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Widely considered to be not only one of the best crime and gangster movies of all time but one of the greatest pieces of American cinema ever made, Francis Ford Coppolla's adaptation of The Godfatherremains one of the most revered movies in the history of the medium. Nominated for ten Academy Awards and winning three, including one for Best Picture, the film tops many fans' lists as the best movie of all time.

With such a perfect movie in the crime and gangster film subgenre, it is hard for even the best contenders in the same category to measure up. But some gangster films are so good that they come close to being as good as The Godfather, reminding audiences why the tragic stories of organized crime and its affects on the world around it can be one of the most compelling subjects for a movie.

Killers of the Flower Moon...

A great 1945 war movie called The Story of G.I. Joe led to Robert Mitchum's only Oscar nomination even though the celebrated actor deserved at least one more. Mitchum has starred in some of the best film noirs of all time, such as The Big Sleep (1978), Cape Fear (1962), and The Night of the Hunter (1955). Mitchum was so exceptional in his prime that Roger Ebert called him his favorite movie star. Despite his acclaim, Mitchum was only nominated for one Oscar in his career for 1945's The Story of G.I. Joe.

Mitchum's acting career left a legacy as a classic figure in both film noir movies and Westerns. He starred alongside John Wayne in the Western drama El Dorado (1966) and in the classic war film The Longest Day (1962). He first rose to prominence in 1944's Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo alongside Spencer Tracey and Van Johnson. Because of his overwhelming influence on...

The universe of Minor Threats — actor and comedian Patton Oswalt and TV writer Jordan Blum’s cult hit comic book centered on the travails of underappreciated and overlooked D-list villains — continues to expand and has now attracted the attention of some A-list creators.

Matt Fraction, known for his Eisner Award-winning work on Marvel’s Hawkeye, and Miles Morales co-creator Brian Michael Bendis, along with award-winning artists Michael Allred and Gene Ha, are working on an anthology mini-series that is set in the Minor Threats universe and set to be published by Dark Horse Entertainment next year.

Writers Gail Simone and Gerry Duggan and artists Soo Lee and Mark Torres are also involved in the four-issue project that is titled Welcome to Twilight City and will feature a mix of new and established characters.

The idea of an anthology had been percolating for some time for Oswalt and Blum, who thought...

The Boston movie subgenre emerged from a crime wave, gang wars, and government corruption, fostering a gritty, brooding tone. The genre is flexible, allowing for thrillers, dramas, and neo-noir, with Oscar contenders like "Mystic River" and "The Departed." Some iconic entries in the genre include "The Friends of Eddie Coyle," "Gone Baby Gone," and "The Town," known for their compelling narratives.

Since the 1970s, the Boston movie has become its own cultural institution. Spurred by a sudden crime wave, a series of gang wars, and rampant government corruption in the Bay State, this loose subgenre has coalesced over the past half-century into something familiar. By the end of the 2000s, the Boston movie became associated with a particular tone, set of themes and cast of characters often including ensembles pairing Matt Damon and Ben Affleck some combination of Afflecks (Casey or Ben) and Wahlbergs.

The Boston movie is also fundamentally...

After a one-week theatrical window, Doug Liman’s recent reteaming with “Bourne Identity” collaborator Matt Damon, “The Instigators,” which was also co-written by and co-stars Casey Affleck, is set to debut on Apple TV+ this Friday, August 9. In addition to Damon and Affleck, the film also features performances from Hong Chau, Michael Stuhlbarg, Alfred Molina, Ving Rhames, Jack Harlow, Ron Perlman, Toby Jones, and Paul Walter Hauser, a cast that will no doubt earn at least a few streams despite middling to negative reviews, including IndieWire’s, which calls the film, “Flimsy in most respects but fun enough in its fumbling.”

No matter what you think of “The Instigators,” it is obvious the intention behind the film is to tell a heist story more focused on human flaw than it is on claiming any riches. Simply put, if you’re coming in expecting “Heat” or “Ocean’s 11,” expect to be disappointed.

The devilishly charming, rugged Robert Mitchum made a name for himself with a number of classics spanning many genres, most notably noirs, westerns, war dramas and crime thrillers. But how many of his titles stand the test of time? In honor of his birthday, let’s take a look back at 20 of his greatest films, ranked worst to best.

Born in 1917 in Bridgeport, Connecticut, Mitchum cut his teeth in a number of bit parts before landing his star-making turn in “The Story of G.I. Joe” (1945), playing an army captain in WWII. The film brought him his sole Oscar nomination as Best Supporting Actor and solidified his screen persona as a world-weary, hardbitten antihero.

Mitchum found his greatest success in film noirs, where his cynical, playfully ironic demeanor proved a perfect match for the ultra-dark genre. Whether playing the hero in “Out of the Past” (1947) or the villain in “The Night of the Hunter...

Nineteen forty-seven was a crucial year for Robert Mitchum’s rising star. The enduring popular classic, of course, is Jacques Tourneur’s seminal Out of the Past, and he headlined Edward Dmytryk’s Oscar-nominated prestige thriller Crossfire. It’s in Raoul Walsh’s noirish, Freudian western Pursued, though, that we see Mitchum crossing the divide between what Hollywood expected of the young man and the godlike figure they got in return.

