By John H. Foote 30. TO LIVE AND DIE IN L.A. (1985) Fourteen years before the release of this exciting thriller, director William Friedkin won the Academy Award for his film The French Connection, the Academy Award winning Best Picture of 1971. Two years later he was back with the blockbuster horror film The Exorcist…
By John H. Foote (**) Netflix / In Theatres Based on the timely, inflammatory memoir by J.D. Vance, this new film from Ron Howard has some tremendously fine moments, even some truly great acting, but Howard is the film’s great liability. Best known for his mainstream, slick and shiny Hollywood hits, Howard is quite often…
By John H. Foote (****) In Theatres / Streaming on Netflix (December) The American Film Institute routinely names Citizen Kane (1941) the greatest film of all time each time the group comprises its list of the 100 Greatest American Films. As well as being a film critic, I also taught Film History for 15 years…
By John H. Foote THE GODFATHER PART II (1974) And here we are, at number one. After going through the seventies, listing and writing about the 29 best films of the decade, we arrive at number one, Francis Ford Coppola’s greatest work, The Godfather Part II. Not only do I believe this is the finest…
By Marie-Renee Goulet (***) Documentary on Apple TV+ 11 BINGE WORTH EPISODES If you have itchy feet after spending nearly a year at home like me, you might consider binging on Long Way Up (2020). Actors and best friends Ewan McGregor, Charley Boorman and their usual support crew meet for the third time, for an…
By John H. Foote 2. APOCALYPSE NOW (1979) “The horror, the horror …” – Kurtz (Marlon Brando), Apocalypse Now The lights went down, the curtains opened, and we found ourselves staring at a lush, thick jungle, filled with green palm trees and foliage. Far off, it seemed in the distance, music began as the trees…
By John H. Foote 3. THE GODFATHER (1972) “I believe in America…” – Bonasera to Don Corleone in The Godfather The masterful film The Godfather is about so much more than an Italian family and their worldwide Mafia operation. Francis Ford Coppola, the visionary director of the film, saw so much in the film when…
By John H. Foote 4. ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST (1975) Breathtaking. That word best describes the purity of Jack Nicholson’s mesmerizing performance as R. P. McMurphy in Milos Foreman’s superb film One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, adapted from the Ken Kesey novel. Nicholson was never better, and let’s be clear he has…
By John H. Foote 5. TAXI DRIVER (1976) Something changed in me forever after seeing Martin Scorsese’s seething Taxi Driver for the first time. I was 17, an avid movie goer, I saw everything and was reading everything about cinema I could get my hands on. Discovering the film book section at the library was…
By John H. Foote 6. A CLOCKWORK ORANGE (1971) To be clear, Warner Brothers, an American company, produced and distributed this film as they would all the films directed by Stanley Kubrick until his final work, Eyes Wide Shut (1999). That is why the movie is included here in the seventies, because it is at…