Letterboxd — Your life in film

**Part of the Best Picture Project**

Cracking at the brim with social criticism of Texan society, Giant is a sprawling epic that tells the story of the conflict between a Texas rancher, his family, and his ex ranch hand.

Giant is admittedly a bit too long for its own good, but it is still an enthralling film featuring great performances by leads Rock Hudson, Elizabeth Taylor, and James Dean. The rivalry here between Hudson and Dean is so strong that…

I liked this quite a bit less than the first time I saw it. Though Abrams' Star Trek update remains a thrilling and fun film, there's quite a bit of emptiness to the whole matter.

It doesn't really have much to do with the character side of things, as the whole Kirk, Spock, and Crew taking up their destiny is easily part of what makes the film mostly satisfying. Instead, in an attempt to create excitement from set pieces, we…

Why couldn't Nicholas Meyer do all the Star Trek movies? He brought the perfect tone to the films and the perfect amount of Trekness to the movies while having them not feel like an extended episode.

Few franchises (or in this case: crews) get a good sendoff, so it's refreshing to see The Undiscovered Country managing to give a good sense of finality to the events. Thankfully Meyer doesn't bash the audience in the head with a giant sign saying…

Of The Final Frontier, I have three theories:

1. William Shatner, tired of the franchise, tried to kill it as best as he could, doing his very best to sabotage it.

2. William Shatner, jealous of Nimoy's success with the previous two entries, wanted to try his hand at directing an entry, something he wasn't very well suited for.

3. William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy were sitting around one night after reading the script. Nimoy didn't want to return to…

While The Voyage Home seemingly serves as an end to a three film long arc, it's really just a distraction and excuse to get the crew to 1980s San Francisco for some fish out of water hijinks, and in returning back to the ways of The Motion Picture, is just an extended episode.

Admittedly though, it's a fun if very silly episode. Little is done in the way of blowing up the conflict of the crew having to remain incognito…

**Part of the Best Picture Project**

It's most definitely not my upbringing on Classic Hollywood that comes with my belief that most people are acutely aware of The King and I. It's a fairly well known story with a just as well known musical. Even many of the musical numbers in the film are hummed to this day. So either I have unconsciously and carefully picked my friends, or you all already know about this film.

It's astonishing that despite…

I often wonder why many filmmakers, when they make several changes to popular novels, don't just go the full hog and change it all. The name already brings them brand recognition, and it can't be hard to put forward the extra effort to put a different unique spin on a well known and told story. It's even more crazy that in this case, Baz Luhrman didn't do just that.

I'm not the biggest fan of Baz Luhrman, I find his…

Following Wrath of Khan probably wasn't going to be as easy for the Trek crew as they thought it would be. The second film was well liked, and with Nicholas Meyer not sticking around and Spock being gone for most of the film, they probably weren't going to get much done.

And that's exactly what happened with The Search for Spock.

Though Leonard Nimoy proves to be an adept director and is able to give the film some pretty great…

Instead of talking about the story and script of Mud (barring some minor issues, it's damn good), or the acting (The Matthew McConaughey renaissance proves to be one of the best comebacks of recent memory), I'd like to focus on the thing that I found made Mud so very special: Texture

What do I mean when I say "texture"? Well, you ever watch a movie, and you feel it? Almost like you're actually in it? That's what I call "texture".…