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Friday, November 30, 2012

Friday's Top 5... Movies Set in New Orleans

#5: The Cincinnati Kid

A Depression era poker drama starring Steven McQueen, and a transitional film in the career of director Norman Jewison, who helmed several light comedies prior to this one and then afterwards made such classics as The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming and In the Heat of the Night.

#4: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

A visual effects marvel, and a moving love story with great performances by Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett. The film strains a little bit when it reaches for a connection to Hurricane Katrina, but overall it's an excellent piece of work.

#3: Jezebel

Before there was Gone with the Wind, there was Jezebel, starring Bette Davis as an unconvential Southern Belle. Davis won her second Oscar for her performance here and absolutely dominates, even when sharing the screen with the great Henry Fonda.

#2: The Big Easy

Dennis Quaid and Ellen Barkin team up for this sexy crime thriller that puts almost every other film in that particular subgenre to shame. With a cast filled out by terrific character actors (including John Goodman and Ned Beatty), the film is more than just plot-driven, becoming an interesting character drama as well.

#1: A Streetcar Named Desire

Vivien Leigh, arguably better than ever before. Marlon Brando, in his break out role. A screenplay quaking with tension courtesy of Tennessee Williams and superb direction from Elia Kazan. A Streetcar Named Desire is a perfect storm of talent.

1 comment:

Shubhajit said...

Two excellent films that immediately came to my mind, when I noticed your latest Top 5 - on movies set in New Orleans, were, Jarmusch's brilliant , wrily comic, Down by Law, and the excellent recent release by Andrew Dominik, Killing them Softly.