Chance Solem-Pfeifer

1 week ago | wweek.com | Chance Solem-Pfeifer

The Masque of the Red Death (1964)Singular B-movie impresario Roger Corman fostered a collaborator tree of both nascent legends (Jack Nicholson, Martin Scorcese) and stars in their dotage (Boris Karloff, Ray Milland). But Vincent Price was an anomaly in finding a genuine career sweet spot alongside Corman. Their 1960s “Poe Cycle” cemented and deepened Price’s horror icon status right in the thick of his acting prime.

2 weeks ago | wweek.com | Chance Solem-Pfeifer

Metropolitan (1990)To the parties concerned, there’s no such thing as champagne problems. There are only problems. That’s the fun, the irony, the empathy and the joke of Metropolitan (1990), Whit Stillman’s breathless debut comedy about a crew of debutante ballers whiling away Christmas break on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. Crackling through an Oscar-nominated screenplay, the clique argues about whether there’s a popular imagination.

3 weeks ago | wweek.com | Chance Solem-Pfeifer

The Straight Story (1999)Often recollected as that time Disney released a David Lynch movie, The Straight Story deserves a deeper reputation than that of its unlikely distributor. Yes, Lynch’s arguably least-remembered feature film has the shape of a conventional “one last shot at life” dramedy.

4 weeks ago | wweek.com | Chance Solem-Pfeifer

The Long Goodbye (1973)Every generation gets the Los Angeles snoop it deserves. In The Long Goodbye (1973), Elliott Gould plays Philip Marlowe—the noir detective originated by Dick Powell and immortalized on screen by Humphrey Bogart—as five-o’clock shadow personified. From the moment we meet Marlowe, he’s exhausted, suit rumpled, jaded by free love, cigarette dangling from his bottom lip for minutes at a time.

1 month ago | wweek.com | Chance Solem-Pfeifer

Bull Durham (1988)Just imagine the soliloquy that minor league catcher and philosopher Crash Davis (Kevin Costner) would deliver about the 2025 New York Yankees’ new “torpedo bats.” “Optimal weight distribution to maximize power?” the Bull Durham star would probably scoff. “Sounds like a lot of technocratic joy-sucking from efficiency snobs who don’t know shit about sex or baseball.” But Bull Durham isn’t a movie about being good at baseball. It’s a movie about being good at enjoying baseball.