Oscars

‘Fortune Cookie’ (1966) crumbles under its length, predictability

The more movies I watch, the more rules of thumb emerge. One is that comedies are best at 90 minutes. Another, as I realized while

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Disney creates cure for insomnia with ‘Tron: Legacy’ (2010)

As “Tron: Legacy” (2010) lightly brushes over might-have-been interesting issues such as open-source code versus code ownership and settles for a flat, emotionless, CGI-effects-driven adventure,

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‘Double Indemnity’ (1944) a deliberate classic of film noir

“Double Indemnity” (1944), one of the most well-respected and influential film noirs, is a near-masterwork of plotting regardless of genre. It can be enjoyed as

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‘Tron’ (1982) is groundbreaking, but a chore to watch

“Tron” (1982) is a touchstone movie in the history of digital effects, as it uses about 15 minutes of computer-created graphics to represent the inside

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‘Ball of Fire’ (1941) a delightful early gem from Hawks, Wilder

“Ball of Fire” (1941) combines the “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” fairy tale with noir with slapstick, and it’s worthy of a smile for

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‘Irma la Douce’ (1963) another sweet mix of comedy, chemistry

Billy Wilder returns to the winning ingredients of Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, false identities and envelope-pushing sex-based comedy for “Irma la Douce” (1963). Laugh-out-loud funny

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‘Anora’ (2024) runs a rom-com through the ‘Fargo’ filter

“Anora” (2024) takes the “stripper with a heart of gold meets white knight” fairy tale (most famously seen in “Pretty Woman”) and turns it on

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Pitch-dark satirical humor powers ‘RoboCop’ (1987)

“RoboCop” (1987) is a marvel of satirical balance. Normally, I do not get my laughs from violence, but somehow the ingenious (and unfortunately timeless) screenplay

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‘Sabrina’ (1954) an all-time great breezy romance

At one point in “Sabrina” (1954), Linus Larrabee (Humphrey Bogart) asks Sabrina Fairchild (Audrey Hepburn) to sing her song in French for him again, slower.

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‘Some Like It Hot’ (1959), and everyone likes it funny

“Some Like It Hot” (1959), perhaps Billy Wilder’s most crowd-pleasing film if not his deepest, is one of those special comedies that’s funny even in

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