The performance is a total menu of Mitchum’s various modes: an uneven mix of the young, beefy neurotic with a few too many shirt buttons undone; the high-riding titan who would star in Charles Laughton’s The Night of the Hunter; and the varnished-oak elder statesman who still has a few moves left in him, in Dick Richards’s Farewell, My Lovely and Peter Yates’s The Friends of Eddie Coyle. But it’s an unevenness that’s...

Life often imitates art. The all but forgotten neo-noir thriller, The Friends of Eddie Coyle, is an often overlooked '70s masterpiece. After years of playing tough guys and hard-boiled detectives, the effortlessly cool enigma that was Robert Mitchum gave one of his best and most underrated performances as a downtrodden Bostonian, who was miles away from the merciless Hollywood star fans had come to love and fear. One of the biggest leading men during the '40s and '50s, Mitchum became known for his roles in noir films, similar to fellow screen legend, Humphrey Bogart. With a renaissance of slow-burning thrillers beginning in the '70s, the neo-noir was born once again, and would last through the '80s.

As he's said frequently over the last few years, Quentin Tarantino is retiring from filmmaking. He has one more movie in the works — "The Film Critic" — and then he's apparently hanging it up. But that doesn't mean the acclaimed filmmaker is going to stop working entirely. For one thing, Tarantino has recently gotten into the book-writing game. He wrote a novelization of his most recent flick, "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood," and then followed that up with "Cinema Speculation," a collection of essays about several notable American films from the 1970s. The book was full of nerdy insights, and while I didn't agree with everything said — at one point, Tarantino calls Peter Yates' masterful "The Friends of Eddie Coyle" "overrated" — I loved pouring over Tarantino's thoughts on classic (and not-so-classic) films.

If you, like me, enjoyed the book, here's some good news: Tarantino is working on a sequel! The...

Cillian Murphy's favorite films include diverse titles like Arizona Dream and The Shining. The Night of the Hunter is considered one of the greatest and most influential films ever made. Robert Mitchum's performance as Harry Powell in The Night of the Hunter is chilling and unforgettable.

Given that Cillian Murphy is one of the most diverse and interesting actors of his generation, it’s unsurprising that Murphy’s list of his favorite films of all time contains such eclectic titles as Arizona Dream, Being There, Harold and Maude, Mean Streets, and The Shining. Murphy’s oldest and most prominent selection is the classic 1955 film noir thriller The Night of the Hunter, which is one of the best Robert Mitchum movies, where he plays Harry Powell, a misogynistic serial killer who poses as a preacher for the purpose of charming and then murdering women for their money.

Like so...

Following The Film Stage’s collective top 50 films of 2023, as part of our year-end coverage, our contributors are sharing their personal top 10 lists.

In all honesty, the films of 2023 should take a backseat to the images we are seeing every day in Gaza, where journalists and average citizens have been recording and documenting a daily assault on their homes and livelihoods by the Idf. Whatever fakery we watched and enjoyed in the cinema this year should always be kept in perspective in importance with images that are real and actually happening right now. The Palestinians who have documented these important images have been targeted and killed with intent and purpose to silence what their photos and videos are showing and saying.

List of journalists who have been killed.

The below is of lesser note:

Best First Watches:

Angel’s Egg La belle noiseuse Centipede Horror Charley Varrick Coffy Crimson Gold...

Toby Yates, a film editor in Hollywood for 40 years and the son of Oscar-nominated director-producer Peter Yates, has died. He was 61.

Yates died Nov. 17 in Los Angeles after a stroke, his family announced.

Yates was a frequent collaborator with director Karen Moncrieff, editing her first feature, Blue Car (2002), followed by The Dead Girl (2006) and The Trials of Cate McCall (2013).

He also cut The Moon and the Stars (2007) for director John Irvin — he received a best editor prize at the Milano International Film Festival for that — and The Midnight Meat Train (2008) and No One Lives (2012) for director Ryûhei Kitamura.

Most recently, he edited Brave the Dark (2023), directed by Damian Harris.

Toby Robert Quentin Yates was born on Sept. 18, 1962, in London and raised there and in New York City. He studied filmmaking and editing while in high school, working as an apprentice editor and later assistant editor under Roy Lovejoy (2001: A Space Odyssey,...

Clockwise from left: The Godfather Part II, Bonnie And Clyde, Goodfellas, The Departed (all images courtesy Warner Bros.)Graphic: The A.V. Club

Gangster movies are loaded with inherently alluring qualities: the vicarious thrill of watching an antihero buck the establishment and take what they want with impunity; the glamorous trappings...

Victor J. Kemper, the veteran cinematographer who shot more than 50 features, including Dog Day Afternoon, Eyes of Laura Mars, The Jerk and Slap Shot, has died. He was 96.

Kemper died Monday of natural causes in Sherman Oaks, his son, Steven Kemper, told The Hollywood Reporter.

Kemper earned his inaugural D.P. credit on Husbands (1970), written and directed by John Cassavetes, then shot Elia Kazan’s final feature, The Last Tycoon (1976) and Tim Burton’s first, Pee-wee’s Big Adventure (1985).

Kemper also did six films for director Arthur Hiller — The Tiger Makes Out (1967), The Hospital (1971), Author! Author! (1982), The Lonely Guy (1984), See No Evil, Hear No Evil (1989) and Married to It (1991) — and three in a row for Carl Reiner: Oh God! (1977), The One and Only (1978) and The Jerk (1979).

