Category Archives: Year of Release

About Last Night (1986)

I would have seen it years ago if I had been made aware of how great Edward Zwick’s movie was. I had always known About Last Night was an 80’s classic, but I associated it with cheesy teenage comedies like The Breakfast Club, St. Elmo’s Fire, and Pretty in Pink. And while those movies have a certain charm, I put them all into the same category. By association, I also classified About Last Night with those movies because of the stars Rob Lowe and Demi Moore. Over time, I, for whatever reason, associated the plot with two people who met, had a wild night of sex, and then spent the rest of the movie regretting that decision. This story didn’t interest me either. I’ve seen that movie play out hundreds of times on the screen. Had I not stumbled upon About Last Night on cable one night, I might never have seen it. Had I not, I may have forever missed out on a good movie.

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Rosemary’s Baby (1968)

Roman Polanski’s (The Pianist, Chinatown) first American film, 1968’s Rosemary’s Baby, is a classic film that has held the test of time and should be viewed by every film fan at least once. Though classified primarily as a horror film, it isn’t scary compared to today’s movies. However, it does have a certain eeriness that only the legendary film directors (such as Alfred Hitchcock in Psycho and others) could capture in that day and age. It’s neither the darkness nor the freaky-looking characters that establish the fear. Instead, the fascinating, web-weaving storyline captures the audience’s interest for the film’s duration.

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Sherrybaby (2006)

Maggie Gyllenhaal demonstrates her range as an actress in the little-known but critically acclaimed Sherrybaby. Gyllenhaal is a household name by now, though she hasn’t been in too many blockbuster movies. In fact, as of 2011, her only film that earned more than $75 million at the box office was The Dark Knight, which would have made its money regardless of whether she had been in it. This statement doesn’t mean to take anything away from Gyllenhaal. She is a very talented actress and will be a Hollywood A-lister for the next decade and more. However, in the movies I have seen her in thus far (namely Stranger Than Fiction, Crazy Heart, The Dark Knight), I’ve seen her play the same sweet girl next store who is likable, urns heads, and puts the needs of others before her. There’s always a fear that if an actor repeatedly plays the same character, she will be typecast and find it difficult to break that mold. Seeing Gyllenhaal star as the lead character in Sherrybaby showed me that she has the range and won’t allow herself to get pigeonholed into that same sweet character we’re accustomed to seeing her in.

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The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (2008)

the boy in the striped pajamas movie posterIf you aren’t in the mood for a heavy-hitting movie, stay away from Mark Herman’s 2008 World War II-based drama The Boy In the Striped Pajamas. It stars newcomer Asa Butterfield (The Wolfman, Nanny McPhee Returns) as eight-year-old Bruno, the son of a predominant Nazi official. Despite his protests, he is forced to move from the comforts of his Berlin home to the outskirts of the country so that his father can be closer to the concentration camps that he has been a part of organizing and running.

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Wedding Crashers (2005)

While I admit that I am probably one of the last people on earth to watch Wedding Crashers, I will say that I had it in my possession for over three years. I bought it previously viewed for $5 at Blockbuster a long while ago. It was never a question of if I would watch Wedding Crashers, but just a question of when. When discussing the best comedies of all time, many people (especially people my age and younger) will list Wedding Crashers in the first two or three movies they mention. When I tell them I haven’t seen it yet, I get the response, “Of all the movies you’ve seen, you’ve never seen Wedding Crashers?” So, much like the movie I most recently reviewed (The Green Mile), my expectations for Wedding Crashers were almost unrealistic. However, much like The Green Mile, the movie lived up to the hype. I’m not ready to put it into a top-five comedy of all time, but I will safely put it in the top ten.

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