Production Company(ies)
ITVS International, Kartemquin Films, P.O.V., American Documentary
 
Distributor
Paramount Pictures
 
Release Type
Streaming, Theatrical
 
Filming Location(s)
10 Stacey Court, Hillsborough, California, USA
 
MPAA / Certificate
PG
 
Year of Release
1971
 

 
Genre(s)
Comedy
 
Keyword(s)
Harold and Maude, PG, Comedy, 1971, Hal Ashby, Colin Higgins, Bud Cort, Ruth Gordon, Cyril Cusack, Vivian Pickles, Charles Tyner, Ellen Geer, reviewed by Richard McGuinness, Dave Kehr, Derek Adams, Vincent Canby, Roger Ebert, Marjorie Baumgarten, Brian Eggert, Stephen Silver, David Fontana, Matt Brunson, Mike Massie, Robert Mazzocco, directed by Hal Ashby, written by Colin Higgins, produced by Colin Higgins, Mildred Lewis, Charles Mulvehill, box office performance, budget, MPAA rating, dark comedy, romantic comedy, taboo relationship, suicide, funeral, meaning of life, Cat Stevens, soundtrack, eccentric, philosophy, self-exploration, personal fulfillment, bodily acceptance, artistic creation, spontaneity, 86% Tomatometer, 93% audience score
 

Cast & Crew

Bud Cort

Harold Chasen

Ruth Gordon

Maude

Cyril Cusack

Harold Chasen

Maude

Glaucus

Mrs. Chasen

Uncle Victor

Bud Cort – Harold Chasen
Ruth Gordon – Maude
Cyril Cusack – Glaucus
Vivian Pickles – Mrs. Chasen
Charles Tyner – Uncle Victor
Ellen Geer – Sunshine Doré

 

Hal Ashby

Colin Higgins

Colin Higgins

Mildred Lewis

Charles Mulvehill

Director

Writer

Producer

Producer

Producer

Director(s)
Hal Ashby
 
Writer(s)
Colin Higgins
 
Producer(s)
Colin Higgins, Mildred Lewis, Charles Mulvehill

 

Film Festivals

 
Awards & Nominations
Nominated for 1 BAFTA Film Award
2 wins & 3 nominations total
 
Academy Awards

Top Reviews

Richard McGuinness

Dave Kehr

Derek Adams

Vincent Canby

Roger Ebert

Village Voice

Chicago Reader

Time Out

New York Times

Chicago Sun-Times

HAROLD AND MAUDE
  All Critics (49) | Top Critics (8) | Fresh (42) | Rotten (7)
  The fact that [it] isn’t very funny and, like its 80-year-old heroic, long outlives its necessary life, is less important than the fact that the characters frequently react gently or like credible human beings to the script’s impossible notions.
 
  January 18, 2013
 
  Richard McGuinness
  Village Voice
  TOP CRITIC
  Simpleminded, but it’s fairly inoffensive, at least until Ashby lingers over the concentration-camp serial number tattooed on Gordon’s arm. Some things are beyond the reach of whimsy.
 
  October 24, 2007
 
  Dave Kehr
  Chicago Reader
  TOP CRITIC
  It is most successful when it keeps to the tone of an insane fairystory set up at the beginning of the movie.
 
  June 24, 2006
 
  Derek Adams
  Time Out
  TOP CRITIC
  [Bud Cort and Ruth Gordon] both are so aggressive, so creepy and off-putting.
 
  May 9, 2005 | Rating: 1/5
 
  Vincent Canby
  New York Times
  TOP CRITIC
  The visual style makes everyone look fresh from the Wax Museum, and all the movie lacks is a lot of day-old gardenias and lilies and roses in the lobby, filling the place with a cloying sweet smell. Nothing more to report today.
 
  October 23, 2004 | Rating: 1.5/4
 
  Roger Ebert
  Chicago Sun-Times
  TOP CRITIC
  This black comedy pairs a 79-year-old swinger with a suicidal 20-year-old. They go to funerals and philosophize together in between Cort’s humorously staged suicide attempts.
 
  March 10, 2003
 
  Marjorie Baumgarten
  Austin Chronicle
  TOP CRITIC
  Its strength resides in a philosophy of self-exploration through personal fulfillment, bodily acceptance and exploration, artistic creation, and spontaneity.
 
  February 14, 2022 | Rating: 4/4
 
  Brian Eggert
  Deep Focus Review
  Exemplifies the expression “it shouldn’t have worked, but it did” more than any movie I can think of, is a romantic comedy, and also a very dark comedy (50th anniversary)
 
  December 31, 2021 | Rating: 5/5
 
  Stephen Silver
  Tilt Magazine
  The characters of Harold and Maude are its lifeblood; but the visual and auditory elements of the film tell its story just as well.
 
  December 30, 2021
 
  David Fontana
  Film Inquiry
  With far too many movies being incorrectly labeled as “cult films” these days — I expect we’ll reach a point where even blockbusters like Avengers: End Game and Jurassic World will be given that designation — here’s an example of the genuine article.
 
  December 18, 2021 | Rating: 3.5/4
 
  Matt Brunson
  Film Frenzy
  Essentially, no character in the film remains plain or unassuming; they’re all overdone, exaggerated, and flamboyant – yet entirely believable.
 
  August 30, 2020 | Rating: 8/10
 
  Mike Massie
  Gone With The Twins
  A philosophical black comedy for grandparents and grandchildren, or what Walt Disney and Lucille Ball might have thought up if they’d taken courses in the Absurd at UCLA.
 
  April 4, 2018
 
  Robert Mazzocco
  The New York Review of Books…

 

Plot
Young adult Harold Chasen, solitary and friendless by choice, is obsessed with death, this fascination manifesting itself in he staging his own fake suicides, driving a hearse and attending funerals, even of people he doesn’t know, all to the chagrin of his exasperated wealthy mother with whom he lives. Mrs. Chasen is determined for Harold to be “normal”, including her sending him into therapy to deal with his issues and finding him a girlfriend through a computer dating service. It is at a series of funerals that Harold meets Maude, on the cusp of her eightieth birthday, she who too attends funerals of strangers. Unlike Harold, Maude is obsessed with life – her own life to be more precise – she does whatever she wants to please herself, damned what others may think or how they may be affected. Since she can’t take material possessions with her, she is more interested in experiences, with whatever material possessions she has – often “borrowed” without asking – only to further those experiences. Their friendship is initially based on how the other can further their own priority. But as Maude shows Harold how to truly live, Harold falls in love with her. Their relationship, already limited in time by the sheer math, is curtailed even more as Maude shows him only not how to live well, but die well.
 
Trivia

 
Goofs / Tidbits
Ruth Gordon, who plays Maude, won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Rosemary’s Baby just two years prior to starring in Harold and Maude.
 