The New Jersey native said he had to wear ice skates when he photographed the hockey scenes in George Roy Hill’s Slap Shot (1977) and...

In the most shockingly funny moment of Alexander Payne’s “Sideways,” Miles Raymond, the desperate English teacher and wine aficionado played by Paul Giamatti, has just learned that his book was turned down by the publisher he had his hopes pinned on. It’s more than a rejection; it’s the death of his dream. Miles is in the middle a chi-chi Napa Valley wine tasting, and suddenly he’s in dire need of a drink. He asks the bartender for a glass of red, but all the man will pour him is a “taste.” Miles offers to pay for a full glass, but no go: That would be breaking the rules. It’s like the side-order-of-toast scene in “Five Easy Pieces,” only what happens here is three times as explosive. Miles grabs the bottle on the bar and pours himself a drink, and he and the bartender wind up wrestling over it.

In 1973, Hollywood was amid a creative renaissance known as the New Hollywood movement. Several of the era's most prominent filmmakers, Martin Scorsese, Terrence Malick, and George Lucas, directed their first major successes in 1973. The year also saw the elevation of the horror genre to blockbuster status with the premiere of William Friedkin's The Exorcist, which eventually became 1973's highest-grossing film.

Internationally, auteurs such as Ingmar Bergman, Federico Fellini, and François Truffaut continued to direct groundbreaking works. It isn't easy to fathom the films of 1973 are celebrating their 50th anniversary in 2023.

Related: 10 Best Superhero Movies From The 1970s

The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973)

Although The French Connection, The Godfather, and Chinatown are more well-known films, The Friends of Eddie Coyle certainly belongs in the conversation of best crime films of the 1970s. Robert Mitchum stars as Eddie Coyle, a Boston gangster who is a gunrunner for small-time bank robbers. Facing a lengthy jail sentence,...

Heist films can trace their cinematic lineage back to the earliest days of film history. Edwin S. Porter's iconic silent film The Great Train Robbery, released in 1903, features several elements that are now commonplace in the heist genre.

By the late 1940s, movies such as The Killers and Criss Cross began shaping the structure of what heist films would become. In 1950, the heist genre entered the mainstream with the release of John Huston's The Asphalt Jungle, a movie many critics consider the first official heist film. Since 1950, the heist film has emerged as one of the most popular subgenres of crime movies.

Related: 10 Best Whodunit Movies

Reservoir Dogs (1992)

Quentin Tarantino burst onto the American independent film scene with the release of his ultraviolent, profanity-laced heist movie Reservoir Dogs. The film tells the story of a group of jewel thieves who commit a robbery that goes horribly wrong. Reservoir Dogs...

Locked and loaded with a decent screenplay, Michael Winner and Charles Bronson acquit themselves well in this brutal 1974 hit that launched a decade’s worth of nasty vigilante movies. The lynch-mob formula presents crimes so awful that the audience demands violent retribution. The shock is that this incitement to ‘fight back’ is not direct right-wing propaganda — vigilantism is glamorized but not endorsed. A fine supporting cast includes Vincent Gardenia, Steven Keats and unexpected treats like Olympia Dukakis and Jeff Goldblum. “Fill your hand!”

Death Wish, 4K

4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1974 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 93 min. / Street Date January 24, 2023 / available through Kino Lorber / 39.95

Starring: Charles Bronson, Hope Lange, Vincent Gardenia, Steven Keats, William Redfield, Stuart Margolin, Stephen Elliott, Kathleen Tolan, Jack Wallace, Fred J. Scollay, Chris Gampel, Robert Kya-Hill, Ed Grover, Jeff Goldblum, Christopher Logan, Gregory Rozakis, Christopher Guest, Paul Dooley, Olympia Dukakis, Al Lewis, Robert Miano.

Cinematography: Arthur J. Ornitz...

It’s not wedding bells which break up the old gang in Ben Affleck’s The Town, it’s witness protection. The romance in the middle of the film is only there to delineate the boundaries between heist film and crime procedural. The movie’s center is Charlestown, right across the bridge from the rest of Boston, a legend in illicit locales. The blue-collar neighborhood “produced more bank robbers and armored car thieves than anywhere else in the world,” according to the movie’s prologue. Affleck’s second film as a director charts the fall of a mythic heist gang and the streets which made them.

The Boston area was prime cinematic crime fields during the early 2000s. In Black Mass, Johnny Depp plays South Boston mobster James “Whitey” Bulger, an Irish gangster who informed on the Italian mob to the FBI. Some of the scenes were shot on the real crime locations depicted.

As 2021 mercifully winds down, the Criterion Channel have a (November) lineup that marks one of their most diverse selections in some time—films by the new masters Ryusuke Hamaguchi and Garrett Bradley, Dan Sallitt’s Fourteen (one of 2020’s best films) couched in a fantastic retrospective, and Criterion editions of old favorites.

Fourteen is featured in “Between Us Girls: Bonds Between Women,” which also includes Céline and Julie, The Virgin Suicides, and Yvonne Rainer’s Privilege. Of equal note are Criterion editions for Ghost World, Night of the Hunter, and (just in time for del Toro’s spin) Nightmare Alley—all stacked releases in their own right.

See the full list of October titles below and more on the Criterion Channel.

