Greg Hammond

Laurence Olivier’s Hamlet (1948) strips away much of Shakespeare’s sprawling tragedy to create something darker and more intimate.

Jeff Fowler’s Sonic the Hedgehog 2 expands the video-game adventure with bigger action, new characters, and another wonderfully unhinged performance from Jim Carrey.

Jeff Fowler’s Sonic the Hedgehog is a surprisingly entertaining adventure, elevated by a terrific Jim Carrey performance as the wonderfully unhinged Dr. Robotnik.

Sean Baker finds plenty of laughs in Anora, but beneath its manic energy is a film with surprisingly conventional ideas about money, sex, and loneliness.

George C. Scott gives an unforgettable performance as General George S. Patton in this sweeping, unsentimental portrait of a brilliant commander whose greatest enemy may be his own ego.

Paul Haggis’s Oscar-winning Crash examines racial prejudice, personal bias, and human connection through a series of interconnected lives in Los Angeles.

Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained is a ferocious, funny, and unapologetically entertaining revenge western.

Michael Anderson’s Around the World in 80 Days is a lavish, star-studded 1950s Hollywood spectacle, combining globe-trotting adventure, David Niven and Cantinflas, a parade of celebrity cameos, and a Best Picture Oscar.

Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver is a haunting portrait of loneliness and alienation, anchored by Robert De Niro’s unforgettable performance as Travis Bickle.

Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven is a powerful western about violence, regret, and the lasting consequences of a violent past.

Bruce Beresford’s Driving Miss Daisy follows an unlikely relationship across thirty years of social and personal change.

Carol Reed’s Oliver! turns Dickens’ grim Victorian tale into a lavish, exuberant musical, with memorable songs, spectacular production numbers, and a terrific Ron Moody.

In Greg Mottola’s Confess, Fletch, Jon Hamm stars as the wisecracking investigative journalist who becomes the prime suspect in a murder while trying to recover a stolen collection of paintings, forcing him to investigate the crime himself.

Deconstructing Harry is Woody Allen’s darkly comic portrait of a troubled writer who turns his life, loves, and failures into fiction, blurring the line between the man and the characters he creates.

Fred Zinneman’s A Man for All Seasons, starring Paul Scofield and Robert Shaw, depicts the riveting trials and tribulations of Sir Thomas More.

Frank Capra’s Academy Award winning You Can’t Take It with You, starring James Stewart and Jean Arthur, is a charmingly funny and quaint portrait of Depression-era America.

The Silence of the Lambs, directed by Jonathan Demme and starring Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins, still packs a psychological punch three and a half decades after its celebrated debut.

Shakespeare in Love, directed by John Madden and starring Joseph Fiennes and Gwyneth Paltrow, is a light, very funny situation comedy set in a highly fictional Renaissance England.

Sam Mendes’ American Beauty, starring Kevin Spacey and Annette Bening, is still funny and heartbreaking a quarter century after its debut.

Errol Morris’s The B-Side: Elsa Dorfman’s Portrait Photography is a powerful portrait of an artist working in a dying medium.

Woody Allen’s Small Time Crooks, starring Allen and Tracey Ullman, is a whip-smart farce for the first hour, and a damn fine comedy for the second.

Woody Allen’s Crimes and Misdemeanors is an exceedingly charming story concerned with the complexities of human morality.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-verse, directed by Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, and Justin K. Thompson, and starring Shameik Moore as Miles/Spider-man, is one of the strongest animated features of the decade.

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, directed by Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic, and starring Chris Pratt and Charlie Day, tries to fit a bit too much into an otherwise enjoyable tale.

Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island, starring is neo-noir at its finest due to a riveting plot made even stronger by outstanding acting and direction.

Lorne, directed by Morgan Neville, is filled to the brim with nice celebrities saying nice things about a presumably nice guy.

Fantagraphics’ Atlas Comics LIbrary No. 9: Adventures into Weird Worlds, Vol. 1, is a treasure trove of scares, twists, and surprises.

The young adult graphic novel Raised by Ghosts by Briana Loewinsohn is a thoroughly gripping look at childhood loneliness and the salvation contained in friendship and art.

Monty Python and the Holy Grail, directed by Terry Gilliam and Terry Jones, is pure, silly fun from start to finish.

Francis Ford Coppola’s The Cotton Club Encore, starring Richard Gere and Gregory Hines, makes all the right steps and hits all the right notes.

Alexandre O. Phillippe’s documentary 78/52: Hitchcock’s Shower Scene over-analyzes a 45-second scene, under-utilizes its talent, and over-utilizes those who shouldn’t even be in the film.

Martin Scorsese’s Mean Streets, starring Harvey Keitel and Robert De Niro, is a must-see independent film with enough spirit and drive for five films.

Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove, starring Peter Sellers in three distinct roles, shines a satiric light on the nonsense that is nuclear proliferation.

Bennett Miller’s Moneyball, starring Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill, is time well spent with solid performances and an intriguing plot.

Ernst Lubitsch’s Trouble in Paradise, starring Herbert Marshall, Miriam Hopkins, and Kay Francis, crackles with comedic energy and sparkles with pre-Code situations and dialogue.

Fungae, by Wojtek Wawszczyk and Tomasz Lew Lesniak, is a beautifully rendered portrait of a family’s fight for survival in a metaphorical, and literal, nightmare of a jungle.

Roger Corman’s A Bucket of Blood and The Little Shop of Horrors are the perfect double feature complimenting each other with laughs and “chills” in equal measure.

Robert Zemeckis’ Forrest Gump, starring Tom Hanks and Robin Wright, is a delightful romp from the ’50s through the ’80s that deserves all the accolades.

Fantagraphics’ Disney Epic Mickey: The Comics Collection collects several digital comics and two graphic novels pertaining to the Epic Mickey video games starring Mickey Mouse and a cast of classic, “forgotten” characters such as Oswald the Lucky Rabbit and his cat girlfriend, Ortensia.

Fantagraphics’ collection Atlas No. 8: SNAFU: The Funniest Magazine in the World! is a showcase for great artistic talent and a big glimpse at the future success of Stan Lee.

Fantagraphics’ Atlas Comics Library No. 7: Girl Comics is filled with romance and adventure from the 1940’s and 50’s, and creates a compendium that is a collector’s dream.

Stephen Frears’ The Grifters, starring John Cusack, Anjelica Houston, and Annette Bening, is a spectacularly fun neo-noir/thriller.

James Ivory’s Howards End, starring Emma Thompson and Anthony Hopkins, is a daring, phenomenal glimpse at Edwardian England.

Ti West’s X Trilogy (X, Pearl, and MaXXXine), starring Mia Goth as both a young and old Pearl, as well as Maxine, want to be horror/thriller films but fall short every time.

The Curse of Frankenstein, directed by Terence Fisher and starring Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, is one of the strongest versions of the Frankenstein mythos to date.

Zack Cregger’s Weapons, starring Julia Garner and Josh Brolin, has its merits, but it is exceedingly hard to ignore its problems.

Michael Chaves directs The Nun II, starring Taissa Farmiga and Jonas Bloquet, but fails to live up to the standards of The Nun.

The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, directed by Michael Chaves and starring Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, begins to strain the credibility of the franchise.

Annabelle Comes Home, directed by Gary Dauberman, and starring Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga, brings the terror directly into the Warren household.

The Nun, directed by Corin Hardy, and starring Damian Bichir and Taissa Farmiga, is a strong, scary start to a new sub-franchise of the Conjuring Universe.