 
Hal-Ashby.jpg

 
Production Company(ies)
Focus Features, Anonymous Content This Is That Productions,
 
Distributor
Paramount Pictures
 
Release Type
Theatrical
 
Filming Location(s)
Cinecittà Studios, Cinecittà, Rome, Lazio, Italy
 
MPAA / Certificate
R
 
Year of Release
1971
 

 
Genre(s)
Drama
 
Keyword(s)
starring Jean-Louis Trintignant, Stefania Sandrelli, Dominique Sanda, Pierre Clémenti, Gastone Moschin, Enzo Tarascio, directed by Bernardo Bertolucci, written by Bernardo Bertolucci, Alberto Moravia, drama, fascism, beauty, artful cinematography, sumptuous visuals, box office performance, budget, reviewed by Aja Romano, Keith Phipps, Andrew O’Hehir, Calum Marsh, Violet Lucca, Joshua Rothkopf, Lloyd Steele, John Hofsess, Michael J Casey, Tony Palmer, Sean Axmaker, MPAA rating R, Italian, Maurizio Lodi-Fè produced by, Paramount Pictures distributed, Marcello Clerici, Giulia, Anna Quadri, Lino, Manganiello, Professor Quadri characters
 

Cast & Crew

Jean-Louis Trintignant

Marcello

Stefania Sandrelli

Giulia

Dominique Sanda

Marcello

Giulia

Anna Quadri

Lino

Manganiello

Jean-Louis Trintignant – Marcello
Stefania Sandrelli – Giulia
Dominique Sanda – Anna Quadri
Pierre Clémenti – Lino
Gastone Moschin – Manganiello
Enzo Tarascio – Professor Quadri

 

Bernardo Bertolucci

Bernardo Bertolucci

Maurizio Lodi-Fè

Director

Writer

Producer

Producer

Producer

Director(s)
Bernardo Bertolucci
 
Writer(s)
Bernardo Bertolucci, Alberto Moravia
 
Producer(s)
Maurizio Lodi-Fè

 

Film Festivals
Cannes, Toronto
 
Awards & Nominations
Nominated for 1 Oscar
10 wins & 8 nominations total
 
Academy Awards

Top Reviews

Aja Romano

Keith Phipps

Andrew O’Hehir

Calum Marsh

Violet Lucca

Vox

The Dissolve

Salon.com

Village Voice

Slant Magazine

THE CONFORMIST
 All Critics (56) | Top Critics (23) | Fresh (55) | Rotten (1)
 It’s easy to overlook how stark The Conformist’s political and allegorical message is because it’s just so damn beautiful.
 
 December 3, 2018
 
 Aja Romano
 Vox
 TOP CRITIC
 It’s yesteryear remembered with a combination of nostalgia and repulsion, a queasy combination that defines the film and gives it a kind of hideous allure.
 
 November 24, 2014 | Rating: 5/5
 
 Keith Phipps
 The Dissolve
 TOP CRITIC
 The unsettling blend of images and ideas in this movie cannot satisfactorily be disentangled or decoded, and it’s the very strangeness of Bertolucci’s masterpiece that has made it so influential in cinema history.
 
 August 29, 2014
 
 Andrew O’Hehir
 Salon.com
 TOP CRITIC
 Bertolucci’s boldest and most expressive film …
 
 August 26, 2014
 
 Calum Marsh
 Village Voice
 TOP CRITIC
 Photographed by Vittorio Storraro, it’s a mlange of the sensual haziness of ’70s European art-house fair and the high-contrast, anxious angles of film noir
 
 December 15, 2010
 
 Violet Lucca
 Slant Magazine
 TOP CRITIC
 The Conformist is celebrated for cinematographer Vittorio Storaro’s tumbling autumn leaves, but its emotional impact involves a tumbling soul.
 
 December 15, 2010 | Rating: 5/5
 
 Joshua Rothkopf
 Time Out
 TOP CRITIC
 Bertolucci must now be considered one of the most distinctive creators with film.
 
 January 11, 2020
 
 Lloyd Steele
 Los Angeles Free Press
 The Conformist is a beautiful and provocative film, and its theme could not be more timely.
 
 October 21, 2019
 
 John Hofsess
 Maclean’s Magazine
 As a piece of storytelling, The Conformist is engaging and enigmatic; as a succession of images, it’s a masterpiece with jaw-dropping grandeur.
 
 August 14, 2019
 
 Michael J. Casey
 Boulder Weekly
 Its importance is that it uncomfortably relates the causes of political involvement (that clich again) and the cost of such involvement…
 
 June 13, 2018
 
 Tony Palmer
 The Spectator
 … heightened, exaggerated, distorted, the world reimagined by the filmmakers as something familiar yet not. It is magnificent …
 
 February 12, 2016
 
 Sean Axmaker
 Seanax.com
 The one and only quintessential all-time masterpiece that trades, extensively, on its ideal viewer’s knowledge of the history of 20th Century interior design.
 
 July 25, 2015 | Rating: 10/10
 
 Tim Brayton
 Antagony & Ecstasy…

 

Plot
This story opens in 1938 in Rome, where Marcello has just taken a job working for Mussollini and is courting a beautiful young woman who will make him even more of a conformist. Marcello is going to Paris on his honeymoon and his bosses have an assignment for him there. Look up an old professor who fled Italy when the fascists came into power. At the border of Italy and France, where Marcello and his bride have to change trains, his bosses give him a gun with a silencer. In a flashback to 1917, we learn why sex and violence are linked in Marcello’s mind.
 
Trivia

 
Goofs / Tidbits
No goofy or funny or odd comments were found in the Fresh Kernels database for The Conformist.
 

 
Bernardo-Bertolucci.jpg

 
Production Company(ies)
Anonymous Britdoc Foundation Final Cut for Real
 
Distributor
Paramount Pictures
 
Release Type
Theatrical
 
Filming Location(s)
Nördlingen, Bavaria, Germany
 
MPAA / Certificate
G
 
Year of Release
1971
 

 
Genre(s)
Fantasy
 
Keyword(s)
starring Gene Wilder, Jack Albertson, Peter Ostrum, Roy Kinnear, Julie Dawn Cole, Leonard Stone, directed by Mel Stuart, written by Roald Dahl, produced by Stan Margulies, David L Wolper, fantasy, G rating, box office performance, budget, reviewed by James Berardinelli, Roger Ebert, Chuck Bowen, Variety Staff, Steven D Greydanus, Peter Canavese, Stephen Silver, Matt Brunson, Allison Rose, Douglas Davidson, John Mahoney, critic reviews, Willy Wonka, chocolate factory, golden tickets, grandpa, Veruca Salt, Mr Henry Salt, Mr Sam Beauregarde, musical numbers, childhood favorite, family movie, imagination, eccentric, bizarre, confectionery genius, Roald Dahl, iconic performance, whimsical tour, Oompa Loompa, Candy Man, Pure Imagination, impressive visuals, unique story, cinematic classic, horror movies, MCU movies, Netflix series, TV premiere dates, Fandango
 

Cast & Crew

Gene Wilder

Jack Albertson

Peter Ostrum

Roy Kinnear

Julie Dawn Cole

Willy Wonka

Grandpa Joe

Charlie Bucket

Mr. Henry Salt

Veruca Salt

Gene Wilder – Willy Wonka
Jack Albertson – Grandpa Joe
Peter Ostrum – Charlie Bucket
Roy Kinnear – Mr. Henry Salt
Julie Dawn Cole – Veruca Salt
Leonard Stone – Mr. Sam Beauregarde

 

Mel Stuart

Roald Dahl

Stan Margulies

David L. Wolper

Director

Writer

Producer

Producer

Producer

Director(s)
Mel Stuart
 
Writer(s)
Roald Dahl, Roald Dahl
 
Producer(s)
Stan Margulies, David L. Wolper

 

Film Festivals

 
Awards & Nominations
Nominated for 1 Oscar
2 wins & 3 nominations total
 
Academy Awards

Top Reviews

James Berardinelli

Roger Ebert

Chuck Bowen

Variety Staff

Steven D. Greydanus

ReelViews

Chicago Sun-Times

Slant Magazine

Variety

Decent Films

WILLY WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY
  All Critics (54) | Top Critics (6) | Fresh (49) | Rotten (5)
  Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, like many childhood favorites, is better left in the past and allowed to reside in memories. As an adaptation of Dahl’s story, it’s inferior to the Burton remake.
 