300 Nassau, Marina Lameiro, 2015

5 Card Stud, Henry Hathaway, 1968

Alone, Garrett Bradley, 2017

Álvaro, Daniel Wilson, Elizabeth Warren, Alexandra Lazarowich, and Chloe Zimmerman, 2015

America, Garrett Bradley, 2019

Angel Face, Otto Preminger, 1953

Angels Wear White,...

Exclusive: Jake Brennan, host of the popular music series Disgraceland, and Audiochuck, the Crime Junkie producer run by podcaster Ashley Flowers have teamed up on an audio series about armored truck robberies.

The pair are launching Armored on September 15.

The series will explore how despite armored truck robberies are supposedly among the most difficult and dangerous crimes to get away with, they happen so often. The ten-part series, hosted by Brennan, will dive dee into the most notorious armored truck robbery cases in North America and beyond to figure out what fuels these perpetrators and the investigators whose job it is to catch them.

Delia D’Ambra, an investigative journalist who has worked on audio series including Counterclock, exec produces. Listen to the trailer below.

“Being from the Boston area I’ve always been interested in stories of armored car and bank robberies. The Town, The Friends of Eddie Coyle – these...

John Frankenheimer’s biggest production since Grand Prix turns the touchy subject of international terrorism into a frightening, outlandish story of a plot to kill thousands of spectators during one of America’s defining rituals, the Super Bowl. Black September operative Marthe Keller seduces disturbed Viet vet Bruce Dern into perpetrating the crime; Israeli agent Robert Shaw races to stop them. The super-crime is both outrageous and credible — making the show seem very modern, even prophetic. True to form, Frankenheimer filmed much of the movie’s final 40-minute suspense sequence during a real Super Bowl game.

Black Sunday

Blu-ray

Viavision [Imprint] 34

1977 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 143 min. / Street Date February 23, 2021 / Available from Viavision / 34.95 au

Starring: Robert Shaw, Bruce Dern, Marthe Keller, Bekim Fehmiu, Fritz Weaver, Steven Keats, Michael V. Gazzo, William Daniels, Walter Gotell.

Cinematography: John A. Alonzo

Film Editor: Tom Rolf

Original Music: John Williams

Written by Ernest Lehman, Kenneth Ross, Ivan Moffat...

Shaka King, the director and co-writer of Judas And The Black Messiah, shares some of his favorite movies.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Judas And The Black Messiah (2021)

Goodfellas (1990)

Casino (1995)

Taxi Driver (1976)

The Friends Of Eddie Coyle (1973)

A Prophet (2009)

The Godfather (1972)

The Godfather Part II (1974)

The Pope Of Greenwich Village (1984)

Dog Day Afternoon (1975)

Network (1976)

Serpico (1973)

Prince Of The City (1981)

The Battle Of Algiers (1966)

Z (1969)

Animal House (1978)

King Of New York (1990)

Oldboy (2003)

Crooklyn (1994)

Memories Of Murder (2003)

Do The Right Thing (1989)

Capernaum (2018)

Chop Shop (2007)

Gloria (1980)

Dazed And Confused (1993)

Malcolm X (1992)

The Hospital (1971)

Little Murders (1971)

Newlyweeds (2013)

Other Notable Items

Fred Hampton

The Panther 21

Jamal Joseph

Akua Njeri, formerly Deborah Johnson

Ray Liotta

Martin Scorsese

Robert De Niro

I Love Lucy TV series (1951-1957)

Robert Mitchum

Jesse Plemons

Eric Clapton

Ryan Coogler

John Cazale

Burt Young

The Rocky franchise

Sidney Lumet

Al Pacino

Making Movies memoir by Sidney Lumet

Jackie Cooper

Jean Martin...

A constant stream of new television and movie content invades our favorite platforms on almost a daily basis. In fact, the beginning of each month sort of acts as a reset as new original IP and popular films enter our carefully crafted queues. And beginning July 1st, you can add Ben Affleck’s The Town to that list, as it’ll be arriving on Netflix.

It’s arguably Affleck’s best film as a director, too. Sure, Argo may have won the Oscars, but The Town is a riveting bank robbery movie with terrific performances (particularly Jeremy Renner) and superb action sequences. We also get to see him right in his own backyard: Boston.

While his first feature behind the camera, Gone Baby Gone, is more of a morality tale about nature vs. nurture and the seedy underbelly of Boston, Affleck’s sophomore effort is a straight-forward crime movie that takes elements from Heat,...

Marc Maron is having a productive quarantine. Holed up in his home in Los Angeles, Maron subscribed to the Criterion Channel, most recently watching “A Place in the Sun,” “From Here to Eternity,” “The Friends of Eddie Coyle,” and an old Rita Hayworth movie. He’s been following the new season of “Better Call Saul,” and working on a new script with his partner, Lynn Shelton, who directed him in last year’s “Sword of Trust” and Netflix’s “Glow.”

And of course, he still has the podcast. While much of the world struggles with the sudden necessity to stay indoors, Maron reinvented the work-from-home rulebook when he launched “Wtf with Marc Maron” in 2009 — before a deluge of comedians deuted on the platform — and he’s been churning out deep-dive interviews ever since. Episode 1,106, featuring an interview with Thandie Newton, posted on Monday, and Maron said he has enough recorded...

Guillermo del Toro has often been a champion for forgotten or underappreciated films, and that description could certainly apply to Ridley Scott’s bleak, Cormac McCarthy-scripted drug-war meditation “The Counselor,” which was greeted largely by critical boos when it came out in 2013.

