Director Carl Franklin’s Devil in a Blue Dress opens with a shot of a Black neighborhood in downtown Los Angeles. The hustle and bustle is there as DP Tak Fujimoto’s camera cranes up, winding around a building before moving through a window. Inside, it is a bar with Ezekiel “Easy” Rawlins (Denzel Washington) sitting down, scanning a newspaper for job opportunities. He recently lost his because he showed up late for work. Now, his life hangs in the balance. Two…

Jeff Gerber (Godfrey Cambridge) is a racist. He may cover it up in “jokes” or off-color comments that he tries to play off with “no offense” caveats, but make no mistake: he hates Black people. Just see how he reacts to news stories about riots and how he calls them “uppity blacks” for daring to want an equal society. In all corners of his life, he is obnoxious. His workout routine at home is exhaustive and exhausting to watch. On…

The 1940s: 47/100
1949 Ranked

What a picture. Not a single second is wasted in Fred Zinnemann’s Act of Violence, a film about World War II demons following a guilty man home. Frank Enley (Van Heflin) is waiting. He has spent his years since returning from the home trying to make amends in his own way. His business is a fixture in the community and everyone knows his name. He is revered in Santa Lisa, with a wonderful wife in…

The 1950s: 98/100
1950 Ranked

Nick: “Seen the view?”
Christabel: “Yeah”
Nick: “It’s better with me.”

Directed by Nicholas Ray, Born to Be Bad is a lot of fun. Sure, it is not In a Lonely Place, but watching Joan Fontaine twist men into knots, Robert Ryan with definite “big dick energy”, and biting dialogue, is sure to be a great time. It follows young Christabel Caine (Fontaine). Her parents died in her youth, leaving her with two options: her…

Checking in at just under four hours, Once Upon a Time in America takes a long time to say absolutely nothing unique. A gangster film, the film does nothing for the gangster genre that could not be accomplished in a far shorter runtime because oh my God is this thing long. It just takes forever to end and even then, I still had no idea why it took so long. I love gangster films with The Godfather Parts I and…