Nuremberg is not a documentary, nor is it a remake of Stanley Kramer’s 1961 Oscar winner Judgment at Nuremberg. It is contemporary in its dialogue and editing style, as if to proclaim right up front that this is not some stodgy old-fashioned Hollywood slice of history. Writer-director James Vanderbilt has crafted a slick but solid film from Jack El-Hai’s book The Nazi and the Psychiatrist. Rami Malek is well cast as a shrink whose job it is to examine the 22 Nazi leaders being held in prison cells and provide insights into their way of thinking. The goal is to feed head prosecutor Michael Shannon enough ammunition to secure a “guilty” verdict from the world court that has assembled at Nuremberg. His biggest fish—the second…

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This is the movie Guillermo del Toro was born to make. He first read Mary Shelley’s novel as a boy and it has informed everything he has done since then. Del Toro admits that he only started working on a finished screenplay several years ago, but he has thought about the whys and wherefores of this enduring saga for most of his life. The end result is a film made by a master of cinematic storytelling. When I first saw it at the Telluride Film Festival over Labor Day Weekend I thought it was great but too long. Watching it again with my students at USC last week I appreciated it even more, and the extreme length didn’t bother me so much. (A little trimming…

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The following article was written by my friend and colleague Alonso Duralde. You can learn more about him HERE.   WHAT’S NEW ON 4K/BLU/DVD IN OCTOBER: WEAPONS, PEANUTS, SHIN GODZILLA, SOULEYMANE’S STORY AND MORE! NEW RELEASE WALL Weapons (WBD): Just in time for you to perfect your Aunt Gladys costume for Halloween comes this physical-media debut of one of the year’s most provocative and talked-about horror films. When a classroom of children (minus one) all goes randomly missing in the middle of the night, it kicks off an investigation that reveals a small town’s hidden trauma and prejudices, not to mention the horrifying secrets going on behind the taped-up windows of one normal-seeming house. Whether viewed as an unpredictable jolter or a metaphorical take on growing up…

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By sheer coincidence, I watched the 1964 movie Fail-Safe just a few weeks ago, and it’s extraordinary how closely it resembles Kathryn Bigelow’s House of Dynamite. I’m not talking about plagiarism. The 51-year-old film is very much of its time, along with Seven Days in May and Dr. Strangelove. Americans were hyper-aware of a possible doomsday scenario and wondered what would happen if the U.S.S.R.  and the U.S.A. played brinkmanship with the Hot Line as their communication tool.   What the two films have most in common is their primary setting in Washington, D.C.  The Situation Room at the White House is where our country’s military leaders gather along with State Department specialists and strategists who are in continual voice contact with our President. They face a wall-sized screen which displays…

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There’s a new publisher in town, and he’s cast a wide net: not only is he commissioning new manuscripts from a field of seasoned writers and directors; he’s also finding unpublished material by filmmakers ranging from Alexander Mackendrick to Abbas Kiarostami. Paul Cronin is the mastermind behind The Sticking Place (Google it to find its Shakespearian origin) and he is utilizing the latest wrinkle in publishing to make it a reality: print on demand. No warehouse, no inventory, just books awaiting customers. My old friend Nat Segaloff was working on a project for The Sticking Place when Paul when approached me for ideas. Nat suggested a book-length conversation about my life and career, and the result is Every Movie is a Miracle, officially available today, October 1.…

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The following article was written by my friend and colleague Alonso Duralde. You can learn more about him HERE.   NEW ON 4K/BLU/DVD IN SEPTEMBER: SUPERMAN, WES ANDERSON, PEKING OPERA BLUES, AIRPORT 1975, AND MORE! NEW RELEASE WALL Superman (WBD): At a moment where superhero fatigue was hitting audiences in a major way, James Gunn’s sharp, colorful, and witty take on a legendary American icon went up, up, and away past expectations. David Corenswet’s man of steel generated real chemistry with Rachel Brosnahan’s take on Lois Lane, with Nicholas Hoult providing a villainous Lex Luthor who seemed very much of a piece with the world’s real-life diabolical billionaires. Throw in an adorable canine sidekick named Krypto, and the results were irresistible. Also available: 28 Years Later (Sony):…

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Do you find yourself absorbing the day’s latest news and feel like screaming? Writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson found another solution: making One Battle After Another, a film so outrageous—yet so timely—that it seems to say, “Don’t scream…just laugh at the sheer absurdity of it all.” That he has pulled this off so expertly should come as no shock. After all, this is the man who has given us Boogie Nights, Magnolia, and There Will Be Blood. Even when I don’t care for his movies there is always something to admire about them. But he’s never gone so far out on a limb (without breaking it) up to now. The cast, led by Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, Regina Hall, Benicio del Toro, Teyana Taylor, and newcomer Chase Infiniti, is completely in…

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