  June 30, 2020 | Rating: 2.5/4
 
  James Berardinelli
  ReelViews
  TOP CRITIC
  Probably the best film of its sort since The Wizard of Oz. It is everything that family movies usually claim to be, but aren’t: Delightful, funny, scary, exciting, and, most of all, a genuine work of imagination.
 
  July 9, 2018 | Rating: 4/4
 
  Roger Ebert
  Chicago Sun-Times
  TOP CRITIC
  The passages in the mysterious factory, which should be Charlie’s and our release from the oppression of the earlier scenes, are just as ugly as everything that’s come before, so there’s no contrast.
 
  December 22, 2009 | Rating: 2/4
 
  Chuck Bowen
  Slant Magazine
  TOP CRITIC
  An okay family musical fantasy.
 
  August 14, 2008
 
  Variety Staff
  Variety
  TOP CRITIC
  Aspires to the whimsy and fantasy of The Wizard of Oz but doesn’t really capture the magic… more a fond tribute to ‘pure imagination’ than a triumph of it.
 
  July 16, 2005 | Rating: C+
 
  Steven D. Greydanus
  Decent Films
  TOP CRITIC
  Every time you watch it you’re newly impressed by its heartfelt story line, unfussy direction, wit and humor (with Gene Wilder giving a performance for the ages). Warner 4K HD blu-ray.
 
  July 18, 2021 | Rating: 3.5/4
 
  Peter Canavese
  Celluloid Dreams
  all it took was memorable musical numbers, one of the movies’ greatest comedic performers in the lead role, and a great deal of influence from the psychedelic undercurrents of the time when it was made. (50th anniversary)
 
  July 16, 2021 | Rating: 5/5
 
  Stephen Silver
  Tilt Magazine
  Where it reigns supreme is in its casting of Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka.
 
  July 3, 2021 | Rating: 3/4
 
  Matt Brunson
  Film Frenzy
  Wilder brought a kindness and gentleness to the main character while infusing Wonka with a whimsical, childlike innocence.
 
  June 29, 2021 | Rating: 4.5/5
 
  Allison Rose
  FlickDirect
  We all know who can sprinkle a sunrise with dew, who can make all your childhood wishes come true: the one and only candy man, Willy Wonka.
 
  June 28, 2021
 
  Douglas Davidson
  Elements of Madness
  The film makes exceptionally shrewd use of references children can understand and appreciate.
 
  January 9, 2020
 
  John Mahoney
  Los Angeles Free Press
  he casting of Gene Wilder in the title role is the key: there is a crazed, yet knowing, glint in his eye that suggests the world of corporate confectionery is more sillier and sinister than we will ever know.
 
  September 20, 2018 | Rating: 4.5/5
 
  Leigh Paatsch
  Herald Sun (Australia)…

 

Plot
The world is astounded when Willy Wonka, for years a recluse in his factory, announces that five lucky people will be given a tour of the factory, shown all the secrets of his amazing candy, and one will win a lifetime supply of Wonka chocolate. Nobody wants the prize more than young Charlie, but as his family is so poor that buying even one bar of chocolate is a treat, buying enough bars to find one of the five golden tickets is unlikely in the extreme. But in movieland, magic can happen. Charlie, along with four somewhat odious other children, get the chance of a lifetime and a tour of the factory. Along the way, mild disasters befall each of the odious children, but can Charlie beat the odds and grab the brass ring?
 
Trivia

 
Goofs / Tidbits
Gene Wilder’s performance as Willy Wonka is considered iconic and one of his strongest performances of his career.
 

 
Mel-Stuart.jpg

 
Production Company(ies)
Aamir Khan Productions, Jhamu Sughand Productions,
 
Distributor
Live Video, MGM/UA Home Entertainment Inc., Image Entertainment Inc., Orion Pictures, American International Pictures, Vestron Video, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Distributing Corp., Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
 
Release Type

 
Filming Location(s)
Highgate Cemetery, Swain’s Lane, Highgate, London, England, UK
 
MPAA / Certificate
Rated PG-13 for some horror violence/gore
 
Year of Release
1971
 

 
Genre(s)
Horror
 
Keyword(s)
starring Vincent Price, Joseph Cotten, Terry-Thomas, Hugh Griffith, Virginia North, Aubrey Woods, directed by Robert Fuest, written by James Whiton, William Goldstein, horror, box office performance, budget, reviewed by David Robinson, Margaret Hinxman, Dave Kehr, Wendy Ide, Keith Phipps, PG-13, Louis M Heyward, Ronald Dunas, Live Video, MGM/UA Home Entertainment Inc., Image Entertainment Inc., Orion Pictures, American International Pictures, Vestron Video, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Distributing Corp., Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Mono, 35mm, Flat (1.85:1), organist, car accident, revenge, surgeons, mask, biblical plagues, Vincent Price as Dr Anton Phibes, Joseph Cotten as Dr Vesalius, Terry-Thomas as Dr Longstreet, Hugh Griffith as Rabbi, Virginia North as Vulnavia, Aubrey Woods as Goldsmith
 

Cast & Crew

Vincent Price

Joseph Cotten

Terry-Thomas

Hugh Griffith

Virginia North

Dr. Anton Phibes

Dr. Vesalius

Dr. Longstreet

Rabbi

Vulnavia

Vincent Price – Dr. Anton Phibes
Joseph Cotten – Dr. Vesalius
Terry-Thomas – Dr. Longstreet
Hugh Griffith – Rabbi
Virginia North – Vulnavia
Aubrey Woods – Goldsmith

 

Robert Fuest

James Whiton

Louis M. Heyward

Ronald Dunas

Director

Writer

Producer

Producer

Producer

Director(s)
Robert Fuest
 
Writer(s)
James Whiton, William Goldstein
 
Producer(s)
Louis M. Heyward, Ronald Dunas

 

Film Festivals

 
Awards & Nominations
NA
 
Academy Awards

Top Reviews

David Robinson

Margaret Hinxman

Dave Kehr

Wendy Ide

Keith Phipps

Financial Times

Daily Telegraph (UK)

Chicago Reader

Times (UK)

The Dissolve

THE ABOMINABLE DR. PHIBES
 All Critics (41) | Top Critics (8) | Fresh (36) | Rotten (5)
 Mr. Fuest makes very tolerable use of bis means: added to which he has the overwhelming advantage of Vincent Price as the Abominable Doctor.
 
 May 14, 2020
 
 David Robinson
 Financial Times
 TOP CRITIC
 It has, incidentally, a really well thought out revenge plot, directed by Robert Fuest with tons more style and assurance than he brought to Wuthering Heights.
 
 May 14, 2020
 
 Margaret Hinxman
 Daily Telegraph (UK)
 TOP CRITIC
 A former art director, Fuest gives the film a preposterously lush, Ken Russell-ish look. Highly enjoyable.
 
 October 19, 2016
 
 Dave Kehr
 Chicago Reader
 TOP CRITIC
 High-camp horror with its tongue firmly in its gruesomely deformed cheek, this British oddity features Vincent Price in one of his most memorable roles.
 
 November 14, 2014 | Rating: 4/5
 
 Wendy Ide
 Times (UK)
 TOP CRITIC
 Fuest plays up the 1930s-by-way-of-the-1970s set design, but any atmosphere gets lost in scene after scene that’s lighted like a TV show.
 
