In terms of 21st century pairings, it's hard to find an actor-director collaboration that rivals Keira Knightley and Joe Wright in terms of thematic continuity, matched sensibilities, and a mutual evolution in storytelling. Read More
I’ve found myself surprised by the ways I’ve returned to Dick over the years, how tenderly I catch myself thinking about it, the lightness that settles on me every time I watch it again. Read More
It’s the idea that belief and science are incompatible—that Mulder and Scully are intrinsically at odds—that opens The X-Files. But what drives it, what makes it work for now and forever, is the realization that, in the end, it’s all the same hail-mary prayer. Read More
The phenomenon of Martin and Lewis was always less about the uniqueness of the gags and more about the recognition of the spark between them. Read More
Jack Lemmon and Judy Holliday bring their authentic selves to It Should Happen to You, which relaxes both actors into an unforced rhythm that is all at once romantic, hilarious, and real. Read More
Bugs and Daffy aren’t all that opposite; Bugs and Daffy just want to be bodies. When collided, they have tremendous chemistry: one unflappable and unflappably committed to mischief, the other subject to seismic outcry at the first whiff of mischief, equally committed to dishing it back in full. Read More
The real crux of Aubrey and Maturin's friendship, what makes Master And Commander so rich in general, is the way in which the film challenges their relationship and also kind of has an answer for a very a la mode question: how do people with different political beliefs get along? Read More
The tension Michael Mann’s Collateral sustains is effective because the movie understands the unequal relationship between employer and employee, between driver and passenger. Read More
Hepburn and Grant tumble toward happy endings through chaos and adventure, misunderstandings and trickery, all with an effortless grace. Read More
Exploring the Racial-Pairing Paradigm from Uncle Tom’s Cabin to Tragedy Girls. Read More
While Bill Forsyth has described his adaptation of Housekeeping as transcribing Marilynne Robinson’s language into some kind of filmic form, this undersells his ability to express the visual rhythms of sisterhood onto the screen. Read More
Perhaps it’s a cop-out to start a piece about Mommy on your own mother. You stick with it, because you don’t see any other way—when you love someone, you see their face everywhere, so of course everything you write leads back to her. Read More