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Reviews
Day of the Outlaw (1959)
Textural and picturesque
Day of the Outlaw is enjoyable because it is so well crafted. The production departments are well represented by good sets, wardrobe and effects. The action is intelligently directed and performances are sensitive. We have outlaws and captives alike held hostage by a Wyoming winter storm.
Threadbare interior scenes and snow driven wilderness action seem to place all the characters on equal footing-literally so in the dance episode in town as well as the arduous trek in the mountains.
The hostage situation, developed dramatically in the fifties as a noir sub genre of violent westerns, is here allowed a roomier environment than the clichèd and claustrophobic captive-at-gunpoint fare it eventually became.
Funny Girl (1968)
The plot thickens
What connects Funny Girl to other films of William Wyler? A talented, transplanted protagonist; a spectacular set piece on wheels; a colossal theatre; fast horses; a chase on land, sea or air. The tragic separation of lovers because of changes in status? Carrie, 1952, Jones and Olivier, is a precursor.
Pretend It's a City (2021)
Raging Bull
A hallmark of Martin Scorcese's films is his characters' excessive behavior. They go too far and reveal too much. The discomfort this creates in us viewers becomes our entertainment. On the pretext of color commentary about New York, he gives us Fran Lebowitz whose self absorption is the entertaining subject.