jeremydee

A dazzling silent comedy, "The General" seems to set the standard for any movie chase scene that came afterward. There's a hint of "The Great Train Robbery," made nearly a quarter of a century earlier, but where the earlier film was experimental this demonstrates perfection. Buster Keaton is a railroad engineer in the Civil War South who is rejected by the draft board but finds himself chasing--or being chased--by Union soldiers who have stolen his train. The ongoing shenanigans are fresh and funny, the scenery is beautiful, and the action sequences are still impressive. Keaton is marvelously deadpan throughout. It only gets better when Marion Mack joins the chase, as the two lovers-in-waiting frustrate each other along the way. A cinematic must: this is why they make movies! 10 out of 10

Melodrama about lust and murder feels 100 times too tame for its subject, but take away the dated elements--John Garfield's voiceover sounds ripe for parody today--and you've got a small classic. Garfield's shifty-eyed protagonist is the perfect match for the mysterious Lana Turner, who occasionally plays the part more Hollywood than real life, and Hume Cronyn is memorable as the smarmy attorney. There aren't many surprises for today's experienced movie audiences, and the film goes on about one development too long, but you can't beat its atmosphere and tension. 8 out of 10.

Yes, it's a gimmick: the entire film is shot from the dashboard of a car, and only the driver and the passenger are heard and (sometimes) seen. This gimmick will not please everyone, and hardly qualifies the film as a masterpiece. But Hitchcock's brilliant "Rear Window" was a gimmick too, and Kiarostami's "10" is no less worthy of attention. A movie has to be done well, regardless of its tricks, and "10" fits the bill. The driver of the car also drives the conflict; she is a recently divorced Iranian woman in a country in which women barely have the right to divorce at all. As the city rushes past--it's great fun to watch the people and places outside--she curses the drivers and pedestrians along the way but holds her own against the crises in the passenger's seat. Funny thing about a car: it gives one the sense of control (here, that's clearly an illusion) and the oxymoronic ability to remain private even while out in public. She and her women passengers air their grievances within this zone of safety; a scene in which a passenger slowly removes her head covering, a symbol of repression, is moving and unsettling. The greatest conflict, however, is between the driver and her young son, who's bitter about the divorce and lets his mother unravel until he, not she, controls where the car is heading. The boy's performance is astonishingly real, as much for the way he fills the silences as for his sharp and sometimes humorous counterpoints. The film could have done without the "countdown" of the 10 conversations--the source of the title--but no matter: everything in between is a delight.

8 out of 10