Faust (1926)

Essential ViewingGermanyFeature FilmDirector: F.W. MurnauWriters: Gerhart Hauptmann, Hans Kyser, Johann Wolfgang von GoetheCinematographer: Carl HoffmannComposer: Timothy Brock (1995)Cast: Gösta Ekman, Emil Jannings, Camilla Horn, Frida Richard, William Dieterle, Yvette Guilbert, Eric Barclay, Hanna Ralph, Werner Fuetterervon Goethe’s Faust – in which forces of Good and Evil, battling over possession of the Earth, decide to settle their dispute by...

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Che Part One (2008)

Cautiously RecommendedFrance/Spain/USAFeature FilmDirector: Steven SoderberghWriters: Peter Buchman, Ernesto Che GuevaraCinematographer: Steven Soderbergh (as Peter Andrews)Composer: Alberto IglesiasCast: Benicio Del Toro, Demián Bichir, Santiago Cabrera, Vladimir Cruz, Alfredo De Quesada, Jsu García, Kahlil Méndez, Elvira Mínguez, Andrés Manuel Munar, Julia Ormond, Catalina Sandino MorenoSoderbergh’s admirably restrained and authentic feeling yet...

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Of Time and the City (2008)

RecommendedUKFeature DocumentaryWriter/Director/Narrator: Terence DaviesCinematographer: Tim PollardDavies’s expertly crafted cinepoem – an ode to the Liverpool of the great film-maker’s youth, as well as a mediation on the effects of time and progress, and a soul-baringly beautiful piece of self portraiture (bitchy, effervescent, elegiac, insightful, nostalgic) – shows the exalted Liverpudlian at both his best and his worst: delightful. Iain.St...

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There Will Be Blood (2007)

RecommendedUSAFeature FilmDirector: Paul Thomas AndersonWriters: Paul Thomas Anderson, Upton SinclairCinematographer: Robert ElswitComposer: Jonny GreenwoodCast: Daniel Day-Lewis, Paul Dano, Kevin J O'Connor, Ciaran Hinds, Dillon Freasier, Russell HarvardAnderson’s brash and dazzling yet rather cold adaptation of Upton Sinclair’s 1927 novel, Oil! – a tale of greed, corruption, oil, and religion in early 20th century America – almost fatally focuses...

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The Young Ladies of Wilko (1979)

Highly RecommendedPoland/FranceFeature FilmOriginal Title: Panny z WilkaDirector: Andrzej WajdaWriters: Zbigniew Kaminski, Jaroslaw IwaszkiewiczCinematographer: Edward KlosinskiCast: Daniel Olbrychski, Anna Seniuk, Maja Komorowska, Stanislawa Celinska, Krystyna Zachwatowicz, Christine Pascal, Zbigniew Zapasiewicz, Zofia JaroszewskaWajda’s quiet, gentle, elegiac tale - in which a doleful gent, following the death of a close friend (lover?), retreats to his aunt and uncle’s house in the country to recuperate, unearthing memories, both pleasant and...

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Silent Light (2007)

Highly RecommendedMexico/France/Germany/The NetherlandsFeature FilmOriginal Title: Stellet lichtWriter/Director: Carlos ReygadasCinematographer: Alexis ZabeCast: Cornelio Wall, Maria Pankratz, Miriam Toews, Peter WallReygadas’s third film, following the curious misstep of Battle in Heaven (2005) and the acclaimed Japón (2002), is a film of rare power; ostensibly about the effects of an extra-marital affair amongst Mexico’s German speaking Mennonite...

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The Heiress (1949)

Highly RecommendedUSAFeature FilmDirector: William WylerWriters: Augustus Goetz, Ruth Goetz, Henry JamesCinematographer: Leo ToverComposer: Aaron CoplandCast: Olivia de Havilland, Montgomery Clift, Ralph Richardson, Miriam Hopkins, Betty LinleyAdapted by husband and wife team Augustus and Ruth Goetz from their own 1947 play, which itself was based on Henry James’s short story Washington Square (1880), Wyler’s masterful depiction of the cynical awakening...