“I don’t know if I subscribe to the term of ‘underappreciated,’ because I think each movie finds its audience,” del Toro says. “We all know that this is a business. But we also should acknowledge that it’s an art, and just like a painting or a movie or a dinner-play, a film often finds its audience that absolutely loves it on a molecular level. And it may be a handful of people or it may be a lot of people. But ‘The Counselor’ to me is filled with things that, as a Mexican, I understand on that level. I know that death, and finality, and...

Robert Mitchum would’ve celebrated his 102nd birthday on August 6, 2019. The devilishly charming, rugged leading man made a name for himself with a number of classics spanning many genres, most notably noirs, westerns, war dramas and crime thrillers. But how many of his titles stand the test of time? In honor of his birthday, let’s take a look back at 20 of his greatest films, ranked worst to best.

SEEOscar Best Supporting Actor Gallery: Every Winner in Academy Award History

Born in 1917 in Bridgeport, Connecticut, Mitchum cut his teeth in a number of bit parts before landing his star-making turn in “The Story of G.I. Joe” (1945), playing an army captain in WWII. The film brought him his sole Oscar nomination as Best Supporting Actor and solidified his screen persona as a world-weary, hardbitten antihero.

Mitchum found his greatest success in film noirs, where his cynical, playfully ironic demeanor proved...

Everyone notices the eyes first, languid, those of a somnambulist. Robert Mitchum, calm and observant, is a presence that, through passivity, enamors a viewer. His face is as effulgent as moonlight. The man smolders, with that boozy, baritone voice, seductive and soporific, a cigarette perched between wispy lips below which is a chin cleft like a geological fault. He’s slithery with innuendo. There’s an effortless allure to it all, a mix of malaise and braggadocio, a cocksure machismo and a hint of fragility. He’s ever-cool, a paradox, “radiating heat without warmth,” as Richard Brody said. A poet, a prodigious lover and drinker, a bad boy; his penchant for marijuana landed him in jail, and in the photographs from his two-month stay he looks like a natural fit. He sits, wrapped in denim, legs spread wide, hair shiny and slick, holding a cup of coffee. His mouth is...

With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options — not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves — we’ve taken it upon ourselves to highlight the titles that have recently hit platforms. Every week, one will be able to see the cream of the crop (or perhaps some simply interesting picks) of streaming titles (new and old) across platforms such as Netflix, iTunes, Amazon, and more (note: U.S. only). Check out our rundown for this week’s selections below.

Adaptation (Spike Jonze)

It’s almost depressing to rewatch Adaptation in 2016, because it’s a reminder of how strong an actor Nicolas Cage is when he actually invests himself in good projects. It was soon after this that his career went off the rails, but he’s remarkably impressive here, playing the dual roles of Charlie Kaufman and his fictional twin brother, Donald. As much a mind-fuck as any other Kaufman screenplay,...

Each month, the fine folks at FilmStruck and the Criterion Collection spend countless hours crafting their channels to highlight the many different types of films that they have in their streaming library. This August will feature an exciting assortment of films, as noted below.

To sign up for a free two-week trial here.

Tuesday, August 1

Tuesday’s Short + Feature: These Boots and Mystery Train

Music is at the heart of this program, which pairs a zany music video by Finnish master Aki Kaurismäki with a tune-filled career highlight from American independent-film pioneer Jim Jarmusch. In the 1993 These Boots, Kaurismäki’s band of pompadoured “Finnish Elvis” rockers, the Leningrad Cowboys, cover a Nancy Sinatra classic in their signature deadpan style. It’s the perfect prelude to Jarmusch’s 1989 Mystery Train, a homage to the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll and the musical legacy of Memphis, featuring appearances by Screamin’ Jay Hawkins and Joe Strummer.

We recommend titles that influenced Ben Wheatley and more.

With his sixth feature, Ben Wheatley finally has a wide release in America. Free Fire might be his most accessible movie yet, consisting a single location and pretty much just one long action sequence. It’s basically a 90-minute third act without the first two acts getting in the way. Also it features Oscar winner Brie Larson, and who doesn’t like watching her act?

If you like what you see, then you’ll want to discover Wheatley’s other work, starting with the small crime film Down Terrace, which kicked off his career. I also recommend the following dozen movies, some of which are direct influences on Wheatley, others being similar kinds of films, and then just whatever else I had determined worthy.

The Truce Hurts (1948)

Ben Wheatley loves Tom and Jerry cartoons and has cited them as an influence on his latest movie. I...

This is the ultimate in screen sadism circa 1947, and it’s all in the debut film performance of Richard Widmark as a too-nasty-for-words hood who likes to shoot people in the stomach. Actually, Victor Mature is not bad in a grim story of a stool pigeon that tries to square himself with the law, and finds himself a target for mob murder.

Kiss of Death

Blu-ray

Twilight Time

1947 / B&W / 1:37 flat full frame / 98 min. / Street Date February 7, 2017 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store 29.95

Starring: Victor Mature, Brian Donlevy, Coleen Gray, Richard Widmark, Taylor Holmes, Karl Malden, Mildred Dunnock

Cinematography: Norbert Brodine

Art Direction: Leland Fuller, Lyle Wheeler

Film Editor: J. Watson Webb Jr.

