Cinema Basement

 A retrospective by Brooks Rich Two LAPD detectives facing indictments from Internal Affairs flee to the small Alaskan fishing village of Nightmute to assist local police with a homicide. There senior detective Will Dormer, played by an unusually reserved Al Pacino, begins to suffer from insomnia, hence the title, and plays a game of cat and mouse with strange mystery writer Walter Finch, a chilling Robin Williams.  I truly believe that one of the greatest modern directors is Christopher Nolan. I think arguably he could be called the greatest modern director. Batman Begins and The Dark Knight are better than the entire MCU combined and a lot of that is because of Nolan's astonishing visual eye and his attention to detail. That hot take aside I find that some of Nolan's work pre-Batman is sort of forgotten, either as a film entirely or people forget he directed one of them. Memento is the standout of his pre-Batman era and yes, it is a modern masterpiece. If you've never see...

 A retrospective by Brooks Rich A sophisticated Los Angeles psychiatrist murders his wife and then, with the help of his mistress, creates a near air tight alibi. He is seen boarding a plane with his “wife,” (really the mistress). They have an argument, she leaves, very much alive, and he flies to Mexico. A week later he returns to his apartment and is greeted by a man in a gray suit smoking a cigar, who introduces himself as "Lieutenant Columbo, police." While the greatest TV detective is hardly forgotten, I think people forget this movie from 1968 was actually the first time the legendary Peter Falk played the character. For those who don't know the formula of a Columbo episode, it's not a whodunit at all. Most episodes open with the killer plotting the murder, carrying it out, and then covering his tracks. A lot of times, Columbo doesn't show up for a good twenty minutes or so. Once he does though, the game is ...