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The Dream Life of Angels (1998)

RecommendedFranceFeature FilmOriginal Title: La vie rêvée des angesDirector: Erick ZoncaWriters: Roger Bohbot, Pierre Chosson, Erick ZoncaCinematographers: Agnès Godard, Dominique Le RigoleurComposer: Yann TiersenCast: Élodie Bouchez, Natacha Régnier, Grégoire Colin, Patrick Mercado, Jo PrestiaZonca’s acclaimed feature debut - a delicate exploration of a tentatively formed friendship between two dispossessed, disparate young women, living in a drab, grey Lille, depicting their romantic and financial woes as they attempt to find their place in the...

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L'Argent (1983)

RecommendedFrance/SwitzerlandFeature FilmOriginal Title: L'argentDirector: Robert BressonWriters: Robert Bresson, Leo TolstoyCinematographers: Pasqualino De Santis, Emmanuel MachuelCast: Christian Patey, Vincent Risterucci, Caroline Lang, Sylvie Van den Elsen, Béatrice Tabourin, Didier Baussy, Marc Ernest Fourneau, Bruno LapeyreBresson’s final film – based on a Tolstoy short story, depicting the social inequalities rife in society and the evils of...

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Uzak (2002)

Essential ViewingTurkeyFeature FilmWriter/Director/Cinematographer: Nuri Bilge CeylanCast: Muzaffer Özdemir, Emin ToprakThere are allusions to Tarkovsky throughout Ceylan’s Cannes favourite – a beautifully moving and subtly witty exploration of the disparate ways in which we manage to build barriers between ourselves and those around us – but its tone and content are perhaps closer in spirit to the bitter-sweet delights of Ozu and Tsai, taking,...

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Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills (1996)

RecommendedUSAFeature DocumentaryDirectors: Joe Berlinger, Bruce SinofskyCinematographer: Robert RichmanComposers: MetalicaBerlinger and Sinofsky’s slightly exploitative yet revealing and even-handed documentary, covering the trials of three West Memphis teenagers, accused of the brutal killings of a trio of eight-year-old boys, is a film that casts serious doubts over the courts’ rulings, but one that also paints a rather disturbing portrait of a community where gods and devils have a greater influence on the everyday lives of its inhabitants...

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Red Road (2006)

Highly RecommendedUK/DenmarkFeature FilmDirector: Andrea ArnoldWriters: Andrea Arnold, Anders Thomas Jensen, Lone ScherfigCinematographer: Robbie RyanCast: Kate Dickie, Tony Curran, Martin Compston, Natalie PressArnold’s feature debut – a devastatingly moving thriller (one sequence is guaranteed to crush even the hardest of hearts), the first part of a prospective British/Danish co-produced trilogy, involving the same group of charcters and settings...

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Eureka (2000)

Highly RecommendedJapan/FranceFeature FilmWriter/Director: Aoyama ShinjiCinematographer: Tamura MasakiComposers: Aoyama Shinji, Yamada IsaoCast: Yakusho Kōji, Miyazaki Aoi, Miyazaki Masaru, Saito Yoichiro, Kokushō Sayuri, Mitsuishi KenAoyama’s elegiac, sepia-toned, three-and-a-half hour examination of grief and post-traumatic stress in a small Japanese town – depicting the curious behaviour of the three survivors of a bus-jacking that ended bloodily,...

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In Bruges (2008)

RecommendedUK/USAFeature FilmWriter/Director: Martin McDonaghCinematographer: Eigil BryldComposer: Carter BurwellCast: Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Ralph Fiennes, Clémence Poésy, Jérémie Renier, Thekla ReutenAn oft hilarious trip to picturesque Bruges in the company of two disparate hitmen, hiding out after an assignment gone terribly wrong, playwright McDonagh’s film debut is a black comedy of a rare breed; not only does it manage to be very,...

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The Landlord (2009)

Cautiously RecommendedUSAFeature FilmWriter/Director: Emil HydeCinematographer: Phil O'NeilComposer: Karen SandvossCast: Derek Dziak, Rom Barkhordar, Michelle Courvais, Erin Myers, Lori Myers, Gloria Coco, Rob McLean, Kurt EhrmannHyde’s ultra-low budget debut - a cheap and cheerful horror/comedy in which the landlord of a flat, occupied by a demon and a god, leases it to unwitting members of the populace despite knowing that he will soon have to clean up the ensuing bloody mess - is a film of considerable charm and wit, and one that even manages...

