“Cagney’s sadistic lead in ‘White Heat,’ a searing 1949 crime drama from director Raoul Walsh, is something well past the norms of a conventional male protagonist — or antagonist, for that matter.”
“Confronted, challenged and upended throughout the course of Michael Cimino’s ‘The Deer Hunter,’ conventional notions of masculinity are routinely conditional to the film’s dominant shifts in setting and tone.”
“It is a vigorous and violent film, epic and enchanting, probing and revelatory and voluminous in its ornate, cohesive and exhaustive production design…”
“As much as ‘Hoop Dreams’ concerns the sports-centric plight of William and Arthur, it is perhaps even more significantly an illustrative case study of what perpetually imperils men (and women) of a certain social, economic and racial constitution.”
“El Topo’s twisted connotations maintain an enduring, mind-bending eminence, and its aesthetic allure persists because of the unrestrained possibility inherent in all that Jodorowsky does.”
“As it’s applied to ‘Strike,’ Eisenstein’s methodology is generally simplified, with an occasional leaning toward crude hyperbole.”
“Trailing World War II’s devastation and the associative confirmation of just what mankind can propagate, so much of the film’s constitution derives from a reflective glimpse at the challenging state of the American soul…”
“Despite all its formal virtues, ‘Sweet Smell of Success’ seems to exist somewhere beyond auteurist canonization or even the traditional Hollywood studio stock.”
“‘The Red Shoes’ dynamically crosses from reality to fantasy, befitting a film that is itself a grand fiction, simultaneously reflecting and critiquing a true reality. That’s the power of cinema — that’s the power of ‘The Red Shoes.’”
“Erratic and masochistic, Oscar and Mildred treat life like a play, with self-conscious actions, pronounced exits and entrances, and an overwhelming flair for the dramatic.”
