Creed (2015)

Since 2008, studios have been increasingly reluctant to spend money on movies with anything slightly resembling an original idea. Not they they were terribly brave before the market crash, but in the years since they managed to pull their cards even closer to their chests. Even so, clever filmmakers — as they have always done — have found ways to express creativity within the system. One of these ways is to inject new life into long-running franchises. This year, George Miller did miraculous things with Mad Max: Fury Road. In 2013, Shane Black somehow snuck subversive themes about the emptiness of action movies into his Iron Man 3. And Sam Mendes gave James Bond an exquisite new artistry and depth in Skyfall (2012). Now the Oakland-born filmmaker Ryan Coogler has worked more miracles with the 40 year-old Rocky series. read more...

Search for streaming:

• Boldness ▶ Bold, aggressive, unrepressed, cathartic or expressive actions
• Innocence ▶ Seasoned, Savvy, Streetwise

The Man from Laramie (1955)

The fifth of Anthony Mann's five Westerns with Jimmy Stewart (and the last of their eight movies together), The Man from Laramie looks more and more like the best of the lot. (Hard to pick, since they're all exceptional.) Mann incorporates all his usual expertise at combining real landscapes with the emotional conflict of his characters, but this time it includes a more intricate plot, and in fact, a kind of murder mystery. (It recalls his earlier, psychological Western, The Furies.) read more...

Search for streaming:

Straight Outta Compton (2015)

Like only a very few, select musical acts, the hip-hop group N.W.A. burned very brightly and for a very short time. They created a single masterpiece, the album Straight Outta Compton (1988), and henceforth changed the way things were said and done. Dr. Dre created beats that were more than the simple two-four snaps used by Run-DMC, LL Cool J, and the Beastie Boys; they were musical. The title song has a tumbling quality, with a single syllable dangling off the edge of every line. It feels like a frantic chase. Then there's "F--k tha Police," a song that scared everyone when it was first spun. When was the last time music was truly frightening? read more...

Search for streaming:

• Boldness ▶ Bold, aggressive, unrepressed, cathartic or expressive actions
• Carnality ▶ Strong animal desire, hunger or desperation
• Innocence ▶ Seasoned, Savvy, Streetwise

Twilight (1998)

This film by Academy Award winning writer and director Robert Benton could be the first great movie of 1998. It makes a wonderful companion piece to his 1977 The Late Show, a well-balanced mix of detective movie, comedy and drama. The two movies are similar in that they are interested in characters that have already been around the block and are drifting through their final days. Benton's characters try not to think too hard about where they are -- and try not to think about not thinking -- but they fail at both. read more...

Search for streaming:

• Innocence ▶ Seasoned, Savvy, Streetwise

Man of the West (1958)

With this film, the great American director Anthony Mann simultaneously left the third stage of his career and entered the fourth; he went from unremarkable B-films, to film noir, to Westerns and finally to epics. Man of the West is a combination of the James Stewart Westerns that came before it and the epic ideas that would drive his final few films. read more...

Search for streaming:

• Innocence ▶ Seasoned, Savvy, Streetwise