Some exceptional movies are so gentle, and achieve their effects so delicately, that the mere act of recommending them almost feels like a disservice to their charms. Can such movies bear the weight of high expectations? I fear overpraising MGM’s Stars in My Crown because of its simplicity and modesty, two elements that make it [...]

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As a rule, Hollywood—the dream factory—doesn’t make movies about the American dream being a fraud, which is one reason why this film isn’t easily forgotten. In Tucker, the better product is smothered and banished so that the continuing profits of fat corporations can be safeguarded. If Coppola had chosen to tell this true story as [...]

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Far rarer than films that rely on a sole significant performance, or those elevated by a scintillating team, are movies borne aloft by three equally tremendous performances at their centers. I don’t mean films with ensemble casts, such as All About Eve (1950), The Godfather Part II (1974), or Shakespeare in Love (1998), in which [...]

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Set during the Civil War, [Bad Company]’s a war film that never gets near the war. Because the lead characters head west, it’s something of a western, though the “West” being sought never quite materializes, and is thus more an idea than a reality. With the war raging north, south, and east, and the West [...]

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Warners’ I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang is a blistering exposé of the brutality of chain-gang punishment and a pointed criticism of America’s forgetful treatment of its war veterans. Enormously profitable and highly praised in its day, I Am a Fugitive is still a sensational, startlingly powerful movie, directed by Mervyn LeRoy (who [...]

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