With One Battle After Another, Paul Thomas Anderson masterfully threads the needle on a hyper-political film in this highly contentious era of American politics that manages to furiously punch in all directions, refrain from devolving into soapboxing, and above all, remain eminently entertaining.
The Phoenician Scheme belongs to that crop of Anderson films in which the filmmaker’s own cleverness overwhelms any skerrick of humanity that might have ended up on the screen.
What About Bob? lifts into that small collection of comedy films that you love to know like the back of your hand.
Adam West knows how silly his lines and actions are, and refrains from phoning them in or taking them too seriously.
It’s impossible to deny that it broke new ground and that many subsequent games have built upon it, and it deserves much of the retrospective praise it gets.
Linklater simply wants us to listen and observe, rather than to actively show us or tell us anything.
Time Bandits is whimsical and fantastical, sure, but it has an unsettling undercurrent emanating from the eclectic mind of Gilliam.
The character study remains submerged beneath a gloss of comedic and stylistic flourishes.
