4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on February 29, 2020

In our ongoing series, we continue shining a light on classic actors we think more people should get to know. This week our focus is none other than Montgomery Clift! Monty Clift was one of the unsung champions of a new brand of acting that bridged the gap between the...   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on February 27, 2020

There’s little quibbling over what the inciting action in this film might be. It’s titled Accident for a reason. The serenity of an English home is disrupted by screeching tires and then a horrendous, blood-curdling crash following in its wake. But the sequence is as much indebted to si   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on February 25, 2020

I am tempted to call The Swimmer a pretentious fable about the waters of life. It is set in the upper echelon of Connecticut society, but the same cross-section might hold true in California as well. In fact, one could say this film effectively extends the pool metaphor of The...   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on February 22, 2020

I once had the opportunity to tour Louisa May Alcott’s house on a family vacation. It’s one of those experiences I’m not sure you appreciate until you have the time and space to look back on it. However, even then I think there was this innate understanding of how this...   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on February 20, 2020

“I saw a Rohmer film once; it was kinda like watching paint dry.” – Gene Hackman as Harry Moseby Gene Hackman is still with us but unlike others who are predisposed to continue working, he was content in setting a hard and fast end to his acting career. All that...   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on February 18, 2020

“When you’re 16, they call it sweet 16. When you’re 18, you get to drink, vote, and see dirty movies. What the hell do you get to do when you’re 19?” Oftentimes sports films are memorable for merely pioneering underdog stories or analogous themes meant to inspire. But t   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on February 15, 2020

Here is the latest in our ongoing series of, hopefully, manageable beginner’s guides to classic movie stars by curating 4 films to watch, while slipping in innumerable more to consider for future reference. This week our figure of note is Paul Newman actor extraordinaire who became a much-love   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on February 14, 2020

“That’s the thing about secrets. We all know stuff about each other; we just don’t know the same stuff.” The Last of Sheila is an intricate murder mystery with origins in real-life parlor games put on by Anthony Perkins and Stephen Sondheim for some of their socialite friends   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on February 12, 2020

We usually think of filmmakers like Woody Allen or even Noah Baumbach for their portrayals of New York. There’s no doubt they have left their imprint on the city, so it’s difficult not to envision it without their influences. However, in his own right, Sidney Lumet also deserves to be...   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on February 10, 2020

Martin Scorsese will always be synonymous with Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, and Goodfellas, but if we want to truly chart his ascension as a singular creative mind, Mean Streets must be our genesis. Because it essentially lays the groundwork for his entire career. In truth, it’s the strangest ga   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on February 8, 2020

With this ongoing series, our goal is to help people who are new to classic movies, get a foothold. To make it easy, we give you 4 representative choices and then some supplementary options. Sadly, with the passing of Kirk Douglas earlier this week at 103 years of age, it...   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on February 7, 2020

I heard in an interview director Bong Joon-ho had the idea for Parasite percolating in his mind for a long time, and it was born out of the most curious forms of inspiration. In college, he used to tutor English for the child of a rich family. From that point...   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on February 6, 2020

One of the greats is gone. At 103 years of age, Issur Danielovitch, known to movie lovers over as Kirk Douglas has finally left us. In full transparency, if he was up against Robert Mitchum I would have probably sided with Bob. If he was facing off with Burt Lancaster...   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on February 5, 2020

I was trying to recall if the actual word “arabesque” was ever uttered in the movie. Granted, in a narrative like this, it’s just as easy for something to fly over your head. There’s comparable lingo bandied about pertaining to ciphers and hieroglyphs, mentioned in the conte   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on February 3, 2020

“Most people will do in the dark what they never would think of doing in the light.” Mirage takes full advantage of one of those grab-you-right-away openings. The scene commences in the dark, there’s a power outage, candles are flickering, and voices call out up and down the corri   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on February 1, 2020

I never thought I’d be saying this about a Woody Allen film, but it feels more like a technical marvel than purely a testament to story or dialogue. Although The Purple Rose of Cairo did something similarly compelling, Zelig is literally a film relying on a look that is authentic...   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on January 30, 2020

“They just live in the same house and kill each other a little at a time, and I’m in the middle.” – George Hamilton The beauty of Home from The Hill is how it systematically works against our preconceived notions of what it will be, repeatedly asserting itself in new...   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on January 28, 2020

I recall my dad sharing a recollection about On The Beach. Back when it came out he went to the drive-in with his family, and they took in the movie. He fell asleep part of the way through only to wake up and the movie was still going. While not...   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on January 26, 2020

Ever since the days of his James Cain-infused Jerichow, it’s been apparent German writer-director Christian Petzold is indebted to the written word when it comes to his brand of filmmaking. However, this time around he takes an oddly unnerving stroke of brilliance by setting his usual period p   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on January 24, 2020

Kudos must be extended to Richard Linklater for actually being proactive and going out to shoot the movie countless of us have doubtlessly tossed around in our mind’s eye. Taking our town — the places we know intimately — and building a portmanteau out of it with a group of...   read more