5 Watchlist Recommendations From Director Shane Black
'Play Dirty' writer-director Shane Black offers up some of his all-time favorite watches.
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- DirectorWilliam FriedkinStarsEllen BurstynMax von SydowLinda BlairWhen a mysterious entity possesses a young girl, her mother seeks the help of two Catholic priests to save her life."Years go by, it doesn’t lose a step. Continues to terrify — and to show how unlikely, quietly desperate people are inexplicably chosen to combat ancient evil; anointed despite themselves. With a compromised ex-boxer priest and a sardonic, plodding police detective — it's everything I love. Masterpiece."
- DirectorsDon SiegelClint EastwoodStarsClint EastwoodAndrew RobinsonHarry GuardinoWhen a killer calling himself "Scorpio" menaces San Francisco, tough-as-nails Police Inspector "Dirty" Harry Callahan is assigned to track down the crazed psychopath."A blue-collar, workaday approach to the mythic hero. The film boasts a buffet of iconic set pieces, each of which can be taught in film class. You’re not watching an 'episode' within a genre -- rather, Dirty Harry sums up the ENTIRE genre. Scrapes it. Defines it."
- DirectorArthur PennStarsGene HackmanJennifer WarrenEdward BinnsLos Angeles private investigator Harry Moseby is hired by a client to find her runaway teenage daughter. Moseby tracks the daughter down, only to stumble upon something much more intriguing and sinister."The detective movie as literature. Clearly influenced (IMHO) by the work of author Ross MacDonald, it is as melancholic (and poignant) as it is suspenseful. A protagonist who’s not even sure why he’s earned that mantle,
plagued by fret and doubt — yet cursed with a brain that can’t stop." - DirectorAlexander MackendrickStarsBurt LancasterTony CurtisSusan HarrisonA powerful Broadway columnist coerces an unscrupulous press agent into breaking up his sister's romance with a jazz musician."In Barry Levinson's Diner, that character who keeps popping his head in? He’s quoting this movie. It’s a seminal watch — fueled by a Holy Grail of a screenplay from Ernest Lehman and Clifford Odets. Dialogue you can cut yourself on, abetted by a fast-lane New York tale that hits like a shot to the kidney."
- CreatorsBaran bo OdarJantje FrieseStarsLouis HofmannKaroline EichhornLisa VicariA family saga with a supernatural twist, set in a German town where the disappearance of two young children exposes the relationships among four families."A German Netflix series, it starts with a child’s disappearance and quickly blossoms into a a sci-fi tour de force, a real mind-bender. Engaging, complex, and loaded with magician-style misdirects, it dusted off my sense of wonder. Conjured a dimly remembered 12 year-old, reading Ray Bradbury for the first time."
