Category Archives: Film Reviews

Film reviews and analyses. Most recently published is in front.

All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) and A Night to Remember (1958)

Posted on April 3, 2018 by Mark DuPré

All Quiet on the Western Front All Quiet on the Western Front was a Best Picture Oscar winner (and Best Director winner for Lewis Milestone as well) way back in 1930. The version I saw was a restoration with sound … Continue reading →

Posted in Film Reviews, Older Films | Tagged A Night to Remember, All Quiet on the Western Front, Atlantic, Cabaret, Californian, Geoffrey Unsworth, Johnny Belinda, Kenneth More, Lawrence of Arabia, Lew Ayres, Lewis Milestone, Lord of the Rings, Tess, The Front Page, The Third Man, Titanic | Leave a comment

Foreign Correspondent (1940)

Posted on March 19, 2018 by Mark DuPré

I’ve heard over the years that Foreign Correspondent is “minor Hitchcock,” which of course begs an understanding of what “minor” means here. In more recent years, however, I kept hearing that it’s not so much minor as simply half-forgotten and … Continue reading →

Posted in Film Reviews, Older Films | Tagged Alfred Basserman, Alfred Hitchcock, Alma, Barbara Stanwyck, Cary Grant, Clark Gable, David O. Selznick, Foreign Correspondent, Gary Cooper, George Sanders, Gone with the Wind, Herbert Marshall, Hitchcock, Jimmy Stewart, Joan Fontaine, Joel McCrea, Laraine Day, Laurence Olivier, Lifeboat, Rear Window, Rebecca, Robert Donat, Sullivan’s Travels, The 39 Steps, The Lady Vanishes, The Locket, The More the Merrier, The Palm Beach Story, Walter Wanger, World War Two | Leave a comment

Black Panther

Posted on March 15, 2018 by Mark DuPré

I loved The Avengers when it first came out in 2012 (https://film-prof.com/2012/05/14/the-avengers/) for how well it answered the many challenges of a first superhero franchise film. But Black Panther may well be the best Marvel film yet. It’s gorgeous to … Continue reading →

Posted in Film Reviews, Newer films | Tagged 12 Years a Slave, 42, Andy Serkis, Angela Bassett, Black Panther, Chadwick Boseman, Creed, Danai Gurira, Daniel Kaluuya, Fruitvale Station, Get On Up, Get Out, Hobbit, Lord of the Rings, Lupita Nyong'o, MacGuffin, Marshall, Martin Freeman, Michael B. Jordan, Planet of the Apes, Ryan Coogler, Sherlock, The Avengers, The Walking Dead, Wakanda | Leave a comment

A Classic Performance, Revisited

Posted on March 10, 2018 by Mark DuPré

Luise Rainer is a name long forgotten in the film world, except by historians and major film nerds, of which I am one. Even so-called “film buffs” have never heard of the actress who won the first two … Continue reading →

Posted in Film Reviews, Film-Related Articles, Older Films | Tagged Anna Held, Billie Burke, Glinda, Luise Rainer, Myrna Loy, The Good Earth, The Great Ziegfeld, The Wizard of Oz, William Powell | Leave a comment

All the King’s Men

Posted on February 26, 2018 by Mark DuPré

All the King’s Men is an “old film,” according to most of my students, having been made in 1949 and shot in (oh, my) black-and-white. However, the near-documentary look, the stellar performances, and the themes (corruption in politics and politicians) … Continue reading →

Posted in Film Reviews, Older Films | Tagged All the King's Men, Broderick Crawford, Eve Arden, His Girl Friday, Huey Long, Joanne Dru, John Ireland, Mercedes McCambridle, Rosalind Russell, The Exorcist | Leave a comment

The Greatest Showman

Posted on February 22, 2018 by Mark DuPré

The Greatest Showman is one of the great movie conundrums of 2017. It was tepidly received my most critics and savaged by others. Yet, over time, it’s become an unqualified popular and financial success. While Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle … Continue reading →

Posted in Film Reviews, Newer films | Tagged "The Swedish Nightingale", American Idol, Black Panther, Hugh Jackman, Jenny Lind, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, La La Land, Les Miserables, Michael Gracey, Michelle Wiliams, Oklahoma!, P.T. Barnum, Rebecca Ferguson, singin' in the rain, The Greatest Showman, The Voice, Zac Efron, Zendaya | Leave a comment

The Post

Posted on January 29, 2018 by Mark DuPré

The Post has been called second-tier Spielberg, and that’s true. Of course, second-tier for SS means it’s more finely crafted than 95 percent of other films. But in spite of the political perspectives brought to the film by many viewers … Continue reading →

Posted in Film Reviews, Newer films | Tagged All the President's Men, Ben Bagdikian, Ben Bradlee, Bob Odenkirk, Bradley Whitford, Bruce Greenwood, David Cross, Jason Robards, Kitty Genovese, Matthew Rhys, Meryl Streep, National Board of Review, New York Times, Spotlight, Steven Spielberg, The Post, Tom Hanks, Tracey Letts | Leave a comment

Phantom Thread

Posted on January 23, 2018 by Mark DuPré

Phantom Thread is exquisite. That’s neither a compliment nor a criticism, but just a description. It follows the story of a 1950’s London fashion designer described early on in the film as “too fussy.” That’s one way of describing him. … Continue reading →

Posted in Film Reviews, Newer films | Tagged Allison Janney, Daniel Day-Lewis, Gangs of New York, Inherent VIce, J. Alfred Prufrock, Judith Anderson, Laurie Metcalf, Lesley Manville, Mrs. Danvers, Paul Thomas Anderson, Phantom Thread, Pretty Woman, Radiohead, Rebecca, Reynolds Woodcock, The Master, There Will be Blood, Vicky Krieps | Leave a comment

Three by Boyer: Liliom (1934), Algiers (1938), and Love Affair (1939)

Posted on January 12, 2018 by Mark DuPré

Charles Boyer was thought of as retro and a subject of satire when I was young. He was somewhere between the worlds of my parents and grandparents, and most of us knew that he was the model for Pepé Le … Continue reading →

Posted in Film Reviews, Older Films | Tagged Algiers, An Affair to Remember, Carousel, Cary Grant, Casablanca, Charles Boyer, Charles Farrell, Deborah Kerr, Ecstacy, Ekstase, Fritz Lang, Gene Lockhart, Hedy Lamarr, Hungary, Irene Dunne, James Wong Howe, Jean Gabin, June Lockhart, Liliom, Michael Curtiz, One Way Passage, Pépé le Moko, Pepé le Pew, Rita Wilson, Rogers and Hammerstein, Sleepless in Seattle, Tom Hanks, Victor Garber, Walter Wanger | Leave a comment

Darkest Hour

Posted on January 4, 2018 by Mark DuPré

What I recently wrote about the 1961 film Two Women (https://film-prof.com/2017/12/31/two-women-1960-1961/) could just as easily applied to Darkest Hour—that the main point of interest was the central performance, but that the evolution of the director’s style was also worth noting. Darkest … Continue reading →

Posted in Film Reviews, Newer films | Tagged Anna Karenina, Atonement, Ben Mendelsohn, Best Actor, Christopher Nolan, Churchill's Secret, Cinderella, Clemmie Churchill, Darkest Hour, Downton Abbey, Dunkirk, Gary Oldman, Joe Wright, Kristin Scott Thomas, Lily James, Pip Torrens, Pride and Prejudice, Romola Garai, Samuel West, Stephen Dillane, The Crown, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Two Women, Winston Churchill, World War II | Leave a comment