Top Ten Films of 2012 (Geoff Geib)
by GEOFF GEIB
Ten Best Films of 2012, in no particular order.
1. The Grey
a/k/a Punches With Wolves Read more 
Favorites Corner: Films of Billy Wilder
by HELEN GEIB, GEOFF GEIB and NIR SHALEV
An occasional feature where the writers compare their five favorite films by some of the greats of world cinema. A change in format for this edition because there was, predictably, considerable overlap: instead of three ranked top fives a combined chronological top eight.
Billy Wilder (1906-2002)
THE LIST
Double Indemnity (1944)
Geoff’s #1, Helen’s #1, Nir’s #5
(GEOFF) Barbara Stanwyck at her very best, playing a woman who is, in all fairness, a bit of a bad seed. The clever plan hatched by Stanwyck and genial sap Fred MacMurray to murder her husband naturally falls to pieces once Edward G. Robinson’s intuition enters the picture, but after so many viewings, it’s less the construct of the story/scheme that stays with me than the realization that each of these characters’ actions are based on a false premise. Read more
Two Lists, Ten Favorites: Films of David Mamet
by HELEN GEIB, GEOFF GEIB and NIR SHALEV
An occasional feature where the writers compare their five favorite films by some of the greats of world cinema. This edition should properly be titled “Three Lists, Fifteen Favorites” as Helen, Geoff, and Nir all weigh in on David Mamet.
David Mamet (b. 1947)
HELEN’S TOP FIVE
5) The Untouchables (1987) (writer) Read more
Two Lists, Ten Favorites: Films of Martin Scorsese
by GEOFF GEIB, NIR SHALEV and HELEN GEIB
An occasional feature where the writers compare their five favorite films by some of the greats of world cinema.
Martin Scorsese (b. 1942)
GEOFF’S TOP FIVE
To be clear, this list is pointedly different than a list of my five best Scorsese films would be, and there is no better evidence to this than the omission of titles like Taxi Driver or The Last Temptation of Christ, which, while great, great films, are hardly ones that scream out for multiple viewings while distractedly typing away on the computer and trying not to overcook the penne. The following five I could stop, start in the middle, or watch endlessly on a loop and never want for more. Read more
Desperado: My All-Time Favorite Guilty Pleasure
by GEOFF GEIB
Film critic Pauline Kael famously once wrote/said [1], “Movies are so rarely great art, that if we cannot appreciate great trash, we have very little reason to be interested in them.” One man’s treasure is another man’s Indiana Jones and the One with the Alien Ending, and so in honor of all the great trash that has splashed movie screens through the ages, I will spend a few words on my all-time favorite guilty pleasure, Desperado. Read more
Movie Review – Inception (2010) [Geoff Geib]
by GEOFF GEIB
Is it me or is Christopher Nolan finally starting to have fun? With a body of work now rivaling the best contemporary directors, it’s possible to take a step back and view his filmography as a whole, and early on especially, one does not find a pattern that would induce much in the way of a smile. Read more
Top Ten Films of 2008 by Geoff Geib
by GEOFF GEIB
2008 was the worst year I have spent at the movies in my adult life. This is partly the fault of Hollywood (Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, The Happening, The Love Guru, 10,000 B.C., Prom Night to name just a few of the appallingly bad films of last year) but in complete and utter truthfulness, the fault is just as much mine. I simply didn’t get out to the movies with anywhere near the regularity I normally do, and as a result, I struggled to put together a ten best list. Since I agree with other posters on this site that context is important in these matters, I felt it was important to state as much at the outset. The following movies are all good, but in fairness, many of them would not normally make a ‘best of’ list, with the exception of the top three, which would grace any top ten list in any year. Read more
Movie Review – The Wrestler (2008)
by GEOFF GEIB
After the almost absurdly earnest The Fountain, Darren Aronofsky’s latest confection marks both a continuation of this most admirable filmmaking sensibility and a departure with a film where every character is blessed/cursed with a healthy dose of self awareness in a world that hardly rewards such a trait. Read more
Movie Review – The Reader (2008)
by GEOFF GEIB
The Reader is surprisingly moving considering the majority of its running time is spent as a stilted, excessively somber treatise on German complicity with the Nazi atrocities of the second world war. I’m all for an examination of cultural worth in the wake of the Holocaust, but I’m not sure it makes for the most engaging of Cineplex films, and The Reader consequently drags for a good portion of its talky running time. Read more
Movie Review – The Dark Knight (2008)
by GEOFF GEIB
Prepare yourself, gentle viewer, for The Dark Knight is very, very dark. Read more
