111 minute running time so 11 minutes too long … this is a classic though, definitely a green-go. (John Farr also recommended it.) Maybe they could have cut out the “Wolf” storyline to get it down to 100 minutes? Could have been near-perfect if they just tightened it up a bit to keep it to the sacred 100 minute mark.
Hard to screencap trademark sneer
118 minute running time so about 20 minutes too long, which is a shame … this isn’t terrible, I didn’t hate it. The squalor of 1971 New York City on full display as is a glimpse of the World Trade Center (under construction) … Roy Scheider with a bowl cut … Donald Sutherland playing a square but not really … Hanoi Jane wearing her corduroy jacket and no bra to see her therapist … It gets a solid yellow rating, though John Farr recommended it. There were a lot of decent 1971 movies (French Connection, Straw Dogs, etc.), and this one fits right in there to give a flavor of the times.
Jane not darning socks in Tuscarora
These are the best thriller / mystery movies of the 1990s according to John Farr. I’ve arranged them chronologically below:
English-language movies:
Goodfellas (1990)
Hidden Agenda (1990)
Miller's Crossing (1990)
Reversal of Fortune (1990)
The Grifters (1990)
The Hunt for Red October (1990)
The Rapture (1991)
Thelma and Louise (1991)
A Few Good Men (1992)
Let Him Have It (1992)
Malcolm X (1992)
One False Move (1992)
Reservoir Dogs (1992)
The Crying Game (1992)
Carlito's Way (1993)
The Fugitive (1993)
True Romance (1993)
Clean, Shaven (1994)
Fresh (1994)
Heavenly Creatures (1994)
Pulp Fiction (1994)
Speed (1994)
The Last Seduction (1994)
Apollo 13 (1995)
Dead Man Walking (1995)
Heat (1995)
Seven (1995)
Sister My Sister (1995)
The Usual Suspects (1995)
To Die For (1995)
Bound (1996)
Fargo (1996)
Lone Star (1996)
Primal Fear (1996)
Cop Land (1997)
Donnie Brasco (1997)
Hard Eight (1997)
Jackie Brown (1997)
L.A. Confidential (1997)
The Apostle (1997)
A Simple Plan (1998)
Croupier (1998)
Following (1998)
Out of Sight (1998)
The Big Lebowski (1998)
The Interview (1998)
A Civil Action (1999)
The Insider (1999)
The Sixth Sense (1999)
The War Zone (1999)
Foreign-language movies:
Good Evening, Mr. Wallenberg (1990) (Swedish)
Monsieur Hire (1990) (French)
La Femme Nikita (1991) (French)
Europa (1992) (German)
Hard-Boiled (1992) (Cantonese)
Man Bites Dog (1992) (French)
71 Fragments of a Chronology of Chance (1994) (German)
The Kingdom (1994) (Danish)
La Promesse (1996) (French)
Zero Kelvin (1996) (Norwegian)
Brother (1997) (Russian)
Character (1997) (Dutch)
Funny Games (1997) (German)
Insomnia (1997) (Norwegian)
Open Your Eyes (1997) (Spanish)
Secrets of the Heart (1997) (Spanish)
Seventh Heaven (1997) (French)
Winter Sleepers (1997) (German)
Run Lola Run (1998) (German)
Secret Defense (1998) (French)
In China They Eat Dogs (1999) (Danish)
Running Out of Time (1999) (Cantonese)
2024 Release. High Polish Rose Gold. Deep Carve.
2024 Release. High Polish Green. Deep Carve.
2024 release. High Polish Blue. Deep Carve. Crystal affixed.
In French. 118 minute running time so 18 minutes too long. The French title of this is “Les Valseuses” which is slang for “the balls.” This was a strange one, lots of vulgar sexual stuff and nudity, lots of criminality, but it’s also really hilarious and totally absurd, you could tell they had fun making it … young Gerard Depardieu strutting around in his tight pants … definitely not a Hollywood movie … Clockwork Orange must have inspired them and this movie in turn probably inspired Tarantino … I can’t recommend it like John Farr did (“a roguishly erotic, almost nihilistic buddy film”), but I’m glad I saw it and give it a solid yellow rating. I’ve got to check out more of Bertrand Blier’s work.
The back of the DVD case has a blurb from Pauline Kael: “an explosively funny erotic farce — both a celebration and a satire of men’s daydreams.”
Touching something dirty always brings good luck.
130 minute running time … normally I’d say it’s 30 minutes too long, but will make an exception for Chinatown because it’s one of the best movies of all time … I’ve seen it many times … it’s interesting that Towne wanted a happy ending and it was Polanski who insisted that it ends the way it does… Jack Nicholson was a great actor and this was probably his best role of all time. This is a John Farr reco and of course I second it. Green-go!
