Greg Hammond

Robert Rossen’s All the King’s Men examines the rise and fall of an ambitious politician whose crusade against corruption gradually transforms him into the very thing he once opposed. Featuring an Oscar-winning performance by Broderick Crawford, this powerful Best Picture winner remains a compelling portrait of political ambition, moral compromise, and the dangerous allure of power.

Gregory Peck stars in Elia Kazan’s Gentleman’s Agreement, an Oscar-winning drama that exposes the everyday prejudices hiding behind polite manners and respectable society.

Though its nostalgia occasionally veers into sentimentality, How Green Was My Valley’s powerful performances and evocative cinematography make its story of memory and loss difficult to forget.

William Wyler’s Mrs. Miniver transforms one British family’s wartime struggles into an affecting portrait of courage and resilience.

Bing Crosby and Barry Fitzgerald bring warmth and charm to Going My Way, the Oscar-winning musical comedy-drama whose appealing performances and gentle humor help offset its predictable plot and abundance of sentimentality.

Woody Allen’s The Curse of the Jade Scorpion has all the trappings of a classic screwball comedy, but its polished period setting and appealing cast can’t quite compensate for jokes that too often fall flat.

Woody Allen’s Manhattan is a gorgeous, frequently hilarious love letter to New York City, but its tangled romances and uncomfortable age gap complicate its status as a romantic classic.

David Lean’s The Bridge on the River Kwai turns a grand World War II adventure into a fascinating examination of pride, duty, and obsession, with Alec Guinness delivering an extraordinary performance as a British officer whose devotion to discipline takes an increasingly disturbing turn.

CODA is a warm, predictable family drama that earns much of its emotional impact through strong performances, even if its familiar story rarely surprises.

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.