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All in Crime Fiction
This week, we watch the only film in history where you can see Bugs Bunny and Mickey Mouse together on screen. Its also contains the most distributing scene of cartoon shoe murder. Melding animation and live action like never before, this movie remains a unique masterpiece of mixed genres and styles. Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), directed by Robert Zemeckis.
This week, we are starting a “bonus episode” director deep dive. With the film The Banshees of Inisherin on the horizon, we’re going on a kick of the playwright turned director Martin McDonagh’s movies. The list may be small, but he is one of the best writer/directors working today. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017), directed by Martin McDonagh.
This week, we watch one of the oldest movies on the list. This movie stands out from the early ‘talkies’ for its incredible dark subject matter and very naturalistic acting. Peter Lorre does something here that none of us have seen before, and its amazing that he did it nearly 100 years ago. M (1931), directed by Fritz Lang.
This week, we watch the Lock, Stock……and Two Smoking Barrels: Part 2. This time with Brad Pitt. It’s probably a good time to make sure your subtitles button works. Snatch (2000), directed by Guy Richie.
Bonus Episode Time! To welcome the film onto Netflix (starting June 26th) and to attempt to give it all the praise it deserves, we watch Spiderman: Into the Spider-Verse. This movie blows away all recent animated and superhero films alike. It drips originality and brims with jokes, action, and lovable characters. The creators and animators swing for the fences and succeed throughout. Directed by Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, and Rodney Rothman.
This week, we watch the film that launched Jack Nicholson into stardom while creating perhaps the best film noir of all time, decades after the genre left the mainstream. With a chaotic shoot, and uncertainty about the quality of the film until its 11 Academy Award nominations, it remains fascinating to watch the mystery of the films story unravel with Mr. Gittes. Chinatown (1974), directed by Roman Polanski.
This week, we watch the 2010 best foreign picture Oscar winner. One part love story, one part crime drama, this film jumps back and fourth in time as the plot is pieced together, while a historical take of Argentina’s troubled past serve as a backdrop. The Secret in Their Eyes (2009), directed by Juan Jose Campanella.
This week, we watch what some consider the best science fiction film in history. The world shown on screen set a standard for the genre, and its influence can be seen in nearly every sci-fi film since its release. With five official cuts and a wealth of lore behind the making, this film begs to be rewatched and pondered over. The outstanding visuals just make it that much more enjoyable. Blade Runner (1982), directed by Ridley Scott.
This week, we watch the classic Alfred Hitchcock adaptation of the stage play about organizing and attempting the murder of a cheating wife. Great acting and fun plot twists keep this film entertaining throughout, which is a feat, given that the film takes place almost entirely in just one room. And we hope you like dialogue. Dial M For Murder, directed by Alfred Hitchcock.
This week, we watch the movie that features the creepiest haircut ever to grace the silver screen. One man finds a bag of money in a drug deal gone wrong. The haircut then proceeds to murder everyone in its path on its quest to retrieve the money. The FBI agent from The Fugitive is on the case. No Country For Old Men (2007), directed by Joel and Ethan Coen.
This week, we watch the twist laden thriller, based on the hugely popular Gillian Flynn book. Fincher's style seeps into this film, who is lead by Ben Affleck, but stolen by Rosamund Pike. And if you think you might be watching a bloodless Fincher movie two hours into this 2.5 hour film, you will be proven very wrong. Gone Girl (2014), directed by David Fincher.
This week, we watch the classic Noir that made Humphrey Bogart a star, as well as lay the groundwork for what Crime Drama would be for decades afterwards. Fast talking, cigarette smoking, guns, lies, cheating, murder - all for the rarest of statues. And Bogart gets punched in the neck. The Maltese Falcon (1941), directed by John Huston.
This week, we watch the story of the Guildford Four and the Maguire Seven, a group of young men and woman who were wrongly accused and imprisoned for the terrorist bombing of a pub. The true story turns into a backdrop for the relationship between one of the four (Daniel Day Lewis) and his father (Pete Postlethwaite), and their time spent together in prison. In the Name of the Father, directed by Jim Sheridan.
This week, we watch the character study disguised as a crime thriller, where Orson Wells flexes his impressive acting chops in a movie he also writes and directs. Drugs, murder, sex, and lots of lying fill this classic noir film, which takes place in a Mexican boarder town, and has two police officers (Charlton Heston and Wells) clashing in an investigation. Touch of Evil (1958), Directed by Orson Wells.
This week, we watch the the movie that captured a slot in Quentin Tarantino's list of the 20 best films since 1992 - a murder mystery that combines horror and comedy in a way that that leaves you not only guessing at who the killer is, but what tone the movie will take with the next scene. Also, the best jump-kicks in movie history. Memories of Murder (2003), directed by Bong Joon Ho.
This week, we watch the classic thriller that inspired Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho and Vertigo. The wife and the mistress of a boarding school headmaster plot to kill him. This movie contains all sorts of 1955 murder, drowning, poison, zombies, ghosts, and creepy private investigators. Diabolique (1955), directed by H. G. Clouzot.
This week, we watch a cat and mouse crime thriller based in Hong Kong, where two moles, working for opposite sides of a cop vs gang rivalry, race to find out the identity of the other (which Martin Scorsese later remade into a best picture winner, The Departed) - Infernal Affairs (2002). Directed by Andrew Lau and Alan Mak.
This week, we watch a classic in the dark-comedy genre, where a distant relative of the Duke of D'Ascoyne sets off to murder all eight family members that stand ahead of him to claim the wealth and position of his family - Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949). Directed by Robert Hamer.