 October 22, 2013 | Rating: 3/5
 
 Keith Phipps
 The Dissolve
 TOP CRITIC
 Anachronistic period horror musical camp fantasy is a fair description, loaded with comedic gore of the type that packs theatres and drives child psychologists up the walls.
 
 March 26, 2009
 
 Variety Staff
 Variety
 TOP CRITIC
 There’s plenty of innovation on display, to say nothing of ample amounts of effective humor.
 
 April 23, 2022 | Rating: 3/4
 
 Matt Brunson
 Film Frenzy
 The climax is so dementedly intriguing, perfectly bringing together all the inventive weirdness before it, that it boldly caps off an unforgettable masterwork of the macabre.
 
 August 27, 2020 | Rating: 9/10
 
 Mike Massie
 Gone With The Twins
 One of the best horror-comics for years.
 
 May 14, 2020
 
 Dilys Powell
 Sunday Times (UK)
 Dr. Phibes manages the impressive stunt of being a good grotty horror film that succeeds in being genuinely horrifying while also succeeding on the level of super-high camp.
 
 January 10, 2020
 
 Norman Spinrad
 Los Angeles Free Press
 No film can be all bad which opens in a vast Art Deco chamber… with Vincent Price, masked, cloaked and hooded, rising out of the floor at the keyboard of a Wurlitzer organ playing Cole Porter melodies.
 
 October 19, 2016
 
 Christopher Hudson
 The Spectator
 A sardonic wink, back at The Phantom of the Opera and ahead toward Phantom of the Paradise, with The Avengers as structure and plenty of Franju in the mix.
 
 October 19, 2016
 
 Fernando F. Croce
 CinePassion…

 

Plot
Doctors are being murdered in bizarre manners – bats, bees, a killer frog mask, etc. – which represent the nine Biblical plagues of Egypt. The crimes are orchestrated by an organ-playing, demented madman (from his home base, replete with a clockwork orchestra and help from a beautiful, mute assistant). Detectives are stumped until they find that all the slain doctors once assisted a Dr. Vesalius on an unsuccessful operation involving the wife of organist Dr. Phibes, killed in a car crash upon learning of his wife’s death. He couldn’t be the culprit, could he?
 
Trivia

 
Goofs / Tidbits
There is no goofy or funny or odd comment about the film in the Fresh Kernels database.
 

 
Robert-Fuest.jpg

 
Production Company(ies)
Universal Pictures, Amblin Entertainment,
 
Distributor
Columbia Pictures
 
Release Type
Theatrical
 
Filming Location(s)
605 South Ash Street, Archer City, Texas, USA
 
MPAA / Certificate
Rated R for sexuality, nudity and language
 
Year of Release
1971
 

 
Genre(s)
Drama
 
Keyword(s)
starring Timothy Bottoms, Jeff Bridges, Cybill Shepherd, Ben Johnson, Cloris Leachman, Ellen Burstyn, directed by Peter Bogdanovich, written by Peter Bogdanovich, Larry McMurtry, produced by Stephen Friedman, drama, box office performance, budget, reviewed by Andrew Sarris, Pauline Kael, Wendy Ide, Tom Huddleston, Budd Wilkins, Joshua Rothkopf, David Reddish, Danielle Solzman, Stephen Silver, Philip Martin, Mike Massie, Matt Brunson, R rating, high school, coming-of-age, Texas town, period piece, small town, friendship, love triangle, affair, coach’s wife, graduation, army, dead-end town, better life, 1950s, nudity, language, sexuality, Columbia Pictures, Mono sound mix
 

Cast & Crew

Timothy Bottoms

Jeff Bridges

Cybill Shepherd

Ben Johnson

Cloris Leachman

Sonny Crawford

Duane Jackson

Jacy Farrow

Sam the Lion

Ruth Popper

Timothy Bottoms – Sonny Crawford
Jeff Bridges – Duane Jackson
Cybill Shepherd – Jacy Farrow
Ben Johnson – Sam the Lion
Cloris Leachman – Ruth Popper
Ellen Burstyn – Lois Farrow
Director – Peter Bogdanovich
Producer – Stephen Friedman
Writers – Peter Bogdanovich, Larry McMurtry, Larry McMurtry

 

Peter Bogdanovich

Peter Bogdanovich

Stephen Friedman

Director

Writer

Producer

Producer

Producer

Director(s)
Peter Bogdanovich
 
Writer(s)
Peter Bogdanovich, Larry McMurtry, Larry McMurtry
 
Producer(s)
Stephen Friedman

 

Film Festivals

 
Awards & Nominations
Won 2 Oscars
19 wins & 22 nominations total
 
Academy Awards
Oscar Nominees
 

Top Reviews

Andrew Sarris

Pauline Kael

Wendy Ide

Tom Huddleston

Budd Wilkins

Village Voice

New Yorker

Times (UK)

Time Out

Slant Magazine

THE LAST PICTURE SHOW
  All Critics (61) | Top Critics (19) | Fresh (61)
  At first glance, the movie is a faithful and skillful adaptation of the source, but a second look at both the film and the book reveals some interesting divergences.
 
  March 2, 2015
 
  Andrew Sarris
  Village Voice
  TOP CRITIC
  It’s plain and uncondescending in its re-creation of what it means to be a high-school athlete, of what a country dance hall is like, of the necking in cars and movie houses, and of the desolation that follows high-school graduation.
 
  March 2, 2015
 
  Pauline Kael
  New Yorker
  TOP CRITIC
  A sublime study of sexually charged ennui in a dying town in 1950s Texas.
 
  March 2, 2015 | Rating: 5/5
 
  Wendy Ide
  Times (UK)
  TOP CRITIC
  The scene where Sam imparts his wisdom to young buck Bottoms may be the saddest, loveliest moment in 1970s American cinema. And that’s saying something.
 
  March 2, 2015 | Rating: 5/5
 
  Tom Huddleston
  Time Out
  TOP CRITIC
  For the members of the New Hollywood, it was a briefly opened window on revitalized filmmaking and venturesome storytelling.
 
  September 28, 2011 | Rating: 4/4
 
  Budd Wilkins
  Slant Magazine
  TOP CRITIC
  It’s meant to make you feel sad for what’s lost, but a vitality throbs through it.
 
  September 27, 2011 | Rating: 5/5
 
  Joshua Rothkopf
  Time Out
  TOP CRITIC
  With movies increasingly replaced by one-note YouTube and Instagram influencers, the movie seems to ask: are we losing dreams as well?
 
  March 20, 2022 | Rating: 4/4
 
  David Reddish
  Queerty
  The Last Picture Show isn’t the most inspiring film but Peter Bogdanovich manages to direct superb performances in the period film.
 
  January 9, 2022
 
  Danielle Solzman
  Solzy at the Movies
  One of the most important movies of the New Hollywood era in the 1970s (50th anniversary)
 
  October 29, 2021 | Rating: 5/5
 
  Stephen Silver
  Tilt Magazine
  There is something pitiless and strange in this movie, which weds the directness of old-school Western directors like Ford and Hawks with the freedom and permissive sweep of the late ’60s cultural moment.
 
  March 26, 2021
 
  Philip Martin
  Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
  Although a technically proficient production, its ultimate resonance will largely depend on nostalgia and familiarity with 1950s.
 
  August 30, 2020 | Rating: 7/10
 
  Mike Massie
  Gone With The Twins
  An American classic in every sense.
 
