I wrote a few paragraphs about Robert Altman’s The Long Goodbye nearly a year ago, when I knew even less about movies and writing about them than I do now and before I realized any one else would see my drivel. I was perceptive enough then to guess that an additional viewing would greatly [...]

Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God; for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” No, “if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads.” [...]

Robert Altman’s California Split must be the greatest film about gambling that I am aware of. It also happens to be a comedic character study heightened by the rich performances of Elliott Gould and George Segal as compulsive gamblers Charlie and Bill. The two thirtysomething men meet by chance in the film’s opening scene and [...]

Lacombe, Lucien begins in 1944 with the title character working as a janitor at a French hospital. Soon he hears a bird chirping, looks outside to see the bird merrily singing on a tree limb and then shoots the bird with a slingshot, knocking it out of the tree and killing it. Immediately [...]

Robert Altman’s take on Philip Marlowe is a mostly brilliant film, one that is not beholden to any traditional genre and manages to thrive quite well on its own. That reluctance to adhere to category is, of course, typical of Altman, who has made a career subverting classic genres from war film to western. The [...]