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The Wrestler (2008)

Highly RecommendedFrance/USAFeature FilmDirector: Darren AronofskyWriter: Robert SiegelCinematographer: Maryse AlbertiComposer: Clint MansellCast: Mickey Rourke, Marisa Tomei, Evan Rachel Wood, Todd Barry, Ernest Miller, Dylan Summers, Tommy FarraDripping with blood, sweat, and pathos, Rourke’s turn is an impressively brutal one, playing a physically and emotionally ravaged, ageing wrestler, struggling to face up to life outside of the ring; but...

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Mum & Dad (2008)

Cautiously RecommendedUKFeature FilmWriter/Director: Steven SheilCinematographer: Jonathan BloomCast: Perry Benson, Dido Miles, Olga Fedori, Ainsley Howard, Toby AlexanderSheil’s low-budget feature debut - a gooey mix of political allegory, social satire, torture porn, family sitcom, and Polesploitation, depicting the sado-sexual home life of the eponymous parents of a group of abused, kidnapped airport workers - is a blackly comic yet often unpleasant and troubling film, boasting some committed performances and convincing effects work. Iain.S...

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Time Out (2001)

Highly RecommendedFranceFeature FilmOriginal Title: L'emploi du tempsDirector: Laurent CantetWriters: Robin Campillo, Laurent CantetCinematographer: Pierre MilonComposer: Jocelyn PookCast: Aurélien Recoing, Karin Viard, Serge Livrozet, Jean-Pierre Mangeot, Monique Mangeot, Nicolas KalschCantet’s unnerving, affecting (and allegorical?) exploration of midlife crisis and capitalist disaffection – in which a man, recently made redundant, keeps up the...

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The Goat Horn (1972)

RecommendedBulgariaFeature FilmOriginal Title: Козият рогDirector: Metodi AndonovWriter: Nikolai HaitovCinematography: Dimo KolarovComposer: Mariya NeykovaCast: Katya Paskaleva, Anton Gorchev, Milen Penev, Todor Kolev, Kliment Denchev, Stefan Mavrodiyev, Nevena Andonova, Marin Yanev, Krasimira PetrovaAndonov’s viscerally charged film - an almost dialogue free snapshot of 17th century Bulgarian country life - in which a goat herder brings up his daughter to have a heart of stone in order to help him gain vengeance upon those that raped and killed...

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After Death (1915)

Cautiously RecommendedRussiaShort Feature FilmOriginal Title: Posle smertiDirector: Evgeni BauerWriters: Evgeni Bauer, Ivan TurgenevCast: Vitold Polonsky, Vera Karalli, Olga Rakhmanova, M. Chalatova, T. GedevanovaThough it’s perhaps a tad melodramatic for modern tastes, and its central plot point of a young woman committing suicide over unrequited love - rather hokey (it might have worked better with hormonal adolescents- à la Romeo and Juliet - rather than the adults that we have here), Bauer’s distinctive film is, never the less, a thoroughly...

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A Zed & Two Noughts (1985)

Highly RecommendedUK/NetherlandsFeature FilmWriter/Director: Peter GreenawayCinematographer: Sacha ViernyComposer: Michael NymanCast: Andréa Ferréol, Brian Deacon, Eric Deacon, Frances Barber, Joss Ackland, Jim Davidson, Agnès Brulet, David AttenboroughIconoclastic film-maker Greenaway’s most enjoyable and accomplished work - a blackly comic, beautifully revolting, and revoltingly beautiful film set in an unnamed zoo in an unnamed city, peopled with eccentrics and oddballs, exploring themes of death & decay and parity & balance, beautifully...

