The Year 2021 in Movies

Continuing with the final part of our year in review, Matt Lynn Digital invites you to look back at the last year in reviews of books, movies, music and television. We look at these with individual categories, one per day through today. Today we share the sixty-eight (68) movies reviewed across ten (10) decades by Matt Lynn Digital in 2021.

(The 1941 movie Citizen Kane is one of seven movies that Matt Lynn Digital gave 4.5-stars on a scale of 1-to-5).

Citizen Kane (1941) was written by Herman J. Mankiewicz and Orson Welles. The Michael Curtiz directed film Casablanca (1942) also earned 4.5-stars, as did the Alfred Hitchcock directed film Psycho (1960).

(The 1961 movie The Hustler starred Paul Newman and Jackie Gleason).

The Robert Rossen directed film The Hustler (1961) is joined by the Martin Scorsese film Taxi Driver (1976), the James Cameron directed movie Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) and the David Fincher movie Se7en (1995) as also having earned 4.5-stars by Matt Lynn Digital in 2021.

(Several films by Alfred Hitchcock made their way into the Matt Lynn Digital reviews in 2021. North by Northwest and Strangers on a Train were a couple of favorites).

The Shop Around the Corner (1940) as directed by Ernst Lubitsch is one of eleven movies having earned 4.25-stars in 2021. The Alfred Hitchcock movie Strangers on a Train (1951) joins the Hitchcock film North by Northwest (1959) in the same category.

(Martin Scorsese movies are well received by Matt Lynn Digital. The 1995 movie Casino received 4.25-stars).

A Christmas Story (1983) as directed by Bob Clark has consistently hit me in a warm spot. The Richard Donner directed Lethal Weapon (1987) offers comedic action at a solid pace.  The Rob Reiner directed movie Misery (1990) juxtaposes mystery against the sweet storytelling of the Harold Ramis movie Groundhog Day (1993). Casino (1995) by director Martin Scorsese is the second film in our reviews to pair Scorsese with actor Robert De Niro. The Sixth Sense (1999) as directed by M. Night Shyamalan also earned our rating of 4.25-stars.

(The 2003 Ridley Scott movie Matchstick Men dips our toes into the 21st century of cinema).

The Ridley Scott movie Matchstick Men (2003) earned 4.25-stars, as did the David Fincher movie The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008).

(The clean-cut reputation of the actor James Stewart is put to the test in his portrayal of Paul Biegler is the 1959 Otto Preminger movie Anatomy of a Murder).

Frankenstein (1931) as directed by James Whale received 4-stars as an origin tale into the more frightening side of cinema. The movie Saboteur (1942), the movie Rope (1948) and the movie Dial M for Murder (1954), as directed by Alfred Hitchcock, all earned similar ratings. The Otto Preminger directed movie Anatomy of a Murder (1959) closed out the three decades of cinema rated at this level.

(The 1974 Mel Brooks movie Young Frankenstein comedically poked fun of the 1931 James Whale movie Frankenstein).

The Mel Brooks directed movie Young Frankenstein (1974) worked on a level equal to the film that inspired it. Richard Donner succeeded in the horror movie genre with The Omen (1976) while John Carpenter delivered a similar 4-star rated movie with Halloween (1978). The Hugh Hudson directed film Chariots of Fire (1981) won four Academy Awards while the James Cameron sequel movie Aliens (1986) won a pair of awards.

(Seven Academy Awards and 4-stars from Matt Lynn Digital awaited the Kevin Costner‘s directorial debut movie, Dances with Wolves).

The epic Western Dances with Wolves (1990) as directed by Kevin Costner earned 4-stars, as did the Steven Spielberg movie Jurassic Park (1993), the movie Jumanji (1995) starring Robin Williams and the Tony Scott directed movie Enemy of the State (1998).

(The adventure of The Polar Express centers around the experience of finding joy in the notion of Christmas. Matt Lynn Digital granted the movie 4-stars).

The Stephen Frears movie High Fidelity (2000), the Paul Haggis directed movie Crash (2004), the Robert Zemeckis movie The Polar Express (2004), Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011) starring Gary Oldman and the Jake Kasdan directed movie Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017) all earned four stars.

(John Ford directed the western named Stagecoach. The movie starring John Wayne was granted 3.75-stars).

Alfred Hitchcock directed two separate movies based on the same source material twice. The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934) as well as The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956) each earned 3.75-stars from Matt Lynn Digital. The John Ford directed movie Stagecoach (1939), starring John Wayne, is accompanied by Alfred Hitchcock’s Shadow of a Doubt (1943), John Ford’s The Quiet Man (1952), and both The Trouble with Harry (1955) and The Wrong Man (1956) by Alfred Hitchcock.

(The 1962 Stanley Kubrick movie Lolita is often misunderstood yet tells a morally difficult story for those that can stick with it for understanding).

Stanley Kubrick directed the movie Lolita (1962), which is one of twenty-seven movies granted 3.75-stars by Matt Lynn Digital. Alfred Hitchcock‘s movie Torn Curtain (1966), Brian De Palma‘s movie Sisters (1972), the Don Siegel directed movie Escape from Alcatraz (1979), the John Hughes directed movie Sixteen Candles (1984), Ron Howard‘s movie Cocoon (1985) and the David Cronenberg directed movie The Fly (1986) each received a similar 3.75-stars.

(The 1992 movie Reservoir Dogs as directed by Quentin Tarantino received 3.75-stars from Matt Lynn Digital).

