Dr. Strangelove (1964)::rating::5::rating::5::rating::5

D r. Strangelove is one of the greatest examples of telling truth to power in all of cinema. For 94 glorious minutes, Stanley Kubrick and his co-conspirators use comedy to permanently prove that the entrenched dogmas of the Cold War were, you know, stupid. Characters in this film speak of "missile superiority" and "mutually assured destruction" with…

ByTodd WoffordMay 22, 20240Comments

Blazing Saddles (1974)::rating::5

W hen I was ten years old, my mother forbade me to watch Blazing Saddles. Naturally, when my parents ventured from the house, that VHS tape went straight into the VCR. Within minutes, I felt a tinge of shame, as I could see exactly what she was talking about. Blazing Saddles was filthy, unhinged, and…

ByTodd WoffordMay 14, 20240Comments

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Ghostbusters (1984)::rating::5

M ore than anything, Ghostbusters taught me that joy can live within the finest details. In the forty years since its release, I have savored every nuance of this movie--every quotable bit of dialogue, every sarcastic Bill Murray smirk, every note of its maddeningly catchy theme song. Put all of it together, and you have one of…

ByTodd WoffordMay 8, 20240Comments

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Dune: Part Two (2024)::rating::4

H oly hell, it's finally happened: I've warmed up to the Dune franchise. It hasn't been an easy road, dear readers. After all, David Lynch's '84 version was the cinematic equivalent of a monkey humping a doorknob. Frank Herbert's behemoth novels had always been written off as unfilmable, and after that 80s dreck, I couldn't have…

ByTodd WoffordMay 4, 20240Comments

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Pulp Fiction (1994)::rating::5

Q uentin Tarantino’s masterpiece bears the off-kilter zeal of a crazed saucier–the kind of Creole chef who uses two teaspoons of Sherry for the recipe, then drinks the rest straight from the bottle. From Akira Kurosawa to Arthur Penn, from Buddy Holly’s rock nerdery to James Dean’s leather-jacket cool—just about any pertinent pop culture reference…

ByTodd WoffordApril 30, 20240Comments

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Napoleon Dynamite (2004)::rating::2.5

I n some ways, Napoleon Dynamite has all the attitude and quotability of any edgy teen comedy. On the surface, it should be an instant classic, and some viewers will still swear that it is. But dig a little deeper, and you'll find an audacious, eccentric little movie that stands in total opposition to its entire genre.…

ByTodd WoffordApril 24, 20240Comments

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Godzilla, King of the Monsters! (1956)::rating::2.5

W hen I first saw Godzilla, King of the Monsters!, I had no idea it was an awkward stitchwork of two different productions. After all, the kaiju flicks have since become iconic in the States for their poor dubbing, model-kit skylines, and dudes rampaging in rubber monster suits, so a little clunkiness is just part of the package. …

ByTodd WoffordApril 17, 20240Comments

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Young Frankenstein (1974)::rating::4

E legant and refined aren't words you'd normally bandy about Mel Brooks' filmography, but with Young Frankenstein, they just seem to fit. This horror homage is really a delicate soufflé, crafted with care and dedicated to the Universal horror flicks of the 1930s. Brooks seems to genuinely love the James Whale/Boris Karloff adaptation of Mary Shelley's book,…

ByTodd WoffordApril 10, 20240Comments

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Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992)::rating::4

B ram Stoker’s Dracula pulls off a rare double feat. As directed by Francis Coppola, this vampire epic manages to be deeply reverential to the beloved source material, while also blazing its own cinematic trail. Stoker’s novel has been filmed--in some form--nearly 300 times, but it’s never had such perfect alchemy: Coppola…

ByTodd WoffordMarch 27, 20240Comments

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The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)::rating::5

I t may have all the aesthetics of a big, burly action epic, but don't get it twisted: The Bridge on the River Kwai is a nuanced, character-based drama, and a philosophical rumination on the absurdities of human nature. Yes, Kwai has explosions and combat, but even those are just an extension of the cerebral debate that rages…

ByTodd WoffordMarch 6, 20240Comments