Original Music: David Buttolph

Written by Ben Hecht, Charles Lederer, Eleazar Lipsky

Produced by Fred Kohlmar

Directed by Henry Hathaway

The older they get, the better they look. Henry Hathaway’s Kiss of Death is...

Right now, you might best know Macon Blair as an actor who often works with Green Room director Jeremy Saulnier. Blair broke onto the scene in front of the camera in Saulnier's 2013 revenge film Blue Ruin, but now the actor has expanded his storytelling abilities behind the lens by writing and directing a new movie for Netflix called I don't feel at home in this world anymore. (yes, with the stylized lower case font and period at the end included). It's about a woman named Ruth (Melanie Lynskey) who enlists the help of a weirdo named Tony (Elijah Wood) to help her track down the guys who broke into her house and stole her stuff. It's a small, self-contained story that works almost like a buddy comedy for the first half before some intense violence abruptly enters the fray and has catastrophic effects on how the movie operates from that point on.

The Yakuza

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1975 / Color / 2:40 widescreen / 112 & 123 min. / Street Date February 14, 2017 / available through the WBshop / 21.99

Starring Robert Mitchum, Takakura Ken, Brian Keith, Eiji Okada, Richard Jordan, Keiko Kishi, James Shigeta, Herb Edelman.

Cinematography: Kozo Okazaki, Duke Callaghan

Production Design: Stephen Grimes

Art Direction: Yoshiyuki Ishida

Film Editor: Don Guidice, Thomas Stanford

Original Music: Dave Grusin

Written by: Leonard Schrader, Paul Schrader, Robert Towne

Produced by: Michael Hamilburg, Sydney Pollack, Koji Shundo

Directed by Sydney Pollack

The Warner Archive Collection is on a roll with a 2017 schedule that has so far released one much-desired library Blu-ray per week. Coming shortly are Vincente Minnelli’s Bells are Ringing, Billy Wilder’s Love in the Afternoon Ken Russell’s The Boy Friend and Val Guest’s When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth, and that only takes us through February. First up is a piercing action drama from 1975.

There are favorite movies around Savant central,...

Frank Ocean: musician, visual-album releaser, list-making cinephile. Following on the heels of his latest album finally being made available to the eager public, Ocean has revealed his 100 favorite films. Originally posted on Genius, which has a breakdown of how movies like “The Little Mermaid” and “Eyes Wide Shut” made their way into his lyrics (“I’m feeling like Stanley Kubrick, this is some visionary shit/Been tryna film pleasure with my eyes wide shut but it keeps on moving”), the list contains a mix of familiar favorites (“Annie Hall,” “The Royal Tenenbaums”) and comparatively obscure arthouse fare (“Woyzeck,” “Sonatine”). Avail yourself of all 100 below.

“Atl”

“Un Chien Andalou”

“Blue Velvet”

“Barry Lyndon”

“Battleship Potemkin”

“Eraserhead”

“Chungking Express”

“Raging Bull”

“The Conformist”

“Bicycle Thieves”

“Taxi Driver”

“A Clockwork Orange”

“Mean Streets”

“Gods of the Plague”

“Persona”

“Mulholland Drive”

“Happy Together”

“Fallen Angels”

“Apocalypse Now”

“The Last Laugh”

“Pi”

“Full Metal Jacket...

After a few delays, Frank Ocean‘s Channel Orange follow-up, Blond, has now arrived and, with it, not only an additional visual album, but Boys Don’t Cry, a magazine that only a select few were able to get their hands on. (Although, if you believe the artist’s mom, we can expect a wider release soon.) In between a personal statement about his new work and a Kanye West poem about McDonalds, Ocean also listed his favorite films of all-time and we have the full list today.

Clocking at 207.23 hours, as Ocean notes, his list includes classics from Andrei Tarkovsky, David Lynch, Ingmar Bergman, Stanley Kubrick, Martin Scorsese, Orson Welles, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Jean Cocteau, Alfred Hitchcock, Francis Ford Coppola, Fritz Lang, Werner Herzog, Akira Kurosawa, Ridley Scott, Bernardo Bertolucci, Sergei Eisenstein, F. W. Murnau, Luis Buñuel, and more.

As for some more recent titles, it looks like The Royal Tenenbaums...

Cinema Retro issue #35 has now shipped to our subscribers worldwide.  No other magazine centers specifically on the great Golden Age of film making: the 1960s and 1970s. Every issue is packed with exclusive interviews, rare photos and insightful columns about classic and cult movies that virtually no one else covers in this kind of detail. Please support classic cinema in the print format by subscribing or renewing today!

Highlights of this issue include:

Mike Siegel's 12 page in-depth report on the tragedy and triumph in the making of Bruce Lee's last film, Enter the Dragon Mark Mawston's exclusive interview with Ian Ogilvy, who talks about filming She Beast, Witchfinder General and his close call with playing James Bond Extensive report from Tim Greaves on the underrated Alistair MacLean spy thriller When Eight Bells Toll, which afforded young Anthony Hopkins an early starring role. Peter Cook pays tribute to "The...

