49. TENDER MERCIES (1983)
Is Robert Duvall the greatest actor this country has ever produced? I think so. Exhibit A — this unassuming slice of life about a washed up, boozy country singer trying to turn his life around. Duvall’s performance is a thing of honest, plain-spoken beauty. Plot-wise nothing really happens, but also Everything does. Here, as in real life, the sacred is all about the mundane.
Verdict: Remember when they bothered to make movies like this, with stories about real humans that were done with subtlety and art?
50. THE RED SHOES (1948)
The melodrama dial goes to 11 in this story about the self-destructiveness of obsession, in the case, obsession with Art and Creativity. The ballet sequences are glorious, and the performances are vivid, but the cinematography is the real star here: it’s staggeringly beautiful and creative and it’s worth seeing the movie for the visuals alone.
Verdict: Stunning to look at, but I’ll bet you’ve never seen a movie that featured more unstable characters in it. There is literally no one psychologically normal on screen at any time.
51. SOUND OF FREEDOM (2023)
A taut, well-made, excellently acted character-driven thriller that manages to be entertaining in spite of its very heavy subject matter. Now that we’ve gotten the review out of the way…what makes people in certain quarters attack and/or seek to discredit the film and the people who made it? To ask the question is to answer it. A pox on them.
Verdict: A good movie worth seeing on its merits, of which there are many.