  January 23, 2020 | Rating: 4/4
 
  Matt Brunson
  Film Frenzy…

 

Plot
In tiny Anarene, Texas, in the lull between World War Two and the Korean Conflict, Sonny and Duane are best friends. Enduring that awkward period of life between boyhood and manhood, the two pass their time the best way they know how
 
Trivia

 
Goofs / Tidbits
The Last Picture Show features a young Jeff Bridges in one of his earliest film roles.
 

 
Peter-Bogdanovich.jpg

 
Production Company(ies)
Charles Chaplin Productions,
 
Distributor
NA
 
Release Type
Streaming, Theatrical
 
Filming Location(s)
Broken Hill, New South Wales, Australia
 
MPAA / Certificate
R
 
Year of Release
1971
 

 
Genre(s)
Drama
 
Keyword(s)
starring Gary Bond, Donald Pleasence, Chips Rafferty, Sylvia Kay, Jack Thompson, Peter Whittle, directed by Ted Kotcheff, written by Evan Jones, drama, box office performance, budget, reviewed by Tom Milne, Derek Malcolm, Margaret Hinxman, Mark Kermode, Geoffrey Macnab, Tim Robey, Trace Thurman, Joe Lipsett, Travis Johnson, Dilys Powell, Nicholas Bell, R rating, Australian cinema, Outback, mining town, gambling, alcohol, kangaroo hunt, suicide, teacher, girlfriend, Sydney, hard-drinking locals, toxic masculinity, animal abuse, hot weather, Christmas, social horror, battles of human soul, realistic, intense, powerful, well-made
 

Cast & Crew

Gary Bond

John Grant

Donald Pleasence

Doc Tydon

Chips Rafferty

John Grant

Doc Tydon

Jock Crawford

Janette Hynes

Dick

Gary Bond – John Grant
Donald Pleasence – Doc Tydon
Chips Rafferty – Jock Crawford
Sylvia Kay – Janette Hynes
Jack Thompson – Dick
Peter Whittle – Joe

 

Ted Kotcheff

Evan Jones

George Willoughby

Director

Writer

Producer

Producer

Producer

Director(s)
Ted Kotcheff
 
Writer(s)
Evan Jones
 
Producer(s)
George Willoughby

 

Film Festivals

 
Awards & Nominations
1 nomination
 
Academy Awards

Top Reviews

Tom Milne

Derek Malcolm

Margaret Hinxman

Mark Kermode

Geoffrey Macnab

Financial Times

Guardian

Daily Telegraph (UK)

Observer (UK)

Independent (UK)

WAKE IN FRIGHT
  All Critics (59) | Top Critics (23) | Fresh (57) | Rotten (2)
  [Has some] fine photography of the Australian wilds, but also veers into melodrama.
 
  March 19, 2020
 
  Tom Milne
  Financial Times
  TOP CRITIC
  [It] will will not please the Australian Tourist Board. It may not even please Australians. But it ranks, along with Nicholas Roeg’s Walkabout, as the most impressive piece of special pleading about the country I’ve seen.
 
  March 19, 2020
 
  Derek Malcolm
  Guardian
  TOP CRITIC
  It’s a remarkable film and I’m not at all happy with it.
 
  March 19, 2020
 
  Margaret Hinxman
  Daily Telegraph (UK)
  TOP CRITIC
  Blends staged re-enactments with documentary footage of senseless slaughter to extremely distressing effect.
 
  March 9, 2014 | Rating: 4/5
 
  Mark Kermode
  Observer (UK)
  TOP CRITIC
  Brilliantly directed by Kotcheff, the film has the disorienting and menacing quality of Joseph Losey films such as Accident and The Servant.
 
  March 7, 2014 | Rating: 4/5
 
  Geoffrey Macnab
  Independent (UK)
  TOP CRITIC
  It presents a world in which refusing a pint has violent consequences, high spirits quickly curdle, and an unspoken homoerotic undertow gets ever more disturbing.
 
  March 7, 2014 | Rating: 4/5
 
  Tim Robey
  Daily Telegraph (UK)
  TOP CRITIC
  Reaches a level of anxiety-inducing terror that few other films have achieved.
 
  May 24, 2022 | Rating: 3.5/5
 
  Trace Thurman
  Horror Queers Podcast
  Wake in Fright is searing condemnation on masculinity, urban vs rural divides and alcohol abuse that traps its audience in toxic cycles as much as its lead character. The real life animal abuse is unforgivable, though
 
  May 18, 2022 | Rating: 4/5
 
  Joe Lipsett
  Horror Queers Podcast
  If anything, the film has become more potent, more poignant, even more capable of shocking and disturbing.
 
  June 29, 2021
 
  Travis Johnson
  Blunt Magazine
  Perhaps it will be argued that [its intention] is to excite disgust with crudeness, to invite us… to recognise a general tough goodwill which teaches the visitor to know his own weaknesses Maybe. Myself I find that the film excites disgust, period.
 
  March 19, 2020
 
  Dilys Powell
  Sunday Times (UK)
  Captures a dusty, sweaty Australia, equal parts friendly and terrifying.
 
  August 5, 2019
 
  Nicholas Bell
  IONCINEMA.com
  John Grant is absolutely note-perfect as the stiff-upper-lipped Englishman stranded in an environment that he couldn’t be any further removed from.
 
  April 12, 2018 | Rating: 9/10
 
  Andrew Pollard
  Starburst…

 

Plot
John Grant, a teacher working in the remote Australian town of Tiboonda, is under a financial bond with his Government job. At the end of term before Christmas holidays, he plans to visit his girlfriend in Sydney. In order to catch a flight to Sydney, he takes a train to the nearby mining town called Bundanyabba (or “The Yabba”), and plans to stay there overnight before moving on further to the airport. But things go grossly out of script as he is engulfed by the Yabba and its disconcerting residents.
 
Trivia

 
Goofs / Tidbits
The film features Donald Pleasence in a supporting role as Doc Tydon.
 

 
Ted-Kotcheff.jpg

 
Production Company(ies)

 
Distributor
Warner Bros. Pictures, Warner Bros.
 
Release Type
Theatrical
 
Filming Location(s)
BART Operations Control Center – 101 Eighth Street, Oakland, California, USA
 
MPAA / Certificate
GP
 
Year of Release
1971
 

 
Genre(s)
Sci-fi
 
Keyword(s)
starring Robert Duvall, Maggie McOmie, Donald Pleasence, Don Pedro Colley, Ian Wolfe, Sid Haig, directed by George Lucas, written by George Lucas, Walter Murch, sci-fi, box office performance, budget, reviewed by Stefan Kanfer, William Paul, A.D Murphy, Roger Greenspun, Nick Schager, David Nusair, Rachel Wagner, Kevin Carr, David Gurney, Cole Smithey, Russ Breimeier, PG rating, Warner Bros Pictures, Larry Sturhahn produced, free will, mandatory medication, dystopian future, underground cities, robotic police, love, outlawed, Orwellian dystopia, human emotion, minimal set design, creepy sound effects, THX 1138, LUH 3417, SRT, PTO, NCH, The Brother From Another Planet, An Everlasting Piece, Roger & Me, Quick Change, Night Shift, THX-1138 photos, English, 1h 28m, Mar 11, 1971, Sep 14, 2004, Warner Bros
 

Cast & Crew

Robert Duvall

Donald Pleasence

Don Pedro Colley

Maggie McOmie

Ian Wolfe

THX 1138

SEN 5241

SRT

LUH 3417

PTO

Robert Duvall – THX 1138
Donald Pleasence – SEN 5241
Don Pedro Colley – SRT
Maggie McOmie – LUH 3417
Ian Wolfe – PTO
Sid Haig – NCH

 

George Lucas

George Lucas

Larry Sturhahn

Director

Writer

Producer

Producer

Producer

Director(s)
George Lucas
 
Writer(s)
George Lucas, Walter Murch
 
Producer(s)
Larry Sturhahn

 

Film Festivals

 
Awards & Nominations
2 wins & 3 nominations
 
Academy Awards

Top Reviews

Stefan Kanfer

William Paul

A.D. Murphy

Geoff Andrew

Roger Greenspun

TIME Magazine

Village Voice

Variety

Time Out

New York Times

THX-1138
 All Critics (63) | Top Critics (14) | Fresh (54) | Rotten (9)
 Despite his scenes of bland horror, Lucas offers the 25th century as a arch, campy place, a conception not satiric enough to be accepted as comedy and not quite insightful enough to be taken seriously.
 
