#146 - JUDGMENT AT NUREMBERG
1961; dir. Stanley Kramer; starring Spencer Tracy, Richard Widmark, Maximilian Schell
This is immediately and evidently one of the great films of all time.
It’s this gorgeous, thrilling concoction of classical Hollywood (and theater, and television) with provocative, even dangerous-feeling muckraking. It has a deep bench of performers giving “the best performances they’ll ever give.” It’s of staggering length, and in taking this time, touches on seemingly every single part of humanity, from the darkest to the brightest.
It’s powerful in a way a movie’s not quite affected me before. It dissects and deconstructs many things we take for granted in ways both visceral and cerebral. It starts with one of the coolest opening images a movie can start with and then pokes and pokes and pokes at that image until a kind of truer truth is found underneath.
It’s a damn masterwork!
VERDICT: STAYS AND PLAYS
#147 - JUICE
1992; dir. Ernest R. Dickerson; starring Omar Epps, Tupac Shakur, Khalil Kain
First of all - an absolutely gorgeous 4K transfer. The grain, the colors, wowie!
The film is more bifurcated than I remembered, but greatly to its benefit. It takes a lot of time in its first half to live in a world, to let its characters breathe and exist and have dreams beyond the machinations of the plot. It’s spiky and, at times, beautiful.
And like any great tragedy, this beauty curdles to soaring, cathartic heights of anguish. When the darkness comes for the second half, it is unrelenting and terrifying. And it showcases the performance talent of Tupac Shakur, who just blows you away in this thing. He’s so in command of his instrument even when his character is losing control.
My eyes were wide open throughout. It gently holds you then grabs and shakes you.
VERDICT: STAYS AND PLAYS
#148 - JURASSIC PARK
1993; dir. Steven Spielberg; starring Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum
How about another perfect movie?
Jeez louise, Jurassic Park is so good. Spielberg and DP Dean Cundey have never made better sequences; each set piece crystal clear, inventive, scary, and satisfying. The visual effects astonish to this day. Johnny Williams makes that orchestra soar.
And its screenplay, with mad thanks to one of my favorite screenwriters David Koepp, features what might be my favorite protagonist character arc, calcified in one of my favorite movie scenes - a scene that hits me with such emotional potency even thinking about it right now is making me tear up. It’s Sam Neill and the kids in the trees and that’s all I can say lest I weep.
It’s proof positive of the good power in blockbuster cinema. Spectacle, craft, humanity.
VERDICT: STAYS AND PLAYS
#149 - THE KILLING OF A SACRED DEER
2017; dir. Yorgos Lanthimos; starring Colin Farrell, Barry Keoghan, Nicole Kidman
This is my exact style.
It’s a horror film so unlike what you think of when you think of a “horror film” that I think they should call the others one something different. This is, like, the only true “horror film.”
It’s cruel, logical, absurd, and pure. There are no compromises made, no lies told, no tricks. It’s beautifully shot and edited, but never to titillate us. Yorgos and his team just shows and tells us everything we need to know, and we watch agape as his humans melt under the magnifying glass.
The conclusions reached are dire, haunting, invigorating, maddening, and inevitable. If any human told me they couldn’t stand this movie, I’d say, “Yeah that makes sense” lol.
VERDICT: STAYS AND PLAYS
#150 - KNIVES OUT
2019; dir. Rian Johnson; starring Ana de Armas, Daniel Craig, Chris Evans
On the other hand, Knives Out is one of the most purely pleasurable films of recent years; one I might call, thus far, the most rewatchable 21st-century film. It’s the kind of movie that if someone said they couldn’t stand it - well, I’d be kind to and genuinely interested in that person. But it feels less intuitive given how down the middle and entertaining this flick is. Nuance!
Johnson makes humane puzzle boxes filtered through his unabashed love of genre. They are cinematic, plot-driven confections stuffed with film grammar and reference and cleverness. Those elements on their own sing like the best pop songs.
But there’s so much real-feeling heart at the center, too! I listed Ana de Armas as the first-billed actor here because she’s the film’s traditional protagonist, not Benoit Blanc - and her character’s arc is exquisitely rendered, completely understandable, politically potent, and performed with selflessness by de Armas.
A delight, a delight, a delight. Release Glass Onion on 4K already!
VERDICT: STAYS AND PLAYS
THE RUNNING TIME SO FAR
Total: 150
Stays And Plays: 119
Goes Away: 31
Thanks for checking out Greg’s Blu-Rays A-To-Z! Next week: huge, huge, huge genre swings.