- TAXI DRIVER.
It’s frustratingly ironic that Scorsese was accused of siding with “The Wolf of Wall Street” subject Jordan Belfort, as the filmmaker has always stood out for his steadfast refusal to pass judgement upon his characters, many (if not most) of whom have been difficult men under the thrall of their own moral turpitude.
Writing about “Taxi Driver” in 1976, Pauline Kael observed that, “This film doesn’t operate on the level of moral judgment of what Travis Bickle does. Rather, by drawing us into his vortex it makes us understand the psychic discharge of the quiet boys who go berserk.
And it’s a real slap in the face for us when we see Travis at the end looking pacified. He’s got the rage out of his system for the moment, at least and he’s back at work, picking up passengers in front of the St. Regis.
2. GIRL INTERUPTED.
1999 is historically recognized as one of the great years for American cinema, “American Beauty” notwithstanding: “Magnolia,” “Eyes Wide Shut,” “The Matrix,” “The Virgin Suicides.” Often left out of the mix is “Girl, Interrupted,” James Mangold’s wistful and haunted adaptation of Susanna Kaysen’s memoir about her stay in a psychiatric hospital in the 1960s American Northeast.
It’s stacked with a cast of ’90s icons, many of whom give their best performances, from Winona Ryder and Clea DuVall, to Brittany Murphy and Elisabeth Moss, to, of course, Angelina Jolie, who won her Oscar for playing the sociopathic Lisa Rowe, who riles up the institution into rebellion and panic.
3. INTERVIEW WITH VAMPIRE.
And speaking of vampires… 1994’s “Interview with the Vampire” is also hitting the platform, rightly timed in honor of author Anne Rice’s death on December 11. While not quite introducing heartthrob Brad Pitt to the world after supporting but searingly impressive turns in “Thelma and Louise” and “True Romance,” Neil Jordan’s cemented his position on the marquees with the best of them.
Here, he plays centuries-old vampire Louis de Pointe du Lac, reincarnated as a New Orleans vampire by Tom Cruise’s Lestat de Lioncourt after a bloody attack. Few vampire epics hold a candle to the film’s scrumptious period details, but “Interview” is best remembered for the star-making turn of a then-10-year-old Kirsten Dunst as a child vampire who suffers tragically for her transformation.
4. THE GIRL WITH DRAGON TATTOO.
David Fincher’s sleek adaptation of Stieg Larsson’s smash Swedish novel announced the steely, off-kilter talents of Rooney Mara to the world: Her antisocial hacker Lisbeth Salander earned Mara a Best Actress Oscar nomination in a movie undoubtedly too cool for the Academy, but one that’s now certainly the best of all the Larsson cinematic envisionings.
Mara’s performance is a feat of muscular, balletic cunning, making her more than a match for Daniel Craig’s maverick journalist Mikael Blomkvist, with Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’ unnerving electronic score pumping through one masterfully, icily chiseled Finch set piece after another.
It’s a hopeless movie, as indicated by the film’s deflating final shot where love, most certainly, doesn’t win, and the kind only Fincher could make.
