Rear Window

Rear Window

1954

Directed by Alfred Hitchcock

Rear Window, based on Cornell Woolrich’s 1942 short story, “It Has to Be Murder,” is a mystery thriller. The film is clever and suspenseful. It is a satisfying mystery story.

Would see.

The Bad Sleep Well

The Bad Sleep Well

Directed by Akira Kurosawa

1960

The Bad Sleep Well is a Japanese language thriller about revenge and corporate corruption. The film is occasionally sentimental and the female characters are thinly sketched, but it is still a great film. The Bad Sleep Well’s plot moves both unexpectedly and inevitably to its stark conclusion and pointed social criticism.

Must see.

Casablanca

Casablanca

Directed by Michael Curtiz

1942

Casablanca, based on the unproduced stage play Everybody Comes to Rick’s, is a romantic drama set during the Second World War in the eponymous Vichy-controlled city. Casablanca lives up admirably to its reputation. It’s a tightly paced and memorable film open about its patriotic and romantic sentiments. Casablanca occasionally strains credulity and threatens to fall into melodrama or slapstick, but the film is easily saved by its essential sincerity and the quality of its acting.

Would see.

The Hateful Eight

The Hateful Eight

Directed by Quentin Tarantino

2015

The Hateful Eight, Quentin Tarantino’s eighth film, is a mystery Western that centers on a tense standoff between (mostly) strangers in a stagecoach stopover during in a blizzard in Wyoming some years after the Civil War. Released both in 70mm and digitally, The Hateful Eight is largely an homage to old cinema, and, like all of Tarantino’s films, is very cool. Continuing the trend from Inglorious Basterds and Django Unchained, The Hateful Eight has more of a political message than Tarantino’s earlier purely stylistic films. Despite its near perfect direction, acting, and pacing, The Hateful Eight is held back by its preference for style over substance and its intense nihilism.

Would see.