FilmJerk Favorites

A group of unique directors and the essential works that you've got to see.

||| John Ford |||
John Ford

One of the art form's grand masters of all time, Ford is responsible for influencing the seminal directors of generation after generation. Strongly associated with the impressive body of work created over a lifetime with collaborator John Wayne, it is nearly impossible to choose just three… but here it goes.

This powerful winner of the Best Picture Academy Award is set in Wales at the turn of the 19th century, and tells the story of a family of miners, whose lives are filled with danger and repression. The film is beautifully crafted, lovingly depicting the gut wrenching sacrifices and light-hearted moments that are elemental to family life, making this film a true representation of the craft that is unmistakably John Ford.

This film is told in flashback as James Stewart, after a long absence, returns home for the funeral of a friend who saved his life from a sadistic outlaw. This classic covers every essential element required to qualify as a western epic from unlikely friends to the girl who comes between them, to the enemy they both despise, but handle with extremely different approaches, to Fords signature cast of supporting characters, all combine to make this a staple for every fan of this uniquely American genre.

This romantic comedy seen through the eyes of John Ford has John Wayne ( an American-raised boxer) go to Ireland to the village of his birth, fall for feisty Maureen O'Hara, and fight with town ruffian Victor McLaglen in one of the all time classic screen brawls. This is an exceptionally fine romantic movie that with Ford’s capable bravado manages to be a film that any man’s man can openly enjoy.

Recommended by CarrieSpecht

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We Don't Live Here Anymore

By BrianOrndorf

August 27th, 2004

“We Don’t Live Here Anymore” probes the dark recesses of marriage and infidelity, but through a mannered approach resembling a theatrical production. Heavy with great performances, especially a rhino-charging turn by Laura Dern, “Anymore” is only hampered by some serious third act problems.


Jack (Mark Ruffalo, "13 Going on 30") and Terry (Laura Dern, "Citizen Ruth") are a troubled married couple trying to make ends meet. Their friends, Hank (Peter Krause, "Six Feet Under") and Edith (Naomi Watts, "The Ring"), live a more privileged life, but also suffer the pangs of unhappiness. Jack and Edith decide to begin an affair, which the two engage in with full knowledge that they will be caught eventually. When their respective spouses learn of the infidelity, their response is unexpected, and sets in motion an opportunity for this foursome to step outside of their lives and observe the pain they cause each other daily.

"We Don't Live Here Anymore" is a tale of adultery where nobody acts like an adult. It's a sobering meditation on the hopeless abyss of marriage, yet it's a film with such antiseptic control that it looks like Stanley Kubrick directing a three-act play.

The film is taken from two stories by Andre Dubus, the writer behind 2001's sleeper hit, "In The Bedroom." "Anymore" continues Dubus's themes of the private hell of intimacy, where the greatest crime would be for the neighbors to hear the sins of the bedroom. Dubus's writing is translated to the screen in "Anymore" by screenwriter Larry Gross, who turns the tale into a theatrical experience, like this journey was unfolding on the stage. The steady rhythms of the dialog certainly help the flow of the constipated drama, which director John Curran can't always reign in. The cast performs the script with energy and speed, yet retaining the meanings behind the verbal high jumping to create a claustrophobic portrait of matrimony and frustrated desires. They succeed tremendously, as I was left gasping for breath during several sequences of down and dirty domestic combat. "Anymore" packs a body blow when it focuses on the nagging inconsistencies of relationships, and the tempting ease of selfishly abandoning the whole enterprise.

The cast here is uniformly good, even when the script gives Naomi Watts a short bit of dialog where she has to find emotional truth in a random (and deadly serious) tale of a gorilla licking his own feces at the zoo. Thankfully, she survives that moment. The real star of the show is Laura Dern, who hasn't been up to much in recent years, but comes roaring back with a risky and aggressive performance in "Anymore." Dern has the most complicated role of the cast with a character that teeters between full out bitchery and wounded lamb. Dern understands Terry right away, and her performance elevates the rest of the cast.

The final act of "Anymore" is where Curran can't make the threads come together. After laboriously arranging the introductory moments of the story with truth and consistency, the final moments are staged vaguely, and provide little in the way of concrete answers, preferring to lean on the personal interpretations of the audience. After spending so much time examining these wounded characters in this often-harrowing film, a decent ending would've gone a long way to making this good film near perfect.

My rating: B