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A One and a Two... (2000)

Highly RecommendedTaiwan/Japan/USAFeature FilmOriginal Title: 一一Writer/Director: Edward YangCinematographer: Yang Wei-hanComposer: Peng Kai-LiCast: Wu Nianzhen, Issey Ogata, Elaine Jin, Kelly Lee, Jonathan Chang, Chen Hsi-Sheng, Ko Su-Yun, Hsiao Shu-shen, Lin Adriene, Yu Pang ChangYang’s exquisite, sprawling family drama – exploring the ups and downs of an extended Taipei family, comparing and contrasting teenaged and middle-aged heartbreak, spiritual...

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To Our Loves (1983)

Cautiously RecommendedFranceFeature FilmOriginal Title: À nos amoursDirector: Maurice PialatWriters: Arlette Langmann, Maurice PialatCinematographer: Jacques LoiseleuxCast: Sandrine Bonnaire, Maurice Pialat, Christophe Odent, Dominique Besnehard, Cyril Collard, Jacques Fieschi, Valérie Schlumberger, Evelyne Ker, Pierre Novion, Tsilka Theodorou, Cyr BoitardPialat’s strangely inconsistent effort - depicting, over an undefined and hard to determine time period, a number of episodes in the life of a sexually precocious young woman, contrasting her...

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A Christmas Tale (2008)

RecommendedFranceFeature FilmOriginal Title: Un conte de NoëlDirector: Arnaud DesplechinWriters: Emmanuel Bourdieu, Arnaud DesplechinCinematographer: Eric GautierComposer: Grégoire HetzelCast: Catherine Deneuve, Jean-Paul Roussillon, Anne Consigny, Mathieu Amalric, Melvil Poupaud, Hippolyte Girardot, Emmanuelle Devos, Chiara Mastroianni, Laurent Capelluto, Emile BerlingExcellent performances abound from the wonderfully assembled cast in Desplechin’s...

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Milk (2008)

RecommendedUSAFeature FilmDirector: Gus Van SantWriter: Dustin Lance BlackCinematographer: Harris SavidesComposer: Danny ElfmanCast: Sean Penn, Emile Hirsch, Josh Brolin, Diego Luna, James Franco, Alison PillDespite Elfman’s occasionally gooily swooning score and the unavoidable genre frailties inherent to the biopic (how many interesting charcters are introduced only to be barely seen again?), Van Sant’s portrait of the (political) life and (physical)...

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Police (1985)

RecommendedFranceFeature FilmDirector: Maurice PialatWriters: Catherine Breillat, Sylvie Danton, Jacques FieschiCinematographer: Luciano TovoliCast: Gérard Depardieu, Sophie Marceau, Richard Anconina, Pascale Rocard, Sandrine Bonnaire, Frank Karaoui, Jonathan Leïna, Jacques Mathou, Bernard Fuzellier, Bentahar MeaachouPialat’s curious film - a Paris-set tale of cops, lawyers, drug dealers, and prostitutes, exploring the odd ways in which their lives collide and intersect - begins as brilliant, authentic-feeling police procedural before gently morphing...

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Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931)

Essential ViewingUSAFeature FilmDirector: Rouben MamoulianWriters: Percy Heath, Samuel Hoffenstein, Robert Louis StevensonCinematographer: Karl StrussCast: Fredric March, Miriam Hopkins, Rose Hobart, Holmes Herbert, Halliwell Hobbes, Edgar Norton, Tempe PigottMamoulian’s wonderful film - the screen’s greatest adaptation of Stevenson’s much filmed novel, combining unparalleled visual poetry, ageless special effects, and some accomplished performances (Hopkins’s portrayal of the sexy and strong yet vulnerable Ivy Pierson is particularly eye-catching)...

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The Man Who Cried (2000)

RecommendedUK/FranceFeature FilmWriter/Director: Sally PotterCinematography: Sacha ViernyComposer: Osvaldo GolijovCast: Christina Ricci, Johnny Depp, Cate Blanchett, John Turturro, Oleg Yankovskiy, Harry Dean Stanton, Miriam Karlin, Claudia Lander-DukeRicci’s beautifully subtle and nuanced performance is the high spot of Potter’s simultaneously unnerving and intoxicating, dream-like period film, which follows a young girl’s music filled journey from the Russian countryside of 1927 to the America of the early ‘40s via pre-war England and war torn...

