave It to Beaver episode. Pete Wilson (Victor Mature) invites himself over to the home of his friend Tim McCarr (Sonny Tufts) and his good-natured wife Penny (Jeff Donnell). The   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Films on February 5, 2026

Below, I highlighted some of the other movies and documentaries I watched in 2025 and managed to jot down a few thoughts. Thanks for reading! Like the modern biopic, it’s cheekily self-aware, but it’s also good fun. Koln 75 slaloms through time and space, Germ   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Films on February 3, 2026

I compiled some reviews of a handful of the films that stood out to me from this past year. Please enjoy! I had the opportunity to spend a long summer in England when I was just a year older than Amelie. It’s that time as much as my time living...   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Films on January 29, 2026

One of the virtues of Married to the Mob is how it never takes itself too seriously, and it’s this awareness that makes it a pleasure to be a part of. Demme had some kinship with Martin Scorsese, and it’s like he’s readily exploring the other director’s usual milieu   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Films on January 27, 2026

Peggy Sue (Kathleen Turner) attends her 25th high school reunion with her daughter (Helen Hunt), reconnecting with old friends even as she rues her relationship with her husband and high school sweetheart (Nicolas Cage). She’s christened the evening’s queen of the class and faints from t   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Films on January 22, 2026

At first, I wasn’t sure what to expect from the picture. I thought it might be a comedia italiana or maybe a crime picture, but one in the vein of Big Deal on Madonna Street   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Films on December 19, 2025

There’s a blatant absurdity in the premise of Meet Me in Las Vegas. Sitting on the casino floor, Chuck Rodwell grabs hold of a passing woman for good luck (This would not fly today). However, this particular lady is the management’s new floor show, and she’s prepared to wa   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Films on December 17, 2025

The action quickly gets transposed from New York to France. The reason doesn’t matter much. However, the aforementioned Mr. Jervis happens to wander onto the premises of a local orphanage in search of a telephone. Instead, he discovers a young woman named Julie Andre (Leslie Caron) from a resp   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Films on December 15, 2025

Leslie Caron always cast an image of a sweet young gamine presaging Audrey Hepburn, and thus, early in her career, it’s a masterstroke to cast her in the role of a destitute orphan with nowhere to go. Set in provincial Hollywood — somewhere vague and still distinctly French, Lili (Caron)   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Films on November 24, 2025

Like poor Ida Lupino in Woman in Hiding, we meet her in the dead of night on the road. It’s evident she’s frantic and on the run from something. She gets picked up by a truc   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Films on November 22, 2025

Someone emerges and descends on the flustered secretary. Moments later, she winds up hung from the ceiling — a grisly murder framed as suicide. For ’40s Hollywood, it doesn’t pull punches. Since Totter is a consummate femme fatale, it’s easy to question what angle she could p   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Films on November 20, 2025

The Chase opens as a wonderful contrivance of noir done up in a couple of successive visuals. A bedraggled man (Robert Cummings) stares through a shop window at a griddle laden with fresh bacon and hot cakes. He leans in so his hat brim mashes up against the glass, and...   read more