Sic Transit Garber’s Subway: ‘The Taking of Pelham One Two Three’
By Tim Pelan Only the amazing reaction that that picture has gotten, because at the time I was dreadfully…
Screenwriting 101
‘Bringing Out the Dead’: Scorsese’s Deeply Humane Unsung Gem
By Koraljka Suton We wanted to do New York at night in a way that would create a claustrophobic…
‘Sweet Smell of Success’: A Visceral and Vicious Depiction of the Evil that Power-Hungry Men Do
By Koraljka Suton There’s an old rule among directors that you see a film in its totality about four…
Fincher’s ‘Zodiac’: A Suspenseful and Thrilling Combination of Police Procedural and Newspaper Film That Masterfully Chronicles the Progression of Obsession
By Koraljka Suton Robert Graysmith knew he was a guy on the sidelines of this story. He wanted to…
“It Ain’t Like It Used to Be. But It’ll Do:” How Sam Peckinpah’s ‘The Wild Bunch’ Became Both a Eulogy for a Mythic Past and a Template for a New Kind of Action
By Tim Pelan We wanted to show violence in real terms. Dying is not fun and games. Movies make…
‘Network’: Sidney Lumet and Paddy Chayefsky’s Gruesome Prophecy Turned Reality
By Koraljka Suton Once it opened, everybody kept saying, ‘Oh, what a brilliant satire.’ But Paddy and I always…
Appetite for Destruction: Paul Thomas Anderson’s ‘Phantom Thread’ and the Fall of the House of Woodcock
By Tim Pelan Not unlike James Cameron and his flop sweat fever dream of a chrome skeleton-framed torso, dragging…
Rats In the Attic: William Friedkin’s ‘The Exorcist’
By Tim Pelan Forty-five years after its powerful debut, and with all the attendant publicity, analysis and second-hand knowledge,…
‘Walk the Line’: How James Mangold Uncovered the Emotional History of Johnny Cash
By Koraljka Suton He had to find the range of his own creativity, and learn how to control this…
‘Magnolia’: Paul Thomas Anderson’s Absorbing Mosaic of Compassion, Humanity and the Importance of Forgiveness
By Sven Mikulec In 1997, an ambitious 26-year-old called Paul Thomas Anderson made Boogie Nights, his sophomore directing effort…