I’ve always loved thrillers and science fiction stories, especially those that occur in the near-future rather than hundreds or thousands of years from now. As I worked on my latest novel Synapse, I ended up thinking a lot about my favorite near-future films, especially thrillers. Here is a list of my top eighteen (with a…
Susan George (born 1950) had a string of movie roles under her belt before 1971. In those early film appearances, the gorgeous blonde with the alluringly pretty eyes and nice legs was sometimes used largely as cinematic eye candy. And while there were varying degrees of more dramatic roles for George through that slew of…
The brilliant 1950 noir The Sound of Fury begins with a blind street preacher warning passersby that “Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” If you think about it, this verse from the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Galatians could work as an epigraph for all of film noir. It certainly works to…
Most of my favorite stories, whether written or on the big screen, have one thing in common: it’s difficult to put them in a box. Shamelessly borrowing tropes from multiple genres and subverting expected plot structures serves to expand our understanding of how narrative works. As a result, suspense is even more suspenseful for being…
Join Brian Greene as he revisits the trio of horror movies that resulted from the collaboration of Val Lewton and Jacques Tourneur in the early 1940s at RKO Pictures. In 1942, film industry professional Val Lewton (1904-51) was hired by RKO Pictures to head up its new horror movie initiative. Lewton, who had recently worked…
In real life, they were named Albrecht Muth and Viola Drath, but the film calls them Ulrich Mott and Elsa Brecht, which maybe does him a small favor. According to the New York Times magazine, their marriage was “Georgetown’s Worst,” but that seems slightly unfair. They had things in common, like their German roots and…
In a way, he considered himself the fifth Beatle, but he wasn’t Billy Preston or Stuart Sutcliffe, so it was a problem. According to Charles Manson’s twisted mythology, the Beatles were the four angels who came to Earth to warn humanity of all their tawdry problems and he was the fifth angel who would fix…
Gangsters possess a certain allure that can be wildly infectious. Those with no desire to see innocent people or even criminals killed may still look upon infamous outlaws with admiration, envious of the way in which they comport themselves and answer to no one. Impressionable young people who read comic books and detective novels are…
Thematically, murder ballads would better fit the fatal kind of trouble the Connolly Sisters find themselves in, but the sea shanties that punctuate this film better suit their coastal Maine fishing village. Priscilla is the reserved, responsible sister, but she gets caught up in Mary Beth’s chaos, out of sibling loyalty and guilt in Bridget…
This is not your Hallmark Channel family reconciliation movie. It’s about mean drunks and their emotionally stunted sons—and a whole bunch of dastardly skullduggery. It would be telling to identify what kind precisely, but eventually plodding Norval Greenwood will start to understand the whole picture. In the meantime, he will try to get to know…