Stars: Robert Mitchum, Peter Boyle, Richard Jordan, Steven Keats, Alex Rocco, Joe Santos, Mitchell Ryan, Peter MacLean, Marvin Lichterman, Carolyn Pickman, James Tolkan, Margaret Ladd, Matthew Cowles | Written by Paul Monash | Directed by Peter Yates

One of the fun things about loving a particular medium is the aspect of things being recommended, and this is something which has really grown in prominence for me with the growth of social media and podcasts. Having so much immediate access to the thoughts and opinions of others you specifically choose to listen to, whether they align with your tastes or challenge them, enables the discovery of a great deal of content in which much pleasure can be derived. One such example of this is The Friends of Eddie Coyle, a film which I hadn’t heard of before seeing and hearing talk of it’s forthcoming release over the past few months. Seeing...

or, Savant picks The Most Impressive Discs of 2015

This is the actual view from Savant Central, looking due North.

What a year! I was able to take one very nice trip back East too see Washington D.C. for the first time, or at least as much as two days' walking in the hot sun and then cool rain would allow. Back home in Los Angeles, we've had a year of extreme drought -- my lawn is looking patriotically ratty -- and we're expecting something called El Niño, that's supposed to be just shy of Old-Testament build-me-an-ark intensity. We withstood heat waves like those in Day the Earth Caught Fire, and now we'll get the storms part. This has been a wild year for DVD Savant, which is still a little unsettled. DVDtalk has been very patient and generous, and so have Stuart Galbraith & Joe Dante; so far everything...

Highlights of this issue include:

Mike Siegel's 12 page in-depth report on the tragedy and triumph in the making of Bruce Lee's last film, Enter the Dragon Mark Mawston's exclusive interview with Ian Ogilvy, who talks about filming She Beast, Witchfinder Generaland his close call with playing James Bond Extensive report from Tim Greaves on the underrated Alistair MacLean spy thriller When Eight Bells Toll,which afforded young Anthony Hopkins an early starring role. Peter Cook pays tribute to "The Art of Deception"-  a look at the use of matte paintings in famous films. Michael Commes takes a fun filled visit to The House of Bare Mountain, the infamous nudie monster flick Esteemed photographer Keith Hamshere shares his memories and photos from The Living Daylights, Murphy's War and Death on the Nile.  Raymond Benson's Ten Best Films of 1954  Patrick Cooper pays tribute to Robert Mitchum and The Friends of Eddie Coyle  Lee Pfeiffer's "Take Two" column examines Assignment K starring Stephen Boyd and Camilla Sparv Brian Hannan looks at what was hot at the boxoffice in 1966 Sheldon Hall reviews a video release of Jacques Rivette's films Daniel D'Arpe celebrates the cult sci-fi flick Starcrash starring Caroline Munro and David Hasselhoff. Adrian Smith joyfully uncovers the 007 sexploitation spoof Bonditis  Plus Darren Allison's latest soundtrack news and reviews, Gareth Owen's "Pinewood Past" column and the latest movie book and DVD reviews. 

USA/ Canada : Cinema Retro Issue #35 USA/ Canada : Cinema Retro Issue #35 $15.00 Usd UK : Cinema Retro Issue #35 UK : Cinema Retro Issue #35 £8.50 Gbp Europe : Cinema Retro Issue #35 Europe : Cinema Retro Issue #35 £10.50 Gbp Rest Of The World : Cinema Retro Issue #35 Rest Of The World : Cinema Retro Issue #35 £12.00 Gbp...

When Ed Burns was a kid, he remembers his relatives giving him pictures of his great grandfather, these grainy black-and-white shots that hinted at a wild, we-make-our-own-rules-here past. "He's standing on the roof of his place in Hell's Kitchen, with giant scissors in his hand," the writer-director says, sipping a Guinness in a Tribeca bar near his home. "And he's about to cut the ears of his champion fighting pitbull, this beast with a muzzle on. I asked my dad, what's the deal here exactly? Seems the old man was in the trucking business,...

It’s definitely been a week for good-byes.

My daughters and I spent the weekend in the beautiful, still somewhat quaint small town of Auburn, California, helping to lay to rest and celebrate the life of my dear aunt Mary Pascuzzi, my fraternal grandmother’s sister, who was the centered matriarch of her own family and a stabilizing force for all of us in her extended family as well. She, and my grandmother, were big fans of classic-era American movies and enthusiastically encouraged my interest, just one reason why they’re both held dear in my heart and in my memory. And being Italian, they both had more than a casual interest in The Godfather when it came out in 1972. I remember my aunt Mary talking to me about having seen it and wondering, me at the ripe old age of 12, if I’d had a chance to go yet.

By Lee Pfeiffer

Alex Rocco, whose hard scrabble life on the streets of Boston prepared him to successfully play crime figures in films and on television, has died from pancreatic cancer at age 79. During his youth, Rocco ran with the notorious Winter Hill Gang, which was founded by the infamous Whitey Bulger. His association with the gang led him to be incarcerated as well as being suspected of having driven a getaway car used in a murder. At one point, his first wife was almost killed when a bomb exploded in a car she was driving. Rocco, who was born Alexander Petricone Jr, took the stage name of "Rocco" on a whim when he saw a bakery truck bearing the Rocco name on it. Fearing that his associations of the Boston mob would lead to his demise, he spontaneously decided to move to Hollywood. He took an acting class that was taught by Leonard Nimoy,...

Actor Alex Rocco, best known for playing mobster Moe Green in the 1972 classic The Godfather, passed away on Saturday in his Studio City, California home at the age of 79. The actor's stepson, Sean Doyle, confirmed to The Los Angeles Times that the actor passed away after losing his battle with pancreatic cancer. The actor's long career spanned 50 years, with over 150 TV and film credits.

