Impossible people, unforgettable performances.
the most-taught film ever made, and still a pleasure
Newman, and institutional cruelty
the second film to sweep the top five Oscars
Lynch's most conventional and most moving
Streep's definitive performance
a cell, two men, and Hurt's Oscar
Pacino finally won for it, and the tango
De Niro's directing debut, and Palminteri
Thewlis, and Leigh at his angriest
Thornton, all of it
cruelty as a workplace strategy
Duvall, self-financed, extraordinary
abrasive and tender
the best novelist-in-crisis film
Best Picture, and better than its backlash
Washington against type
Nicholson's last great performance
Murray's most withholding
Gosling before Gosling
Blanchett's best screen work
Rome, decadence, and one perfect opening
Verhoeven and Huppert, deeply uncomfortable
Vega, and an Oscar that mattered
the musical adaptation