 February 8, 2018
 
 Stefan Kanfer
 TIME Magazine
 TOP CRITIC
 The empty space surrounding the vulnerable man emphasizes the exertion involved rather than the goal of escape: like the hologram who came to life because he wanted to, THX finally achieves his humanity by an assertion of will.
 
 January 18, 2013
 
 William Paul
 Village Voice
 TOP CRITIC
 With political paternalism rampant at both extremes of the spectrum, Lucas is onto something. In any case, we’ll know for sure in about a generation.
 
 June 5, 2007
 
 A.D. Murphy
 Variety
 TOP CRITIC
 Visually it is often extraordinary, with Lucas playing on perspectives and dislocations throughout, nowhere more brilliantly than in the ‘prison’ represented by a limbo of whiteness that seems to stretch as far as the eye can see.
 
 June 24, 2006
 
 Geoff Andrew
 Time Out
 TOP CRITIC
 I have a good many reservations about the film’s ideas, but they are greatly outweighed by my admiration for a technical virtuosity that by fair means and foul achieves exceptional emotional intensity at the same time.
 
 May 9, 2005 | Rating: 4/5
 
 Roger Greenspun
 New York Times
 TOP CRITIC
 A modest, somber vision of the future.
 
 May 4, 2005 | Rating: C+
 
 Nick Schager
 Lessons of Darkness
 TOP CRITIC
 …devoid of even the most basic exposition designed to draw the viewer into its oddball futuristic landscape…
 
 December 7, 2019 | Rating: 1/4
 
 David Nusair
 Reel Film Reviews
 THX 1138 isn’t a perfect sci-film but it is solidly entertaining and very unique.
 
 March 13, 2019 | Rating: B
 
 Rachel Wagner
 rachelsreviews.net
 long and cumbersome
 
 January 19, 2014 | Rating: 2/5
 
 Kevin Carr
 7M Pictures
 Slow sci-fi drama for die hard Lucas fans only.
 
 January 1, 2011 | Rating: 3/5
 
 David Gurney
 Common Sense Media
 Tedious pacing contributes to the confusing nature of the movie, but George Lucas’ restored “THX-1138” is essential viewing to distinguish his artistic vision before he transformed Hollywood.
 
 May 7, 2009 | Rating: A-
 
 Cole Smithey
 ColeSmithey.com
 Enhancing the film with special effects and a clearer presentation, Lucas has turned something that was relatively unwatchable into something that can endure as a sci-fi classic.
 
 November 2, 2006 | Rating: 3/4
 
 Russ Breimeier
 Christianity Today…

 

Plot
It’s sometime in the future in a state controlled society, where conformity and homogeneity are the rule. What is also the rule is that the populace follows the wants of the faceless state without question. How this is achieved is through a mandatory drug regimen, which also suppresses human desire, with sexual intercourse and human relationships banned. The law of the state is policed by a force of robocops. The physical environment is totally within a manufactured enclosure, what being outside of this unknown. THX 1138 is a loyal subject, he who goes about his business as a skilled factory working building robocops. And even when he begins to have strange feelings, he does what is obliged by going to the state run confessional, which further brainwashes through its reinforced mantra of happiness, loyalty and understanding. THX 1138 is given a glimpse into the other side through his computer matched and thus appointed female roommate, LUH 3417, and her surveillance colleague SEN 5241, LUH 3417’s vision which may be something that THX 1138 may want to continue despite its illegality. If THX 1138 is able to keep his activities from the authorities and the robocops, he will have to figure out what options are available to him.
 
Trivia

 
Goofs / Tidbits
No goofy or funny or odd comments were found in the Fresh Kernels database for THX-1138.
 

 
George-Lucas.jpg

 
Production Company(ies)
New Regency Productions, The Wolper Organization Warner Bros.,
 
Distributor
20th Century Fox
 
Release Type
Theatrical
 
Filming Location(s)
Château d’If, Marseille, Bouches-du-Rhône, France
 
MPAA / Certificate
R
 
Year of Release
1971
 

 
Genre(s)
Crime/Mystery & thriller
 
Keyword(s)
starring Gene Hackman, Roy Scheider, Fernando Rey, Tony Lo Bianco, Marcel Bozzuffi, Frédéric de Pasquale, directed by William Friedkin, written by Ernest Tidyman, crime, mystery, thriller, drama, R rating, box office success, Philip D’Antoni produced, reviewed by Alexander Walker, Martha DuBose, Derek Malcolm, John Russell Taylor, Myles Standish, David Wilkening, Michael Billington, James Wegg, Danielle Solzman, J Oliver Prescott, Noel Taylor, David Hale, Gene Hackman as Det Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle, Roy Scheider as Det Buddy “Cloudy”‘Russo, Fernando Rey as Alain Charnier, Tony Lo Bianco as Salvatore “Sal” Boca, Marcel Bozzuffi as Pierre Nicoli, Hit Man, Frédéric de Pasquale as Henri Devereaux
 

Cast & Crew

Gene Hackman

Fernando Rey

Roy Scheider

Tony Lo Bianco

Marcel Bozzuffi

Det. Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle

Alain Charnier

Det. Buddy “Cloudy” Russo

Salvatore “Sal” Boca

Pierre Nicoli

– Gene Hackman as Det. Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle
– Fernando Rey as Alain Charnier
– Roy Scheider as Det. Buddy “Cloudy”‘Russo
– Tony Lo Bianco as Salvatore “Sal” Boca
– Marcel Bozzuffi as Pierre Nicoli, Hit Man
– Frédéric de Pasquale as Henri Devereaux
– Director: William Friedkin
– Producer: Philip D’Antoni
– Writer: Ernest Tidyman

 

William Friedkin

Ernest Tidyman

Philip D’Antoni

Director

Writer

Producer

Producer

Producer

Director(s)
William Friedkin
 
Writer(s)
Ernest Tidyman
 
Producer(s)
Philip D’Antoni

 

Film Festivals

 
Awards & Nominations
Won 5 Oscars
22 wins & 12 nominations total
 
Academy Awards
Oscar Best Picture Winners, Oscar Winners
 

Top Reviews

Alexander Walker

Martha DuBose

Derek Malcolm

John Russell Taylor

Myles Standish

London Evening Standard

Sydney Morning Herald

Guardian

Times (UK)

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

THE FRENCH CONNECTION
  All Critics (87) | Top Critics (27) | Fresh (84) | Rotten (3)
  If you want a dog-eared guide book, stuffed with authentic detail, to the work of the New York narcotics squad, this is your film. It certainly is mine. Every element coalesces into a hard bunch of excitement you can’t imagine belter done.
 