Just find the girl.
These are the best thriller / mystery movies of the 1980s according to John Farr. I’ve arranged them chronologically below:
English-language movies:
Dressed to Kill (1980)
The Shining (1980)
Body Heat (1981)
Prince of the City (1981)
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Thief (1981)
Missing (1982)
The Draughtsman's Contract (1982)
The Long Good Friday (1982)
The Year of Living Dangerously (1982)
Scarface (1983)
Silkwood (1983)
The King of Comedy (1983)
A Soldier’s Story (1984)
The Terminator (1984)
Blood Simple (1985)
Dance with a Stranger (1985)
Runaway Train (1985)
Witness (1985)
Blue Velvet (1986)
Mona Lisa (1986)
Fatal Attraction (1987)
House of Games (1987)
The Untouchables (1987)
Dead Ringers (1988)
Die Hard (1988)
Mississippi Burning (1988)
The Accused (1988)
Do the Right Thing (1989)
Drugstore Cowboy (1989)
Sea of Love (1989)
Foreign-language movies:
The Last Metro (1980) (French)
L'Argent (1983) (French)
Cop Au Vin (1984) (French)
The Official Story (1985) (Spanish)
Scene of the Crime (1986) (French)
A Short Film About Killing (1987) (Polish)
Story of Women (1988) (French)
The Vanishing (1988) (Dutch)
The Killer (1989) (Cantonese)
The Seventh Continent (1989) (German)
117 minute running time so around 20 minutes too long … Robert Redford running around the streets of mid-1970s Manhattan, Faye Dunaway and her amazing cheekbones … prominent shots of the World Trade Center, both outside and inside … an old Ford Bronco … his pea coat … the computers and telecom equipment shots … Max von Sydow as bad guy with bad mustache … a CIA within the CIA and paranoia and post-60s conspiracy stuff … this is John Farr reco but it only gets a yellow rating from me, mostly as a period piece.
This whole damn thing was about oil!
In Danish. 104 minutes so just about the right length. The Danes know how to make good movies (and TV), they understand how to tell a story … this is a legit mystery / thriller and good ones are hard to come by, so I’ll give it a green-go … might be hard to find, I had to BUY a copy. This was a John Farr recommendation, and I second it.
Thank you, Sebastian. For being so wonderfully courteous, kind, ordinary, and normal.
In German. 104 minute running time so around the right length. I loved this movie, it was fall-down funny, and it’s mainly because the star, Vitus Zeplichal, is so good. It’s hard to overestimate how much Fassbinder loathes German culture, he’s just scathing… but in a funny, loving way, if you know what I mean. I think I finally understand Fassbinder. Ali: Fear Eats the Soul was a lot less entertaining than this movie. I thank John Farr for this excellent recommendation and I second it. Green-go!
In French. 112 minute running time so at least 12 minutes too long. There was no story here, no arc. It’s just Lea Seydoux and her nice tits and her Twiggy haircut taking public transport in Paris and shuttling her father around to various old folks’ homes while seducing a married guy … I don’t care, I don’t know why John Farr recommended this. Red rating.
110 minute running time so at least ten minutes too long, but this was so terrible that there would be no saving it. What an awful recommendation from John Farr (“an arty, eerie entry for those seeking something different”). Wrong. Scrawny Julie Christy is beautiful and Venice is an interesting city, but this was just no good. Red rating.
These are the best thriller / mystery movies of the 1970s according to John Farr. I’ve arranged them chronologically below:
English-language movies:
10 Rillington Place (1971)
Duel (1971)
Get Carter (1971)
Klute (1971)
Straw Dogs (1971)
The French Connection (1971)
Walkabout (1971)
Deliverance (1972)
Frenzy (1972)
Images (1972)
The Godfather (1972)
Badlands (1973)
Charley Varrick (1973)
Don’t Look Now (1973)
Mean Streets (1973)
Serpico (1973)
The Day of the Jackal (1973)
The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973)
The Offence (1973)
The Sting (1973)
Chinatown (1974)
Murder on the Orient Express (1974)
The Conversation (1974)
The Godfather: Part II (1974)
The Missiles of October (1974)
The Parallax View (1974)
The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974)
The Yakuza (1974)
Thieves Like Us (1974)
Dog Day Afternoon (1975)
Farewell, My Lovely (1975)
Night Moves (1975)
Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975)
Three Days of the Condor (1975)
All The President's Men (1976)
Helter Skelter (1976)
I Only Want You To Love Me (1976)
Marathon Man (1976)
Mikey and Nicky (1976)
Taxi Driver (1976)
The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane (1976)
The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976)
The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith (1977)
The Duellists (1977)
Escape from Alcatraz (1979)
Mad Max (1979)
Scum (1979)
The China Syndrome (1979)
The Great Train Robbery (1979)
The Onion Field (1979)
Foreign-language movies:
La Rupture (1970) (French)
Le Cercle Rouge (1970) (French)
The Conformist (1970) (Italian)
Le Boucher (1971) (French)
Max and the Junkmen (1971) (French)
La Bonne Annee (1973) (French)
Going Places (1974) (French)
Rabid Dogs (1974) (Italian)
The Clockmaker of St. Paul (1974) (French)
Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975) (French)
The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum (1975) (German)
I Only Want You To Love Me (1976) (German)
Mr. Klein (1976) (German)
Violette (1978) (French)
Buffet Froid (1979) (French)
Vengeance Is Mine (1979) (Japanese)
101 minute running time so a good length … this was cute, I enjoyed it, a little contrived of course, a little too sweet, a little too moving, so no green-go … the little girl is beautiful, not sure how much Maori blood she has, but probably more than the white woman who wrote and directed it, lol … a feel-good movie for the whole family to enjoy, but the politics of it are pretty complicated, if you bother to think about it.
