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I've been fighting a nagging cold, so my life has been a lot of movies the past 48 hours: Mildred Pierce, Pickpocket, The Agony and the Ecstasy, True Confessions.
All are great movies, particularly for the great acting performances found within. The exception being Pickpocket, a 1959 French movie by Robert Bresson, which isn't worth watching unless you're steeped into French New Wave history. It's a small film down the line of the Crime and Punishment story. The message is blurry and the payoff isn't worth it. Plus, as a minor gripe, a lot of the pickpocketing scenes appear far-fetched. If you're looking for a movie of "low-Paris-on-the-streets-1950s" though, I can't recommend it enough.
How fun is Charlton Heston as the passionate Michelangelo? And Joan Crawford as the tireless mother of a greedy, thankless bitch? Both actors drive their movies to greatness. In a more understated manor, the acting of Robert DeNiro and Robert Duvall blend to a great concoction in a movie about corruption of society's powerful.
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