  February 10, 2022
 
  Alexander Walker
  London Evening Standard
  TOP CRITIC
  No matter how hard I try to control my enthusiasm, I cannot help thinking that The French Connection is the most exciting, most stylish — in fact, the best piece of cops-and-robbers cinema since the silents.
 
  April 15, 2021
 
  Martha DuBose
  Sydney Morning Herald
  TOP CRITIC
  Apart from telling a pretty exciting story with great mechanical skill, Friedkin examines the cop and his prey with a sceptic’s eye.
 
  April 15, 2021
 
  Derek Malcolm
  Guardian
  TOP CRITIC
  Quite efficient but pretty unremarkable.
 
  April 15, 2021
 
  John Russell Taylor
  Times (UK)
  TOP CRITIC
  One of the most exciting and breathtaking chase films ever made.
 
  April 15, 2021
 
  Myles Standish
  St. Louis Post-Dispatch
  TOP CRITIC
  Connection tells a straight story, has some respect for its viewer’s intelligence, and maintains dramatic situations that build with increasing tension from one scene to another.
 
  April 15, 2021
 
  David Wilkening
  Orlando Sentinel
  TOP CRITIC
  Written by Ernest Tidyman and directed by William Friedkin, It has exactly the kind of ruthless professionalism and headlong pace one ands in the American cinema at its best.
 
  February 10, 2022
 
  Michael Billington
  Birmingham Post
  Too much ado about drugs.
 
  January 17, 2022 | Rating: 2/5
 
  James Wegg
  JWR
  The French Connection helps bring about a new era in filmmaking–much thanks to Friedkin and company–and cinema would never be the same.
 
  October 8, 2021
 
  Danielle Solzman
  Solzy at the Movies
  Director William Friedkin has carefully contrived the intense action of this film to jolt you, to assault your nervous system. He is undeniably successful.
 
  April 15, 2021
 
  J. Oliver Prescott
  Tampa Bay Times
  Friedkin has a gripping story to tell and wastes little time with diversionary devices.
 
  April 15, 2021
 
  Noel Taylor
  Ottawa Citizen
  Director William Friedkin, whose previous efforts were The The Night Raided Minsky’s and The Boys in the Band proves expert at keeping the customers on the edge of their seats by automating comedic moments with moments of violence.
 
  April 15, 2021
 
  David Hale
  Fresno Bee…

 

Plot
William Friedkin’s gritty police drama portrays two tough New York City cops trying to intercept a huge heroin shipment coming from France. An interesting contrast is established between ‘Popeye’ Doyle, a short-tempered alcoholic bigot who is nevertheless a hard-working and dedicated police officer, and his nemesis Alain Charnier, a suave and urbane gentleman who is nevertheless a criminal and one of the largest drug suppliers of pure heroin to North America. During the surveillance and eventual bust, Friedkin provides one of the most gripping and memorable car chase sequences ever filmed.
 
Trivia

 
Goofs / Tidbits
Gene Hackman delivers a commanding and humanized performance as Detective Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle in The French Connection.
 

 
William-Friedkin.jpg

 
Production Company(ies)
Mosfilm Vtoroe Tvorcheskoe Obedinenie
 
Distributor
Kino Lorber
 
Release Type
Theatrical
 
Filming Location(s)
New York City, New York, USA
 
MPAA / Certificate
R
 
Year of Release
1971
 

 
Genre(s)
Comedy
 
Keyword(s)
starring Tenoch Huerta, Ilse Salas, Leonardo Ortizgris, Laura Almela, Sebastián Aguirre, Raúl Briones, directed by Alonso Ruizpalacios, written by Alonso Ruizpalacios, Gibrán Portela, comedy, Mexican cinema, student strikes, black and white cinematography, social commentary, Richard Linklater homage, French new wave, inventive, beautiful, brutal, ironic, madcap, grim, social differences, social-political commentary, simple story, stylistic flourishes, emotional bond, parallels of social criticisms, beautiful prose, colloquialisms, music, humor, Kino Lorber, Coria Corial, José Felipe, Ramiro Ruiz, MPAA rating, box office performance, budget, reviewed by Elissa Suh, Kevin Maher, David Jenkins, Peter Bradshaw, Peter Keough, Nick James, Rosa Parra, Dennis Harvey, Rubén Rosario, Daniel Krauze, Indra Arriaga
 

Cast & Crew

Tenoch Huerta

Ilse Salas

Leonardo Ortizgris

Laura Almela

Sebastián Aguirre

Sombra

Ana

Santos

Isabel

Tomás

Tenoch Huerta – Sombra
Ilse Salas – Ana
Leonardo Ortizgris – Santos
Laura Almela – Isabel
Sebastián Aguirre – Tomás
Raúl Briones – Furia

 

Alonso Ruizpalacios

Alonso Ruizpalacios

Coria Corial

José Felipe

Ramiro Ruiz

Director

Writer

Producer

Producer

Producer

Director(s)
Alonso Ruizpalacios
 
Writer(s)
Alonso Ruizpalacios, Gibrán Portela
 
Producer(s)
Coria Corial, José Felipe, Ramiro Ruiz

 

Film Festivals

 
Awards & Nominations
Won 1 Oscar
9 wins & 5 nominations total
 
Academy Awards

Top Reviews

Elissa Suh

Kevin Maher

David Jenkins

Peter Bradshaw

Peter Keough

StageBuddy.com

Times (UK)

Little White Lies

Guardian

Boston Globe

GÜEROS
 All Critics (54) | Top Critics (18) | Fresh (50) | Rotten (4)
 Draining the color in service of the disillusioned youth may initially seem detrimental to the depiction of Mexico, but the gorgeous and striking cinematography emits its own radiance, capturing every gradient of silver.
 
 March 16, 2020
 
 Elissa Suh
 StageBuddy.com
 TOP CRITIC
 It plays like a dreamy, structurally fractured Richard Linklater homage to the French new wave.
 
 November 19, 2015 | Rating: 4/5
 
 Kevin Maher
 Times (UK)
 TOP CRITIC
 Seek this one out, then make a friend happy by forcing them to see it too.
 
 November 19, 2015 | Rating: 4/5
 
 David Jenkins
 Little White Lies
 TOP CRITIC
 A very smart debut.
 
 November 19, 2015 | Rating: 4/5
 
 Peter Bradshaw
 Guardian
 TOP CRITIC
 “Güeros” is brutal, ironic, madcap, and grim.
 
 September 17, 2015 | Rating: 3.5/4
 
 Peter Keough
 Boston Globe
 TOP CRITIC
 As self-aware black-and-white, nouvelle-vague-tribute fever dreams go, Güeros is surprisingly beautiful, inventive and convincing.
 
 September 15, 2015
 
 Nick James
 Sight & Sound
 TOP CRITIC
 Brilliant use of black and white cinematography to showcase social differences, social-political commentary with a simple yet fascinating story.
 
 August 15, 2021 | Rating: 4.5/5
 
 Rosa Parra
 Latinx Lens
 One of the most bracing Mexican debut features in recent years…
 
 October 21, 2020
 
 Dennis Harvey
 48 Hills
 Ruizpalacios is too busy indulging in stylistic flourishes for us to form much of an emotional bond with the characters, leading to a closing shot that would have been really powerful if he’d tightened the film’s structure.
 
