By John H. Foote 10. JFK (1991) Walking into Oliver Stone’s JFK in 1991, I always thought I knew a little bit about the Kennedy assassination, but emerging three hours later, I realized I had known nothing and now I was convinced I knew who shot the President. The film is that convincing and that…
By John H. Foote 11. FIGHT CLUB (1999) “There is one rule about fight club. You do not talk about the fight club. The second rule is YOU DO NOT TALK ABOUT FIGHT CLUB.” – Tyler Durdan (Brad Pitt) in Fight Club (1999) So says Tyler Durden in laying out the rules for the strange…
By John H. Foote 12. THE CRUCIBLE (1996) Twice I have had the pleasure of directing productions of Arthur Miller’s extraordinary play The Crucible, which might always be the most relevant work ever written. Both times were among the most exciting times I have building a play with two exceptional casts. Each time they were…
By John H. Foote 13. APOLLO 13 (1995) I swear this was purely coincidence, that number 13 on the list of the nineties greatest films was Ron Howard’s great space epic Apollo 13. Truly. Making a film about a historical event can be problematic to say the least. Making a film about a historical event…
By John H. Foote 14. BULLETS OVER BROADWAY (1994) The surprise hit of the 1994 movie season was Woody Allen’s excellent comedic farce Bullets over Broadway set during the Great Depression in the grand world of old Broadway in New York City. Unlike his previous films, his best ones, this one is less about relationships…
By John H. Foote Amy Adams has been a frequent nominee for Best Actress yet has just as many times been a shocking omission – Enchanted (2007) and Arrival (2016) the most bizarre of the performances passed over. In the past it was often a challenge to find five female performances to nominate, though in…
By John H. Foote 15. A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN (1992) How is it possible that a film as fine as this, bathed in warm nostalgia of a time gone by, focusing on the great American pastime when America was at war, so beautifully acted, directed, written and created did not receive a single Academy…
By John H. Foote In honor of the great Delroy Lindo, one in a very long line of actors snubbed cruelly (this year) for his sterling performance in Da Five Bloods, I went back through the last 20 years and chose ONE to TWO snubbed actors who deserved to be there for their performance. Knowing…
By John H. Foote 16. DEAD MAN WALKING The argument for capital punishment, the death penalty, remains one of the most controversial conversations in modern government. If a person is found undeniably guilty of taking a life, planned it out and killed a human being, shouldn’t they pay with their life? I believe so, as…
By John H. Foote 17. SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE (1998) When Harrison Ford strode to center stage to present the Academy Award for Best Picture of 1998, Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan (1998) had already won Best Film Editing, Best Sound, Best Sound Editing, Best Cinematography, and Best Director, so naturally everyone in the audience and…