Bridesmaids - 2011 - 3 Stars

Actors: Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph

Director: Paul Feig

Bridesmaids effectively weds large comic setpieces with small 'human' moments. That's its main strength, and indeed, that's been the strength of the Apatow juggernaut. Its problem is that the large comic setpieces don't exactly work, and that the film has to squeeze itself into comedy film conventions. This results in a film that is at turns mildly amusing and mildly touching, which I suppose is more than can be said for film comedy these days (Apatow projects aside).

Rebecca - 1940 - 4½ Stars

Actors: Joan Fontaine, Laurence Olivier

Director: Alfred Hitchcock

Some directors create characters for us who are singular film entities. They have very firm identities, they're certain in who they are, they have well-defined idiosyncrasies - if they're well-created, we may strive to be like them. The protagonists of Alfred Hitchcock movies are usually the opposite - they're defined by a few loose items. They could be anyone. That's the Hitchcock trick - once the viewer realizes that the person on screen could just as well be them, Hitchcock has done his job; he's in your head, and he's not leaving for a good long while.

Hitchcock's triumph in this film is making the most vital, interesting character in the story never appear on screen - she's already dead when the film begins. Yet she looms over both our main characters, especially Joan Fontaine as the recently betrothed. Fontaine is perfect as the anxious, eager-to-please newlywed - she is trying to live up to a person she never knew.

Naturally this is the only movie Hitchcock won an Oscar for, as it's about wealthy English people. Did Oscar bait exist in 1940?

Point Break - 1991 - 3 Stars

Actors: Keanu Reeves, Patrick Swayze

Director: Kathryn Bigelow

Point Break is a movie that requires the presence of multiple viewers. Its alternating tone of total absurdity with complete self-seriousness is ripe for parody - there has to be someone else in the room to glance at, so you can wonder "What the hell was that?"

As a totally disposable popcorn movie, Point Break runs entirely too long, shoehorning in endless sequences of guys who may or may not be Keanu Reeves and Patrick Swayze surfing. It feels like the kind of movie that film executives say, "Hey, surfing and skydiving are popular things, let's put them together in a movie!". By the time Keanu utters his amazingly portentous 'Vaya con dios', I had already checked out. This film is alternately a must-see and an inevitable disappointment.

Jackie Brown - 1996 - 3½ Stars

Actors: Pam Grier, Samuel L. Jackson

Director: Quentin Tarantino

Jackie Brown is an adaptation of an Elmore Leonard novel, which immediately lends the film an air of cool. Throw in a visit to TarantinoWorld, and the cool goes up even more. Even better is the addition of Robert Forster as a decidedly uncool bail bondsman - this movie's so cool that one of its main characters can be completely lame.

Like any Tarantino film, Jackie Brown is filled with virtuoso moments and talky digressions. It's a very entertaining trifle that goes on for a touch too long, but hey, he was coming off Pulp Fiction, he could do what he wanted.

The Prestige - 2006 - 3½ Stars

Actors: Christian Bale, Hugh Jackman

Director: Christopher Nolan

Note: Major Spoilers Ahead

David Cross once said of magic - "The best result of [watching magic] is saying, 'Oh... hm, yeah, that was my card.'" Christopher Nolan has built a film out of such trickery, and while it's an exhilarating ride, the end only produced in me that same reaction. It's an interesting puzzle, but there's no real connection with the characters, merely twist after twist that keeps the audience guessing.

Nolan, for all his big-budget wizardry, seems to be an Important Filmmaker to some degree. Still, both this and Inception function too greatly as meta-films and have little or no emotional content. Emotions are limited to nostalgia for a moment - the hug of a child, the look of a tree, and so forth. However, these moments merely seem to be aping actual emotion, as Nolan realizes his films need something more than just a puzzle to have meaning.

Mr. Death: Fred A. Leuchter Jr. - 1999 - 4½ Stars

Director: Errol Morris

Subject: Fred Leuchter, constructor of execution equipment

I don't know how Errol Morris finds these fascinating subjects, and I know even less about how he gets them to appear in his documentaries. The story of Fred Leuchter is a great study in epistemology - how what we know can very often mislead us if there's one key fact we're omitting. We can be even more misled if we are purporting to use rigor - our rigor may lead us right off a logical cliff.

I won't spoil what this documentary eventually turns into, but it's completely unbelievable. I wish I hadn't spoiled it for myself by looking at the Netflix movie jacket. A must-see for fans of Morris.

Barry Lyndon - 1975 - 4 Stars

Actors: Ryan O'Neal, Marisa Berensen

Director: Stanley Kubrick

There's a popular Internet podcast entitled How Did This Get Made? that discusses legendarily awful films. While Barry Lyndon is not an awful film by any stretch, the same question applies quite well to it. How did Stanley Kubrick convince anyone to let him make this movie the way he made it? It's 3 hours long, it's a period drama, Ryan O'Neal is not really a leading man, and it's also directed by Stanley Kubrick. The costumes and settings are all first-rate. Kubrick no doubt did a million takes of everything, as he tends to do. I'd like to thank whatever studio took a gigantic bath on this film for wasting their money.

Barry Lyndon is an amazing technical achievement - the synthesis of image, dialogue, and music is incredible, perhaps unmatched in any movie I've seen. The film is filled with picturesque shots - Kubrick will often pull back to reveal an even more picturesque backdrop. However, this is my second time through the film, and while I certainly enjoyed it, I was far less moved. Story is this film's greatest downfall - I don't really know what to take away from Barry Lyndon.