Total Recall (1990) starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sharon Stone are joined by the Quentin Tarantino movie Reservoir Dogs (1992), the Brian De Palma movie Carlito’s Way (1993), the Jan de Bont directed movie Speed (1994), The Santa Clause (1994) starring Tim Allen and the Kevin Smith directed movies Clerks (1994) and Chasing Amy (1997).

(The 2002 movie Insomnia from director Christopher Nolan offered a character focused with less abstraction focus in earning 3.75-stars).

The Howard Deutch sports comedy movie The Replacements (2000) introduced a string of movies, including the Christopher Nolan movie Insomnia (2002), the Gavin O’Connor movie Miracle (2004), the Tim Burton directed movie Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005), the Clint Eastwood directed movie Richard Jewell (2019) and the Christopher Nolan movie Tenet (2020), that offered quality movie making rated at 3.75-stars.

(The 2003 movie Timeline as directed by Richard Donner is one of three movies to earn 3.5-stars by Matt Lynn Digital).

Sylvester Stallone stars in the movie Cliffhanger (1993), which stands beside the Wolfgang Petersen directed movie Outbreak (1995) and the Richard Donner directed movie Timeline (2003) as receiving 3.5-stars.

(Brian De Palma‘s 1990 movie The Bonfire of the Vanities received 3-stars on a scale of 1-to-5 from Matt Lynn Digital).

The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990) as directed by Brian De Palma was not a commercial success, earning a 3-star rating from Matt Lynn Digital. The movie lost over $31 million, despite a reasonably strong cast.

Matt Lynn Digital appreciates your continued interest in the content we offer. Should you have albums that you’d like us to review, or similar work to that mentioned above, please be sure to let us know.

Matt – Friday, December 31, 2021

Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Dorothy Comingore and the film ‘Citizen Kane’

The screenplay for the influential film Citizen Kane (1941) was written by Herman J. Mankiewicz and Orson Welles. The movie asks the fundamental question of what is a man, with the central figure of Charles Foster Kane ostensibly a compilation of William Randolph Hearst, Joseph Pulitzer, Alfred Charles William Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Northcliffe, Herbert Bayard Swope, Samuel Insull and Harold Fowler McCormick.

(Orson Welles as Charles Foster Kane in the film co-written, directed and starring Orson Welles, Citizen Kane).

Orson Welles starred as Charles Foster Kane in the film Citizen Kane, which he directed and co-wrote. The film begins with a turn of good fate that becomes a bane of the Foster Kane experience, though the reasons underpinning why aren’t really understood for much of the film. That the film uses the notion of flashback and multiple points of view through the course of the storytelling was highly innovative for the time and place in movie production.

(From left, Harry Shannon as Jim Kane, Kane’s father, George Coulouris as Walter Parks Thatcher, a banker who becomes Charles Foster Kane‘s legal guardian and Agnes Moorehead as Mary Kane, Charles Foster Kane mother in Citizen Kane).

The beginning notion of this, of course, begins with the opening death of Charles Foster Kane at his Xanadu estate. We are introduced to the newsreel of Kane’s life, and the subsequent introduction of the underpinnings of a fortune and legal guardianship transfer from the home of Jim and Mary Kane to Walter Parks Thatcher. Harry Shannon, Agnes Moorehead and George Coulouris portray Kane, Kane and Parks Thatcher, respectively.

(From left, Joseph Cotten as Jedediah Leland, Charles Foster Kane‘s best friend and a reporter for The Inquirer, Orson Welles as Charles Foster Kane and Everett Sloane as Mr. Bernstein, Kane’s friend and employee at The Inquirer in Citizen Kane).

Moving from the care of his parents to an accumulated wealth through the seed money from his parents in combination with the astute investing of Walter Parks Thatcher led to Charles Foster Kane moving into the newspaper business. An antagonism campaign through a brand of disreputable management of his newspapers led to a vanity perhaps rivaled only in the pages of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The effort led to a diminishing financial base, a dubious political career, and a quick transition from one marriage to another.

(From left, Ray Collins as Jim W. Gettys, Charles Foster Kane‘s political rival for Governor of New York, Dorothy Comingore as Susan Alexander Kane, Kane’s mistress and second wife, Orson Welles as Charles Foster Kane and Ruth Warrick as Emily Monroe Norton Kane, Charles Foster Kane‘s first wife and niece to a United States president in Citizen Kane).

Ruth Warrick and Dorothy Comingore portrayed Emily Monroe Norton Kane and Susan Alexander Kane, the first and second wives of Charles Foster Kane. In looking for a measure of the man that Charles Foster Kane was and meant to be, the energy that Foster Kane put into his marriages in comparison to his newspapers, his political campaigns, his advocacy for the welfare of the less fortunate, and his means of defining love were all factors that very well offers hints to where the film was going. The rest of the way to the message of the film is something I leave for you and the film.

(Xanadu, the palatial estate of Charles Foster Kane, as presented in the film Citizen Kane. The name of the estate was inspired by an “opium-induced vision that English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge recorded in the poetic fragment” Kubla Khan).

The film Citizen Kane was nominated for nine Academy Awards, winning one for original screenplay. The means by which the storytelling and revelation of important facts in flashback and means that did not follow a linear format was both appreciated and executed well. That the impact offered the ability to really understand the measure of a man, without the people of the film really getting to take that measure, was ironic for the man. That the large impact of that allowed for looking back to what came before, too, definitely translates to the award that Citizen Kane did take home. I give Citizen Kane 4.5-stars on a scale of 1-to-5.

Matt – Wednesday, March 31, 2021