Is Ocean’s Eleven the coolest film ever made? It’s certainly a contender. But what makes Danny Ocean and his ten professional thieves so cool goes beyond their movie star good looks, stylish wardrobe,...

When I was a young boy, I would sit on my grandmother’s lap and examine her hands. Her skin looked transparent to me, thinly stretched over tendons and bones. My hands would follow the blue lines bene...

Cléo from 5 to 7 (Cléo de 5 à 7), often the first film mentioned in association with its writer-director, Agnès Varda, occupies the internal and external worlds of a woman who awaits test results. She...

Lars von Trier’s Melancholia opens with Kirsten Dunst’s tired, darkened eyes. They look as though her character, Justine, hasn’t slept in days. Her stringy hair frames her face, pale and devoid of exp...

Eve’s Bayou opens with a line as haunting as they come: “Memory is the selection of images, some elusive, others printed indelibly on the brain.” This is the voice of Eve Batiste, who continues, “The ...

The transfixing first shot of Hou Hsiao-hsien’s Millennium Mambo finds Vicky, played by Hou regular Shu Qi, walking down an enclosed pedestrian corridor in mesmeric slow motion. Above, fluorescent lig...

On the original poster for The Princess Bride, columns frame two near-silhouetted figures: a grandfather in a rocking chair, reading a story to his grandson. Orange-yellow light illuminates them from ...

(Note: This essay was originally published on April 7, 2009. It has been edited and expanded.) Captain Blood is a bold, swashbuckling adventure. Released in 1937, the film marshals the kind of effortl...

Wes Craven’s Scream opens with a scene greater than the remainder of the film, even the remainder of the franchise. A phone rings. Drew Barrymore, playing the teen Casey, answers. Sorry, wrong number....