The Irish Thug

Birth of a Nation
Lets be honest, this is not a film for everyone. It is a 3 hour silent film that depicts the KKK in a non-negative way. Just one of those points is enough to turn many people off from watching a movie. I wouldn’t say I enjoyed the movie, but it was very interesting to watch and think about what it said about the time that it was depicting and the time it was made.

The Piano Teacher
Erika Kohut is piano teacher at a music conservatory. While there she starts teaching a young male student and the two of them become obsessed with each other and explore their fantasies together. Going into the movie, I knew that it was going to be a little twisted, but didn’t know much about it. After watching it, I realized it was by Michael Haneke and everything made a lot more sense.

The Long Goodbye
Philip Marlowe is a classic private eye. There is only one small difference. He lives in LA during the seventies. The story line is much line many others of the film noir genre, the the time and setting allow it to present a different picture. Marlowe spends the film trying to find out what happened to his friend. The police say he killed his wife and then killed himself in Mexico, but Marlowe does not believed it.

The Best Years of Our Lives

Three men return from WWII and head back to their families they left behind. Each of them were in different places in their lives at the start of the war and have their own issues to deal with now that they are back. While the film does seem long, running almost three hours, this is due to the depth of the story. It would have been possible to make two separate films, but allowing Homer’s struggles to intermingle with the story about Fred and Al makes a better package. The Best Years of Our Lives won 7 Oscars including Best Picture, Director and Actor.

Peeping Tom

Mark Lewis works for a film studio, but wants to do more and make his own films. He also has a hobby that no one knows about. He films people as he murders them and watches the footage afterward. This psychological thriller builds immense tension as the audience watches Mark (often through the lens of his own camera) try to live his life and control his urges from taking over his life. The film was controversial when it was released, however after a cult following for years, it is now seen by many as great and appears a number of to 100 horror movies.