Among the biggest negative effects of the auteur theory is the idea that filmmakers are knowable; that every director not only has a distinctive influ…
The Film Canon
A series of articles and reviews of older movies that have entered, well, the film canon, for being creatively or culturally important. Everything from Citizen Kane to The Breakfast Club to Fargo to The Dark Knight. So we can all create a diverse list of essential movies for the young folk cinephiles to watch
The Film Canon: Funny Games (1997)
Upon first viewing of Funny Games I was certain this was a film made by a clever provocateur of sorts. My suspicions were wrong, as Funny Games is ver…
The Film Canon: Phone Booth (2002)
Just because you can’t make something work right now, doesn’t mean it won’t work out somewhere down the line. Such is the story behi…
The Film Canon: Munich (2005)
Munich is a historical epic boasting an identity crisis. It’s an angry, vengeful and violent statement, but it’s also empathetic and vastly desp…
The Film Canon: My Neighbor Totoro (1988)
I was a late bloomer in the school of Hayao Miyazaki. All things Studio Ghibli evaded me until my second year of college, which was when I finally set…
The Film Canon: Sideways (2004)
The biggest compliment I can give Sideways is that it is unconventional. Reading the plot description, it may sound like a typical road trip movie cen…
The Film Canon: Schindler’s List (1993)
We all have at least one class in school that has subsequently changed our lives. Maybe you had a fantastic psychology teacher who livened the class w…