Joni Mitchell – Painting with Words and Music A+
Joni dazzles in the best of her three live albums. It helps that the show is built around “Hejira”. Of the 19 tracks, 4 are from this album.
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Category: A+
Godland (2023) Hlynur Pálmason’s Masterpiece A+
Pálmason, his cinematographer (Maria von Hausswolff), and his composer (Alex Zhang Hungtai) evoke colonial memories reminiscent of films like “Black Robe”.
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The Ugly Stepsister (2025) Queer Film A+
Our heroine suffers through the most hideous body sculpting indignities, heaped on her by the effete and sadistic proto-plastic surgeon, Dr. Esthetique.
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Fallen Leaves (2023) Is An Affair to Remember A+
The leads are just about perfect, and the film is enlivened at every turn by the director’s usual penchant for deadpan humor.
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Nitram (2022) Caleb Landry Jones A+
As for Judy Davis she gives what is probably her most outstanding performance, which means it’s one of the greatest performances ever captured on film.
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Flee (2021) Queer Film A+
I left “Flee” with that “floating-on-air feeling” that you get after seeing something special. After seeing a masterpiece.
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The Hand of God (2021) Film Review A+
Memories of Fellini and the Taviani Brothers at their peak. It’s his “Amarcord” (I remember). It’s also his “La Dolce Vita.”
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Quo Vadis Aida (2020) Film Review A+
Aida knows the horrific fate that awaits her husband and two sons if they are found and, for two hours, you watch as she frantically tries to get them out.
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Beanpole (2019) Queer Film A+
“Beanpole” conveys, beautifully, the ability of human beings to find moments of intimacy and even love under the most horrific of circumstances.
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Under The Skin (2014) Scarlett Johansson A+
Explore the haunting world of ‘Under the Skin’ with Scarlett Johansson as an alien preying on Glasgow’s men.
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Take Shelter (2011) A Horror Masterpiece. A+
It boasts a tremendous performance by Michael Shannon as a quiet man, raising a family, who has horrific nightmares and daytime visions of a meteorological disturbance followed by a feeling that we (the Earth) are being visited by something alien.
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The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999) Queer Film A+
“Ripley”, Minghella’s masterpiece, boasts Matt Damon’s best performance plus stunning turns by Philip Seymour Hoffman and Jude Law.
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Top Hat (1935) Queer Film A+
The Best of the Astaire-Rogers movies. Cinematography: David Abel. Production Design: Carroll Clark/Van Nest Polglase. Songs: Irving Berlin.
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Dodsworth (1936) Wyler’s Masterpiece A+
“Dodsworth”: William Wyler’s masterpiece, the best movie ever made about the fear of growing old. It was Wyler’s first Oscar nomination.
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Rebecca (1940) Queer Film. Hitchcock. A+
“Rebecca”, marked the arrival in Hollywood of the man who was, or would eventually become, the greatest director in the history of cinema.
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Casablanca (1942-1943) Queer Film A+
Written on the fly by the fabulous Epstein twins and Howard Koch and directed by Michael Curtiz, this is one of the most romantic of all Hollywood movies.
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Shadow of a Doubt (1943) Hitchcock A+
Alfred Hitchcock, the cinema’s greatest director, made seven perfect films in which every shot, every camera move, every editing sequence is, well, perfect. And this is one of them!
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Meet Me in St. Louis (1944) Queer Film. Minnelli’s Masterpiece. A+
A favorite of gay men since its opening in the Christmas of 1944, it stars Judy Garland in her first adult role, singing three of her best songs.
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Laura (1944) Queer Film A+
“Laura” is one of the classic film noirs. Gene Tierney is born and Clifton Webb becomes a star in his fifties. Haunting Raksin score.
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Double Indemnity (1944) Queer Film A+
“Double Indemnity” is the best of the three great film noirs of 1944, the others being “Laura” and “The Woman in the Window”. The three leads are superb as is Wilder’s direction.
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Mildred Pierce (1945) Queer Film A+
Brilliantly filmed in high Germanic style by a cadre of Hungarian, German and Viennese émigrés—Curtiz, production designer Anton Grot and composer Max Steiner, in addition to Southern California natives cinematographer Ernest Haller and art director George James Hopkins—Mildred Pierce is one of the great noirs of the 1940s.
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Notorious (1946) Hitchcock A+
The term “MacGuffin” originated with writer Angus MacPhail and was popularized by Alfred Hitchcock. The MacGuffin in “Notorious” is the Uranium.
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Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949) Queer Film A+
In “Kind Hearts and Coronets”: Alec Guinness has fun playing all eight (or nine) of the unfortunate D’Ascoynes, including Lady Agatha D’Ascoyne. The photograph shows Dennis Price with Joan Greenwood who plays that little minx Sibella.
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All About Eve (1950) Queer Film A+
Bette Davis in her greatest role with some of the best lines ever written. Both Addison and Eve are gay and he blackmails her.
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A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) Queer Film A+
The best play to film adaptation of all-time, with two of the greatest performances: Vivien Leigh as Blanche DuBois and Marlon Brando as Stanley Kowalski.
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Rear Window (1954) Hitchcock A+
Stewart, Kelly, and Ritter are all magnificent. Kelly, looking radiant, gets to deliver one of the Big Screen’s all-time sexy lines.
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Rebel Without a Cause (1955) Queer Film A+
Wood, Dean and Mineo form a nuclear family under the shadow of Griffith Park Observatory in Nicholas Ray’s masterpiece “Rebel Without a Cause.
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Funny Face (1957) Queer Film A+
“Funny Face“, the 1957 musical romantic comedy directed by Stanley Donen, boasts Audrey Hepburn’s most charming screen performance.
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Vertigo (1958) Hitchcock A+
“Vertigo” is anchored by the unforgettable performances of Stewart and Novak, Hitchcock’s masterful direction and Bernard Herrmann’s haunting score.
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Touch of Evil (1958) Queer Film A+
Yes, that is Mercedes McCambridge as an unnamed lesbian gang leader getting her kicks while watching Janet Leigh getting roughed up in “A Touch of Evil.”
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