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The One-Line Review Presents “The 50 Greatest Films”

The ballots are in and the votes counted….The One-Line Review Presents...

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Shoot on Sight (2007)

Best AvoidedUK/USAFeature FilmDirector: Jag MundhraWriters: Carl Austin, Jag Mundhra, Pervaiz AlamCinematographer: Madhu AmbatComposer: John AltmanCast: Naseeruddin Shah, Greta Scacchi, Brian Cox, Ralph Ineson, Stephen Greif, Om Puri, Mikaal Zulfiqar, Gulshan Grover, Laila Rouass, India Wadsworth, Arrun HarkerWith horribly awkward dialogue, hackneyed plotting, a hopelessly incongruent score, a general visual blandness, and more multi-cultural clichés than one could possibly find palatable, this rather earnest thriller, inspired by the London bombings...

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The Dark Knight (2008)

Not RecommendedUSA/UKFeature FilmDirector: Christopher NolanWriters: Christopher Nolan, Jonathan Nolan, David S. GoyerCinematographers: Wally PfisterComposers: James Newton Howard & Hans ZimmerCast: Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Aaron Eckhart, Michael Caine, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Gary Oldman, Morgan FreemanAlthough, perhaps, a slight improvement on the rather silly Batman Begins (2005), Nolan’s painfully long, mildly diverting fantasy film, following...

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The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl (1993)

RecommendedGermany/France/UK/BelgiumFeature DocumentaryOriginal Title: Die Macht der Bilder: Leni RiefenstahlDirector: Ray MüllerCinematographers: Michel Baudour, Walter A. Franke, Ulrich Jaenchen, Jürgen MartinComposers: Ulrich Bassenge, Wolfgang NeumannFeaturing: Leni RiefenstahlMüller’s fascinating rhetorical documentary - a thorough examination of the titular infamous film-maker's life, in which the wilful, irascible 89-year-old pleads ignorance and innocence over charges of Nazi collaboration, whilst Müller’s images often tell a different...

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Nights of Cabiria (1957)

Highly RecommendedItaly/FranceFeature FilmOriginal Title: Le notti di CabiriaDirector: Federico FelliniWriters: Federico Fellini, Ennio Flaiano, Tullio Pinelli, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Maria MolinariCinematographer: Aldo TontiComposer: Nino RotaCast: Giulietta Masina, François Périer, Franca Marzi, Dorian Gray, Aldo Silvani, Ennio Girolami, Mario Passante, Christian Tassou, Amedeo NazzariThe delightful Masina is quite outstanding as the titular Chaplinesque...

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The Visitor (2007)

RecommendedUSAFeature FilmWriter/Director: Tom McCarthy Cinematographer: Oliver BokelbergComposer: Jan A.P. KaczmarekCast: Richard Jenkins, Haaz Sleiman, Danai Gurira, Hiam AbbassWith a plot that contains more holes than Blackburn, Lancashire and character developments that wouldn’t look out of place on CBeebies or Nick Jr., McCarthy’s follow-up to the excellent The Station Agent (2003) - an exploration of a dour widower’s emotional re-awakening after he forms an unlikely friendship with an illegal immigrant from Syria - is, never the less, thanks...

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Wendy and Lucy (2008)

Highly RecommendedUSAFeature FilmDirector: Kelly ReichardtWriters: Jon Raymond, Kelly ReichardtCinematographer: Sam LevyCast: Michelle Williams, Walter Dalton, Will Patton, Will OldhamReichardt and Raymond follow up their previous collaboration, the solemnly beautiful Old Joy (2006), with this deeply moving and achingly sad film in which a down-on-her-luck young woman (the excellent Williams), on her way to Alaska in search of work, encounters a...

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Iain Stott on Critical Mass - Movie Critic Interviews

I am the latest participant in Shane Rivers’s new feature at Only Good Movies, explained in his own words below: “Here at Only Good Movies, we’re about to launch another great feature for your reading enjoyment. Titled “Critical Mass,” it takes the form of an interview with one of the internet’s many movie critics. From the critical celebrities to the guys and gals you’ve never heard of, this series of twelve questions will always remain the same, thus allowing you to compare and contrast the answers from various participants.” My contribution...

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