And she came on the back of a whale... a woman to lead a new people.
In Scottish (needs subtitles) … 106 minute running time so about 10 minutes too long … more stories of delinquent Scottish youth … a Ken Loach movie, I should have known (he also made Kes (1969), which is one of the greatest movies of all time … I, Daniel Blake also wasn’t bad). This movie wasn’t bad, just predictable and depressing. When the kid seriously considered murder, the audience probably stopped rooting for him. This was a John Farr reco (“a sympathetic portrait of troubled adolescence”), but it only gets a yellow rating from me.
What a waste.
In Bengali. 98 minute running time so the perfect length. I know nothing about the history of Bangladesh (East Pakistan) and how it became independent (so the movie is set before 1971) and the conflict between Hindus and Muslims and about boys being sent off to a madrasa, etc. so I learned a few basic things by watching this movie. I think there was a lot of symbolic stuff within that I didn’t get because I’m too dense. This was a John Farr reco (“lyrical gem”), and I’ll give it a yellow rating at best.
The clay bird laments:"Why did you infuse my heart with longing if you didn't give my wings the strength to fly?"
In French. 90 minute running time so the perfect length, but this was an absurd story and sick and twisted and bad for the soul (Russian roulette thing) … I had to buy a copy of this movie since I couldn’t find it anywhere and now I know why, it’s both dumb and disturbing. Very surprised John Farr recommended this, what a bad call on his part. Supposedly based on a true story, but I doubt it. Red rating.
This is a list of the Best Movies of 2007 according to John Farr. I find his site hard to navigate, so I create summary lists like this one.
English-language movies:
American Gangster
Boy A
Breach
Chop Shop
Control
Into the Wild
Juno
Knocked Up
Longford
Michael Clayton
My Winnipeg
No Country for Old Men
Paranormal Activity
Ratatouille
Superbad
The Kite Runner
The Namesake
The Savages
The Visitor
There Will Be Blood
Foreign-language movies:
4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days (Romanian)
5 Centimeters Per Second (Japanese)
A Secret (French)
Beaufort (Hebrew)
Bliss (Turkish)
Caramel (Arabic)
Cargo 200 (Russian)
Flight of the Red Balloon (French)
I Served the King of England (Czech)
Jellyfish (Hebrew)
Katyn (Polish)
La Vie En Rose (French)
Letters from Iwo Jima (Japanese)
Like Stars on Earth (Hindi)
Love and Honor (Japanese)
Lust, Caution (Mandarin)
Maldeamores (Spanish)
Mirush (Albanian)
Mongol (Mongolian)
My Father, My Lord (Hebrew)
Persepolis (French)
REC (Spanish)
Secret Sunshine (Korean)
Silent Light (Spanish)
The Band’s Visit (Hebrew)
The Counterfeiters (German)
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (French)
The Edge of Heaven (German)
The Orphanage (Spanish)
The Pool (Hindi)
Under the Bombs (Arabic)
Volver (Spanish)
Yella (German)
English-language documentaries:
Atlantic Records: The House That Ahmet Built
Bomb It
Chris & Don: A Love Story
Constantine's Sword
Dreams to Remember: The Legacy of Otis Redding
Encounters at the End of the World
For the Bible Tells Me So
Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson
Martha Graham: Dance on Film
Mr. Warmth: The Don Rickles Project
No End in Sight
Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience
Pete Seeger: The Power of Song
Sicko
Steep
Surfwise
Taxi to the Dark Side
The Devil Came on Horseback
The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters
The Rape of Europa
Trumbo
Uncounted: The New Math of American Elections
War Dance
Young @ Heart
Foreign-language documentary:
Her Name Is Sabine
