Film Review: Metropolis (1927)

Fritz Lang's towering Metropolis is a film that needs no introduction. Its influence on cinematic history is so powerful, so resonant to this day, that trying to write anything novel about it is probably an exercise in futility. However, seeing how futile is my middle name I've decided to give it the old college try,…Read more Film Review: Metropolis (1927)

Film Review: Scarlet Street (1945)

Once an archetypal cinematic gangster, the diminutive Edward G. Robinson did a bold about-face in Fritz Lang's excellent noir, Scarlet Street. In Lang's studio shot, oppressively claustrophobic film, the man who once was Little Caesar is reduced to puddy in the claws of femme-fatale Kitty March (played with great bombast by Joan Bennett). Lang, always…Read more Film Review: Scarlet Street (1945)

Film Review: Man of Steel (2013)

At one point in Man of Steel the ethereal spirit of Big Blue’s long-deceased papa Jor-El grimly assures his son that he will not only be able to save Lois Lane from the fiendish General Zod, but all of humanity. This statement becomes increasingly more absurd as the movie moves towards its finale: a big albeit vapid rumble in the…Read more Film Review: Man of Steel (2013)