Dear Cinephiles, Charlie : “You remember that day. Was I there? Where was I?” Raymond : “You were in the window. You waved to me, ‘Bye bye Rain Man, Bye bye.’” There’s a scene in the Oscar winning “Rain Man” (1988) that always gets to me. It takes place in a...
Dear Cinephiles, Clare : “I’m not your nightingale, your little bird, your dove. I’m not your anything. I belong to me and no one else!” I warn you, I’m a big fan of “The Nightingale” (2018) and this write up comes from my fervor for writer/director...
Dear Cinephiles, Jerome : “This is too much madness to explain in one text!” Talk about not judging a book by its cover. When the movie starts you’re in modern day south London in a council state (housing projects) on “Guy Fawkes” night, a shower of fireworks lighting...
Dear Cinephiles, Dr. Erin Mears : “The average person touches their face 2- or 3000 times a day. Three to five times every waking minute. In between, we’re touching doorknobs, water fountains, elevator buttons and each other. Those things become fomites.” As a...
Dear Cinephiles, Rocky: “I’m dumb, and you’re shy.” I hadn’t seen “Rocky” (1976) since it first came out. I saw all the sequels, including the spin-off of the series, Ryan Coogler’s “Creed” (2015). I had forgotten how tender and poignant the original film is. It has...
Dear Cinephiles, Ticket Seller : “Something wrong with your eyes?” Roger Thornhill : “Yes, they’re sensitive to questions.” One of my favorite moments in the ever buoyant “North by Northwest” (1959) directed by the master himself, Alfred Hitchcock, takes place...
Dear Cinephiles, “And maybe just for tonight we can escape our troubles and hear the great changes that are happening out there.” I’ve mentioned to you before, back when I recommended it, that I’m obsessed with John Ford’s “The Searchers” (1954). I have taught it now...
Dear Cinephiles, “In this country you’re not the first, and you won’t be the last.” There’s something sad that happens to you when you migrate. You’ve worked so hard as a young person to hold on to a sense of individuality and to stop feeling like you don’t belong in...
Dear Cinephiles, “I wanted to tell you something that’s very important to me….” “Two of Us” — written and directed in his debut by filmmaker Filippo Meneghetti — is France’s submission to the International Feature Oscar race, and it’s on the shortlist of...
Dear Cinephiles, Iris: “When face to face with a policeman, I should keep my mouth shut, say nothing unless asked, answer questions with ‘yes, sir, no, sir,’ unless they violate my civil rights. Then put my hands on my head where they can clearly see them and ask for...
Dear Cinephiles, Gaz : “So, uh, Horse… What can you do?” Horse : “I dunno, really… Let’s see, there’s the, uh… the bump, the stomp, the bus stop… My breakdancing days are probably over, but there’s always the funky chicken.”...
Dear Cinephiles, “You guys are soft. You know what makes you that way? You’re up to your necks in IOUs. You’re suckers. You’ve always had it good, so you’re soft.” “The Hitch-Hiker” (1953) is a taut, nerve-rattling seventy-one minutes of pure cinematic pleasure....
Dear Cinephiles, “…Fear is like a giant fog. It sits on your brain and blocks everything – real feelings, true happiness, real joy. They can’t get through that fog. But you lift it, and buddy, you’re in for the ride of your life.” A few weeks...
Dear Cinephiles, “It feels like something important is happening around me, and it scares me.” I don’t know if you ever been surrounded by a set of coincidences and events that feel unexplainable. Exactly three years ago while on vacation, my partner and I went to...
Dear Cinephiles, “What’s in the past is in the past.” The past plays an essential part in Jayro Bustamante’s impressive “La Llorona” (2019) which is Guatemala’s official selection for the Oscars Best International Feature, and has made the shortlist of fifteen films....
Dear Cinephiles, “Well to make it in this country, you need to be brave. And stupid, and ruthless, and focused, because playing fair, being scared, that gets you nowhere. That gets you beat.” She’s one of the most striking characters you’ve seen in a long time. When...
Dear Cinephiles, “We doctors are no longer human. It’s all about money.” “Collective” (2019) is one of the best documentaries. Scratch that, it is one of the best movies I have ever seen. In gripping fashion, it attentively follows the efforts of a heroic group of...
Dear Cinephiles, “No one can serve his parents beyond the grave.” For the past week, I’ve been thinking about Yasujiro Ozu and his lasting influence on cinema, and that it was about time I wrote about him. During a recent conversation with Lee Isaac Chung about his...
Dear Cinephiles, Edee: “Why are you helping me?” Miguel: “You were in my path.” In the days following March 17, 2020, I felt as if the walls were encroaching on me. I know we’d been told that we were supposed to shelter in place for only two weeks, but the idea of...
Dear Cinephiles, “The world is never as you expect.” In the opening scene of the Danish director Thomas Vinterberg’s new film, “Another Round,” which is currently shortlisted for the Oscar Best International Feature, a group of high school students participate in what...
Dear Cinephiles, “You’re on your way to something, don’t stop.” I previously recommended to you the documentary “Time” (2020) which documents the 20 year ordeal of a wife trying to get her husband paroled from Angola. Garret Bradley has been reaping awards, and it was...
Dear Cinephiles, “The boy needs a female figure. Someone who commands respect.” Lola, the trans prostitute stops in to visit her son Babu who’s being looked after by 86-year old Mama Rosa, as she’s known to everyone. Rosa doesn’t get paid much for the favor, so Lola’s...
Dear Cinephiles, Palmer: “I know what it feels like to be left alone.” One of my dearest friends is a top chef, and a few days ago I was surprised to hear that he was making mac and cheese for dinner. “Roger, once in a while we need some well-made comfort food,” he...
Dear Cinephiles, Julian Marsh: “Sawyer, you listen to me, and you listen hard. Two hundred people, two hundred jobs, two hundred thousand dollars, five weeks of grind and blood and sweat depend upon you. It’s the lives of all these people who’ve worked...
Dear Cinephiles, “One of the things I love most about this life is that there’s no final goodbye. I’ve met hundreds of people out here, and they don’t ever say a final goodbye. They’ll just say, ‘I’ll see you down the road.’ And I do. I see them again. And I can be...
Dear Cinephiles, “You can murder a freedom fighter, but you can’t murder freedom.” Last fall, Aaron Sorkin delivered his timely and compelling “The Trial of the Chicago 7,” which covered the federal government’s 1969 charging of seven activists with conspiracy arising...
Dear Cinephiles, Woman outside store: “Were you really Mac Sledge?” Mac: “Yes ma’am, I guess I was.” That exchange happens in “Tender Mercies” (1983), and like the film itself, it is a very understated moment. But then you start thinking...
Dear Cinephiles, “Suo tempore.” (Everything in its time.) Midnight on a Friday evening meant creature feature on television in Panama. My brother and I would get dispensation from our parents to stay up late and watch. The station would repeat some titles, and I...
Dear Cinephiles, “Things that hide are more dangerous and scary,” says grandma to the unruly seven-year old David as they come across a snake in Lee Isaac Chung’s kindhearted and far-reaching “Minari” (2020). She’s recently arrived from Korea with seeds in her pockets...
Dear Cinephiles, Dr. Alec Harvey : “I do love you, so very much. I love you with all my heart and soul.” Laura Jesson : “I want to die. If only I could die…” Dr. Alec Harvey : “If you’d die, you’d forget me. I want to be remembered.” “Brief...
