Every week at SiftPop.com, we challenge our writers to choose what they think is the best movie under a certain topic related to a recent release. So this week, with the release of Saw X, we’re counting down our favorite movies with eye-related titles! Let us know @SiftPop what your ranking is!
As Hollywood has recently rediscovered its love for a good whodunnit, See How They Run was a film that, sadly, went largely overlooked last year. The film follows a pair of London police officers, a rundown inspector (Sam Rockwell) and an eager young constable (Saoirse Ronan), tasked with solving a murder that puts the Hollywood adaptation of Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap in jeopardy when a member of the crew is murdered in the West End at the celebration of the play’s 100th performance, and there’s so much to love here. The script is full of dry humor and wit, and has its tongue planted firmly in its cheek. It has fun with the usual formula and is a perfect sendup of the genre. Ronan is undoubtedly one of the best performers working today, and getting to see her flex her comedic chops is something we don’t get often enough. It’s a fun murder mystery that deserves more eyes than it got during its theatrical run. (Jake Bourgeois)
Did any actor have a better 2021 than Andrew Garfield? The standouts, of course, are his Oscar-nominated performance as lyricist Jonathan Larson in tick, tick… BOOM! and his triumphant return as Peter Parker in Spider-Man: No Way Home, but it all started off a few months earlier when he starred as televangelist Jim Bakker in The Eyes of Tammy Faye. Although less lauded than the other two, this performance is still excellent — it just happens to be overshadowed by Jessica Chastain chewing scenery in her role as his wife, Tammy Faye. Chastain is absolutely outstanding in the role as she portrays the highs and lows of Tammy’s life, earning herself an Academy Award in the process. The film isn’t perfect and shaves off a lot of the rough edges of its subject matter, but Chastain’s and Garfield’s performances alone make it well worth watching. (Jake Hjort)
As a non-horror fan, it takes a lot to convince me to try out a new movie in the genre. Peer pressure, however, is a wonderful thing, and back in 2004 while trying to strengthen college friendships, I was coerced into seeing James Wan and Leigh Whannell’s Saw. Boy, was I glad I did! One genre that will get my immediate buy-in, when combined with horror, is mystery. I love me a good, compelling story to distract from the more gruesome elements of the gorier elements. And Saw can certainly be gruesome. Although, Saw is probably considered tamer comparing the inaugural entry to its later more bloody and violent successors. Saw delivers great performances from Danny Glover, Cary Elwes, Whannell, and Ken Leung, but I think the standout for me is Michael Emerson. At the time he was unknown to me, but I guarantee this role is what earned him his place among the cast of Lost a few years later. The conceit that the villain of Saw is not killing anyone, but giving them the ability to save or kill themselves in an effort to embrace the gift of life, is one that has always stuck with me. Although the franchise has gone a little off the rails in the later entries, the first Saw is a modern-day classic. (Nick Ferro)
1995 began a new era for the Bond franchise with the release of GoldenEye. Pierce Brosnan’s first outing as the debonaire double-o is far and away his best, but he wasn’t the only new addition in this round of intrigue and espionage. GoldenEye introduced us to the first female M (Judi Dench), a replacement Moneypenny (Samantha Bond), Bond’s switch from Aston Martin to BMW Z3, and 007’s first mission to take place post Soviet Union dissolution. This time around, Bond finds himself at odds with former friend and ex MI6 peer, Alec Trevelyan (Sean Bean) with a host of henchmen, most notably Xenia Onatopp (Famke Janssen), Zukovsky (Robbie Coltrane), and Boris (Alan Cumming). Bond is also aided, once again, in his efforts to thwart Trevelyan by Q (Desmond Llewelyn, returning for his 15th appearance) and computer programmer Natalya Simonova (Isabella Scorupco). I’m not going to even attempt to explain the plot (explosions + double-cross = save the world?), because the strength of this franchise has never been the ability to weave a reasonable plot. Its hearth, though, is the action and interplay between Bond and his associates and adversaries. That is where GoldenEye shines: Brosnan has chemistry with everyone involved, and Bean is the best villain since Blofeld. Add to that the greatest Bond song, Tina Turner belting out “GoldenEye,” and the inspiration for one of the most popular shooter games of all time, and there’s really no reason to wait to watch the best of Brosnan’s Bond. (Patrice Downing)
There is nothing in David Ayer’s buddy cop drama End of Watch that is unfamiliar in cop-led films. Ayer had already done the tough cop movie before when he wrote Training Day,starring veteran actors Denzel Washington and Ethan Hawke. He even wrote and directed Harsh Times (2005), where Christian Bale plays a crooked vet trying to be an officer. What is different in End of Watch is that the buddy cops Brian Taylor and Mike Zavala (Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Pena) are crazy, rowdy, and maybe even stupid. They are L.A. city officers working in crime-ridden South Central. Brian is seeking a law degree and takes film as an elective, giving the movie its found footage style. Even in interactions about girls and jawing at each other, Brian and Mike stay on the right side of the law. The movie never seeks to understand its bad characters; they remain villainous, monstrous, and distant from their consciousness. Thankfully, there aren’t any distractions in the film because it is intense and gratifying. The attention to detail in police work is glaring throughout the film, giving viewers a feel for what it’s like to be a cop. Much of the movie is shot with handheld cameras pinned to the actors’ clothes, giving viewers an authentic feel for the characters. Immediately, there is an immersion in the experiences of the characters. End of Watch is a genuine piece of art that’s told candidly. (Christian Grullon)
