4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on February 7, 2019

Right away, in the very first moments, we know something’s amiss when the driver of a passing wagon notes to the woman at his side that they just passed her father…and they proceed to keep going without even a word of greeting. It’s true that Ramrod is a riff on the age-old fami   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on February 5, 2019

It speaks not only to the man but to this film, that Joel McCrea rated Stars in My Crown among his personal favorites. (Hint: It’s not because of the imminent reunion of two castmembers in Gunsmoke). The story is framed by the nostalgic recollections of an old man and it’s...   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on February 3, 2019

Filmed in Central Oregon on the eve of winter, Day of The Outlaw displays gorgeously fluffy photography as the snow covers the ground. With the leading part anchored by Robert Ryan, I could not but help recall his portrayal in Nicholas Ray’s On Dangerous Ground (1951), another project that ma   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on February 2, 2019

“Boy oh, boy has somebody come to town!” – Gabby Hayes How else is there to describe Gabby Hayes except for a cantankerous old cuss? When we first set eyes on him he’s berating his old mare for making him spill his liquor although he’s already swigged down quite the...   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on February 1, 2019

Alfonso Cuaron is always a director whom I’ve admired from a far whether it be Harry Potter or Gravity (2013), but I would stop short of saying I’ve felt a connection to any of his work. Not that it is not there, I simply have not been affected in a specific way....   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on January 31, 2019

“Elementary My Dear Watson” owes its indelible stature in the lexicon hall of fame to this second installment in 20th Century Fox’s Sherlock Holmes series. The studio obviously did not gather the phrase to have that much resonance as they gave up on the franchise only to have it b   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on January 31, 2019

The film has an opening gambit that nearly feels unbecoming of a John Wayne picture and yet there’s something simultaneously quite riveting about it. You can’t quite take your eyes off of it, waiting to see what will come to pass. Our narrator sets the scene in 1909 where, while...   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on January 30, 2019

Though there’s not a shred of doubt this picture was filmed on a Hollywood backlot, our story takes place in 1889 on the Moors of Dartmoor in Devonshire. It’s all very British and when you do a quick scan of the most British figures coming out of literature and pop...   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on January 27, 2019

Summer 1993 is a testament to subtleties which can make a film into something imbued with deeper meanings than what we might initially realize. It begins with the title immediately asserting this is a period piece and also implicitly we have the suggestion of the autobiographical. The postcript ded   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on January 25, 2019

Tragedy in life starts with the bondage of parents and children. The film opens with a single extended scene with the title card reading: Shinshu, Central Japan 1923. Ozu guides us in with his pillow shots framing the story’s sequences with images of his locales which neither serve the narrat   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on January 23, 2019

The translated English title of Mr. Thank You somehow comes off insincere as if it’s making fun but there’s nothing of this kind of sentiment in this picture from director Hiroshi Shumizu. It proves to be a cordial exploration of human nature and human kindness played out in the most...   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on January 22, 2019

Put in juxtaposition with Kon Ichikawa’s later rumination on WWII, The Burmese Harp is a romanticized even simplistic account of the Japanese perspective of the war. However,  this is not to discount the mesmerizing nature of the story that is woven nor the overarching truth that seems to ling   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on January 21, 2019

The opening images of Fires on the Plain nearly catch you off guard. Not only are we thrown into a dialogue sequence that we have yet to grasp but much like Ozu would have a penchant for doing, director Kon Ichikawa photographs two Japanese soldiers head on so their conversation and...   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on January 19, 2019

Hirokazu Kore-eda has quickly become one of my favorite Japanese directors and I consider it fortuitous that this affinity has cropped up in such a fertile period. Shoplifters is a high water mark in his already illustrious career. Many folks are probably quick to label him the modern generation&#82   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on January 18, 2019

If I didn’t know any better I would say what the desires of the kids at the center of this early Bergman picture, sound like the American Dream. Except maybe it’s the Swedish Dream and maybe the main tenets are all but universal to many of the wide-eyed, angsty teens out there. The...   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on January 16, 2019

I’ve always been fascinated with individuals who have blurred the line between the film critic and actual contributors to the industry. Notable examples, of course, being the boys at Cahiers du Cinema, Frank S. Nugent, James Agee, Paul Schrader, even Roger Ebert, and certainly Peter Bogdanovi   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on January 14, 2019

Andrei Tarkovsky has already left such an indelible impression on me even after only seeing a couple of his films. This already makes it very easy to place him atop that ever fluctuating, never quite established, constantly quarreled over, list of the greatest filmmakers of all time. He’s sub   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on January 12, 2019

The onus is on every new superhero movie to delineate itself from the pack by sidestepping the plethora of genre cliches. It’s almost assumed they have something fresh to say about superheroes with their origin stories, self-actualizations, inner demons, and ultimate ascension to defeat the en   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on January 11, 2019

I’ve always maintained a great admiration for Terence Malick, even after only seeing two of his most renowned pictures, Days of Heaven (1978) and Tree of Life (2011). This a testament to his intuitive understanding of the image and how gloriously sublime it can be. It’s true his picture   read more

4 Star Films Posted by 4 Star Film Fan on January 10, 2019

Pather Panchali is one of those films that instantly helps you to recognize the merit of the cinema. It’s a cultural artifact allowing us to come to grips with the fact there is a world far larger than our little pocket of existence. Satyajit Ray does that for us here in...   read more