It's another edition of Midday at the Movies, our monthly look at trends in the film industry, and some of the new movies lighting up local screens. We're joined again by our regular movie-mavens: the Maryland Film Festival's founding director, Jed Dietz, is with Tom in the studio. And Washington Post film critic Ann Hornadayjoins them on the line from Toronto, Canada, where she is reporting on the 2018 Toronto Film Festival.
The conversation today picks up on a theme Ann explores in a recent Washington post column, in which she identifies 23 of the best films released since 2000. She notes that the industry's so-called "Canon" -- the widely accepted list of the greatest films of all time -- consists largely of older, classic films like Orson Welles' Citizen Kane or Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo, reflecting pinnacles of the movie-making craft through the 20th Century, but not much beyond. A host of groundbreaking films made since 2000, Ann suggests, should be considered worthy of the same consideration. See if you agree.
And among the films spotlighted this month -- including the ongoing festival of Stanley Kubrick's complete works at the Parkway -- Ann and Jed cite two recent favorites: director Jeremiah Zagar's We the Animals, an affecting story of three young brothers growing up buffeted by their loving but emotionally volatile parents; and director Jesse Peretz's touching comedy, Juliet Naked, based on the novel by Nick Hornby, in which a woman stuck in a long-term relationship with an obsessive fan of obscure American alt-rocker Tucker Crowe winds up meeting -- and falling in love with -- the elusive rocker himself.
Editor's note: In reference to the discussion today of the so called "Popular Film" Oscar announced less than a month ago by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Academy said late Wednesday that it is dropping the widely criticized category from the 2019 awards, saying it has determined the award "merits further study."