Many older horror classics often disappoint you, because, through no fault of their own, the horror genre has evolved so much that what once was scary or shocking no longer cuts it; pardon the pun. And that’s how I approached Texas Chain Saw Massacre: cautiously, making sure my expectations weren’t too high. But it delivered and, due to its unique style, didn’t feel dated or less shocking. Texas Chain Saw Massacre is a gritty, dirty movie that leaves you feeling dirty. You feel the dampness, the sweat; you can feel something is wrong even before we get to the house, let alone the dinner scene where this already creepy and unnerving movie dials it up to 11 and goes all out. And that attitude, leaving nothing on the floor and leaving us to bathe in all these emotions and disgust, is what makes this movie a horror masterpiece that still plays excellently today. The last scene, which became iconic, encapsulates this movie brilliantly: the sheer terror mixed with a sense of, “WTF is happening;” yet you can’t look away because you are weirdly mesmerized. (Luke Burian)
Nearly a decade after release, what is explored in Eye in the Sky has only become more topical. Helen Mirren stars as Col. Katherine Powell, the officer in command of an operation to capture terrorists in Kenya. When it escalates to a kill mission and a young girl enters the kill zone, an American pilot (Aaron Paul) and military officers engage in a high-level political dispute wrestling with the moral quandaries of drone warfare. With the rise of artificial intelligence further complicating things, the discussion over unmanned warfare has only escalated the debate and made the discussion at the heart of this film even more impactful. Aside from the fact it’s a thrilling exploration of morality in modern warfare, it will always have a special place in my heart as it’s the film with Alan Rickman giving his final physical performance. (Jake Bourgeois)
What did Stanley Kubrick have in store for what turned out to be his final film? Over a year of principal photography, a makeshift New York City in London, and holding down one of the biggest stars in the world… what a mammoth film Eyes Wide Shut became. Once you see what this erotic thriller has in store, you might need to shut your eyes real tight… or you might not be able to close them out of pure morbid curiosity. Obviously, the most memorable sequence of this film is the cultish masked orgy in a strange and private mansion. The music is eerie and unnerving. Tom Cruise’s performance teeters from impressively charismatic to uncomfortably vulnerable. One man’s journey into the night after his wife’s (Nicole Kidman) unexpected fantasy is revealed leads audiences into a cinematic experience that titillates, teases, unnerves, and pushes boundaries. Kubrick did not plan for this erotic opus to be his final film, but what a cinematic stamp he leaves, with this sprawling journey into the untapped and hidden desires of humanity. (Shane Conto)
I’ve talked about the movie Come and See before at length, but it’s one that I want to discuss any chance I get. It’s a powerful movie; it knows exactly the message it wants to send, and it performs that message nearly flawlessly. The film is a hard watch, sure, but it’s honestly for the better that it is so difficult to get through on an emotional level. It serves as a reminder that in war, lives are far from the only things lost, because war also will destroy the youth and innocence one has before it will spit you back out of the meat grinder. This film tears at your emotions, and that’s why it serves so effectively as a film, because it’s easy to read about the events of the past. It is far harder to look back and see the stories themselves, but as this title says, come and see so that maybe you’ll understand. (Joseph Davis)
In many ways, a story like Out of Sight shouldn’t work. It is straightforward: None of the characters learn or achieve much by the end, and it’s the type of story that they were telling in many other movies. But what makes it work is how the director, Steven Soderbergh, tells it, along with the compelling onscreen presence of the cast. The out-of-order way Soderbergh presents the narrative makes this a thoroughly engaging experience; for example, it results in a more exciting opening that makes you wonder what could have led the main character, Jack Foley (George Clooney), to do what he does. Many only remember it for paving the way for Ocean’s Eleven, but I think Out of Sight is better. In Ocean’s, the heist is the story, while here, it is just a framing device for the more complex frenemy relationship between Jack and the U.S. Marshal Karen Sisco (Jennifer Lopez). Clooney is, of course, as charming as ever, and his performance is enough to keep you watching, the perfect casting choice for a character the audience might have difficulty rooting for. JLo also knocks it out of the park in a rare movie role, playing a sort of love interest who doesn’t let emotional feelings get in the way of her job. The singer can act, and like Clooney, you side with the character in her performance. (John Tillyard)
Now You See Me
Sleight of hand magic has captivated audiences over the years, and in movies, there has always been a greater suspension of disbelief. Now You See Me fits that category, but it also turns into a heist movie that does some truly unbelievable stuff. Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg), Merritt (Woody Harrelson), Henley (Isla Fisher), and Jack (Dave Franco) are sleight of hand magicians who join forces to rob the rich and give back to the people they hurt. Hot on their tails is FBI agent, Dylan Rhodes (Mark Ruffalo), and Thaddeus Bradley (Morgan Freeman), who is working with the FBI to prove how the four horsemen are doing their tricks. The trailer immediately sold me on this movie. The horsemen play off each other in a way that seems like they have been a thorn in each other’s sides for years. With a decently stacked cast, this movie takes you places you didn’t think you wanted to go, and is a thrill ride all the way through. (Austen Terry)
Also SEE: I See You, Red Eye, The Hills Have Eyes, Don’t Look Up, The Men Who Stare at Goats