 August 22, 2018
 
 Rubén Rosario
 MiamiArtZine
 The charm of Güeros, by Alonso Ruizpalacios, is in its variety of… apparent contradictions. [Full review in Spanish]
 
 January 12, 2018
 
 Daniel Krauze
 El Financiero
 Güeros provides space for this type of dialogue (parallels of social criticisms) delivered through beautiful prose, colloquialisms, music and humor.
 
 June 20, 2017
 
 Indra Arriaga
 Anchorage Press
 With the Mexican student strike of 99 as a backdrop and the use of black and white photography and playful camerawork, Güeros is a fresh and interesting film that must be seen. [Full review in Spanish]
 
 May 6, 2016
 
 Fernando Moreno
 Ibero 90.9…

 

Plot
Six months after the disappearance of Tuscarora, PA businessman Tom Gruneman, his boss, Peter Cable, and his wife, Holly Gruneman, hire Tom’s friend, private detective John Klute to find out what happened to Tom, as the police have been unable to do so, and despite John having no expertise in missing persons cases. The only lead is a typewritten obscene letter Tom purportedly wrote to Manhattan actress/model/call girl Bree Daniel, who admits to having received such letters from someone, and since having received several mysterious telephone calls as well. The suggestion/belief is that Tom was one of Bree’s past johns, although she has no recollection of him when shown his photograph. Bree’s tricking is both a compulsion and a financial need. In their initial encounters, John and Bree do whatever they can to exert their psychological dominance over the other, especially as Bree initially refused to even speak to him. Despite their less than friendly start, they embark on a personal relationship based on emotional need, but it is a relationship Bree tries to sabotage because of those same issues which causes her to turn tricks. As they follow the leads through Bree’s call girl world, they know they’re getting close to finding the truth when someone continues to torment Bree. They believe the key to Tom’s disappearance is a violent john who tried to kill her a few years earlier when Tom disappeared but who she doesn’t remember. The questions become whether John and Bree can discover his identity and stop him before he tries to kill Bree again, and whether there is a future for them together.
 
Trivia

 
Goofs / Tidbits
There is no specific goofy or funny comment about the film on Fresh Kernels, but the critic consensus does describe it as a “striking effort that synthesizes disparate influences with inventive flair.”
 

 
Alonso-Ruizpalacios.jpg

 
Production Company(ies)
Dreamworks Pictures, Pacific Data Images Dream Works Animation,
 
Distributor
Douglas Films
 
Release Type

 
Filming Location(s)
Cañón de la Huasteca, Santa Catarina, Nuevo León, Mexico
 
MPAA / Certificate
Not Rated
 
Year of Release
1971
 

 
Genre(s)
Western
 
Keyword(s)
starring Alejandro Jodorowsky, Mara Lorenzio, Jacqueline Luis, Brontis Jodorowsky, José Legarreta, Alfonso Arau, directed by Alejandro Jodorowsky, written by Alejandro Jodorowsky, Western, box office performance, budget, reviewed by Ed Potton, Peter Bradshaw, Ben Walters, Jay Cocks, Nick Schager, David Parkinson, Rob Aldam, Ángel S Harguindey, Indra Arriaga, Christopher Hudson, Cole Smithey, Donald J Levit, MPAA rating, Douglas Films, Old West, Sodom and Gomorrah, gunslinger, redemption, violence, surrealism, religious references, mistical, symbols, unique, evocative atmosphere, narrative structure, cult cinema, forgotten classic, raw energy, fluid direction, unprecedented, memorable scenes, obscured
 

Cast & Crew

Alejandro Jodorowsky

Mara Lorenzio

Jacqueline Luis

Brontis Jodorowsky

José Legarreta

El Topo

La mujer

Mujercita

Hijo

Moribundo

Alejandro Jodorowsky – El Topo
Mara Lorenzio – La mujer
Jacqueline Luis – Mujercita
Brontis Jodorowsky – Hijo
José Legarreta – Moribundo
Alfonso Arau – Bandido 1

 

Alejandro Jodorowsky

Alejandro Jodorowsky

NA

Director

Writer

Producer

Producer

Producer

Director(s)
Alejandro Jodorowsky
 
Writer(s)
Alejandro Jodorowsky
 
Producer(s)
NA

 

Film Festivals

 
Awards & Nominations
4 wins & 3 nominations
 
Academy Awards

Top Reviews

Ed Potton

Peter Bradshaw

Ben Walters

Jay Cocks

Nick Schager

Times

Guardian

Time Out

TIME Magazine

Lessons of Darkness

EL TOPO
 All Critics (44) | Top Critics (17) | Fresh (35) | Rotten (9)
 It’s tempting to say they don’t make films like this any more, but I’m not sure anyone has ever made them like Jodorowsky.
 
 January 10, 2020 | Rating: 4/5
 
 Ed Potton
 Times (UK)
 TOP CRITIC
 It’s a bizarre head-trip festival of occult psychedelia, heatstroke visuals, Age-of-Aquarius nude dancing and violence through poster-paint fake blood splattered about the place.
 
 January 9, 2020 | Rating: 4/5
 
 Peter Bradshaw
 Guardian
 TOP CRITIC
 It remains an aesthetically intoxicating trip.
 
 March 11, 2015
 
 Ben Walters
 Time Out
 TOP CRITIC
 The film is by turns comic and profound, hysterical and pompous, fully complex enough to deserve more than a simple yea or nay.
 
 November 15, 2013
 
 Jay Cocks
 TIME Magazine
 TOP CRITIC
 Has lost little of the maddening, bewildering weirdness that made it a seminal midnight-movie phenomenon.
 
 June 5, 2011 | Rating: B
 
 Nick Schager
 Lessons of Darkness
 TOP CRITIC
 Violent, visionary, vital.
 
 May 2, 2007 | Rating: 4/5
 
 David Parkinson
 Empire Magazine
 TOP CRITIC
 A true one-off
 
 July 29, 2021
 
 Rob Aldam
 Backseat Mafia
 […] splendid cinematography, astonishing production design and an incredibly human story. [Full review in Spanish]
 
 August 29, 2017
 
 Ángel S. Harguindey
 El Pais (Spain)
 The element of violence… holds the kernels for inexhaustible analysis of the human condition that preceded the film, through the time the film captivated audiences, and even today.
 
 June 20, 2017
 
 Indra Arriaga
 Anchorage Press
 Forget about the cosmic significance: it is the work of a talented film-maker, and full of memorable scenes.
 
 March 11, 2015
 
 Christopher Hudson
 The Spectator
 [VIDEO ESSAY] For all of its easily mocked elements, “El Topo” is a work of mad cinematic genius that sticks.
 
 December 4, 2011 | Rating: A-
 
 Cole Smithey
 ColeSmithey.com
 … the story of ‘El Topo’ proves too scattered and weak to bear its digressions and vague symbols that suggest everything, anything and nothing.
 
 November 20, 2011
 
 Donald J. Levit
 ReelTalk Movie Reviews…

 

Plot
El Topo decides to confront warrior masters on a transformative desert journey he begins with his six-year-old son, who must bury his childhood totems to become a man. El Topo (the mole) claims to be God, while dressed as a gun-slinger in black, riding a horse through a mystical landscape strewn with American Western and ancient Eastern religious symbols. Bandits slaughtered a village on his path, so El Topo avenges the massacred, then forcibly takes their leader’s woman Mara as his. El Topo’s surreal way is bloody, sexual and self-reflective, musing of his own demons, as he tries to vanquish those he encounters.
 
Trivia

 
Goofs / Tidbits
There is no goofy or funny or odd comment about the film El Topo on Fresh Kernels.
 

 
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