Rankings

The 2024 Chicago International Film Festival kicks off this week, and it is a film festival that I truly love. This was the first festival that I attended back in 2008, and I have attended it every year since. It is a great film festival that does not get the love and attention of some higher-profile festivals but deserves to be mentioned as one of the best film festivals in North America. It highlights so…

I wouldn’t usually rank the movies of a production company. Thinking about ranking the movies from the likes of Paramount or Universal or Disney just seems like a daunting task because of how long they have been around and how many movies they have in their catalog. But the production studio A24 has been around for only a decade and within that decade, they have established themselves as one of the most singular and best…

David Fincher is one of the best directors working in Hollywood and one of my favorite directors.  For nearly three decades, Fincher has given us some iconic and memorable films, from violent thrillers to Oscar winning dramas.  Here is my ranking of all of David Fincher’s films.       11 – ALIEN3 (1992) Following Ridley Scott’s Alien and James Cameron’s Aliens, two masterpieces of the sci-fi genre, David Fincher made his directorial debut with Alien3.  Following two masterpieces…

Usually when we think of the idea of an auteur, directors come to mind.  These are directors who have complete control of their film and you can recognize a film is directed by a certain director based on the visual style and themes of the film.  There aren’t many screenwriters that I would consider auteurs, but there is one who defines this: Aaron Sorkin.  The Oscar and Emmy award winning writer has established his own…

From schlubby side-character to rom-com leading man, Seth Rogen has had quite the journey through Hollywood.  Though most people think of Rogen as the funny guy with the crazy laugh, Rogen has become one of the most versatile talents working today.  Not only is he a terrific actor, he’s a great writer, director, and producer, dabbling in all different genres and mediums.  Rogen is always a joy to see on screen and these are the…

It seems inevitable that an actor will at some point end up behind the camera as a director.  The results of this happening, however, are mixed. Some actors-turned-directors start off with a dud, others start with a bang.  This list focuses on the latter.  Here are my picks for the best directorial debuts from actors-turned-directors.         5 – A BRONX TALE (Robert De Niro, 1995) By the time 1995 rolled around, Robert De…