Alex Rocco was born Alessandro Federico Petricone Jr. in Boston, who caught the acting bug at the age of 30, when he took an acting class to meet women. After moving to Los Angeles, he took a class taught by Leonard Nimoy, who promptly kicked him out because he couldn't understand his thick Boston accent. He then enrolled in a speech class which transformed his Boston accent with a New York accent, which Leonard Nimoy said he could work with. He made his acting debut with the 1965 Russ Meyer film Motorpsycho!

Alex Rocco, a veteran character actor most famous for starring in Hollywood classic "The Godfather," has died. He was 79.

Rocco's daughter, Jennifer Rocco, revealed the actor's passing in a series of Facebook posts, writing that her father passed away on July 18 after a long, private battle with cancer. Jennifer Rocco thanked his fans for their support, writing, "I know he is watching over us."

Alex Rocco's prolific career spanned decades, but the actor became synonymous with "The Godfather," the 1972 Oscar-winning film in which he played casino owner Moe Greene. In a 2012 interview with The A.V. Club, Rocco said that that role was "without a doubt, my biggest ticket anywhere. I mean that literally."

Rocco parlayed that fame into a lengthy, eclectic resume in both film and television. He starred most recently on Starz series "Magic City," "Episodes," and "Maron," and also appeared on shows including "The Simpsons," "The Facts of Life,...

Have you read Don Winslow's remarkable open letter about the drug war? If so, then you've got some sense of the simmering anger that runs through his new novel, The Cartel, which is one of the most impressive books I've read this year. Dense, sweeping, and scathing in terms of pointing at all the systemic failures that keep a horrifying mechanism in place, The Cartel is worth your time, and it's worth a serious conversation, which is exactly what I had with him about a week before the book hit the shelves. He dialed me directly. I was at home, and as I hit record on the conversation, he was already mid-explanation about how long he's been working on telling this particular story, which arrives just as this conversation seems to be heating up onscreen (the documentary "Cartel Land") and in real life. Don Winslow: … when I started...

This week has seen '70s crime classic and Playlist favorite “The Friends Of Eddie Coyle” get the Criterion upgrade to Blu-Ray. Peter Yates’ film has been undervalued for too long, but its cult has been growing in recent years, and the new 1080p release is a welcome one, not least because it gives us another chance to watch one of the finest performances from a true cinematic legend: Robert Mitchum. A Connecticut native who had a troubled adolescence, including time on a Georgia chain gang that he claimed to have escaped from, Mitchum got into acting after moving to Los Angeles in the early 1940s, and swiftly got work in B-movie westerns before finding sudden fame in “Nevada” and “The Story Of G.I. Joe.” The actor soon became a leading figure in film noir pictures, and his career survived an arrest and brief prison spell for marijuana possession (a...

Those seeking a groove-tastic immersion in a gritty 1970s crime drama will want to pop Criterion’s new burn of The Friends of Eddie Coyle into the nearest blu-ray player. Directed with a cool efficiency by master storyteller Peter Yates, the film is a tale of small time hoods and the sketchy federal marshals who pursue them. Told under the gray, heavy skies of Boston, it depicts a working class world of tiny clapboard houses and chain link fences, with massive land yacht automobiles cruising its wet, glistening streets. With Dave Grusin’s funky yet foreboding score providing Fender Rhodes twinkles and wah-wah pedal counterpoint, The Friends of Eddie Coyle unfolds as a fine example this decade’s unique sub genre: Disco Noir.

Based on a best selling novel by George V. Higgins, The Friends of Eddie Coyle was chiefly a vehicle for Hollywood legend Robert Mitchum, who at the...

This week’s new Blu-ray releases include a pair of underrated films from 2014—a Paul Thomas Anderson masterwork and a critically hailed family film starring an animated bear—as well as the next film from Rise of the Planet of the Apes director Rupert Wyatt, and more. Click on the links below to purchase. Inherent Vice (Blu-ray + DVD + Digital HD UltraViolet Combo Pack) - $22.99 (36% off) Paddington [Blu-ray] - $19.91 (50% off) The Gambler [Blu-ray] - $19.99 (50% off) The Wedding Ringer (Blu-ray + UltraViolet) - $19.99 (43% off) The Friends of Eddie Coyle [Blu-ray] (Criterion Collection) - $26.19 (34% off) Masterpiece: Wolf Hall [Blu-ray] - $23.69 (41% off)

The post New to Blu-ray: Inherent Vice, Paddington, The Gambler, and More appeared first on Collider.

Mommy Anyone that reads this site regularly knows I love Xavier Dolan's work and Mommy is quite possibly his best yet. I've only seen it once and the DVD (yes, DVD, Lionsgate is not releasing a Blu-ray version) arrived only a couple days ago and I haven't yet popped it in. What's thatc No, it doesn't come with any special features, though the movie is special enough for you to consider giving it a look. For more, you can read my theatrical review right here.

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The Gambler I dug pretty much this entire movie until the running sequence at the very end, which is not only unnecessary but threatens to destroy everything you liked about the movie overall. Why Rupert Wyattc Why did you leave that scene in therec If I ever watch this movie again, which I will, I will be turning it off before Mark Wahlberg even considers going for that final,...