ANOTHER YEAR
Mary
Lesley Manville's painful, lost expression in the closing shot of the film slays me and leaves a lump in my throat. It also upends so much of the story.
THE BIRDS
Schoolhouse flock
Melanie has a tense smoke by the schoolhouse. The kids inside are singing "The Wee Copper of Fife." And quietly crows start landing on the jungle gym.
BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN
Shirts on a wire
The emotional accumulation in the slow pacing of Ennis's and Jack's first trysts at Brokeback and the fleeting passing of years thereafter makes this a devastating ending.
CARRIE
Bucket o'blood
Spacek's performance, the camera work, the lighting, the colors, Donaggio's eerie score, the editing all part of an operatic, iconic moment of splatter.
CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON
Ballet
So much longing and beauty as the Gill Man swims beneath his white-suited unrequited love.
DRIVE
Opening Credits
In 2011 I went to see Drive half-heartedly thinking it was a typical race car flick. But then the opening credits began with that pink cursive font and "Nightcall" thumping and I was awestruck.
FRANCES HA
Modern Love
A spirited moment of exhilaration for hapless Frances set to Bowie.
THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT
Hairbrush & Dinner
The jig is up. And Annette Bening's expression is EVERYTHING.
PSYCHO
Mrs. Bates?
There's too many perfect moments in this movie to pick one. But the final reveal along with Herrmann's score still gives me the chills, no matter how many times I've seen it.
THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS
The wrong house
In a masterful trickery of editing and Tak Fujimoto's dynamic camerawork, we watch the FBI descend on a house and then a door opens and we learn Clarice is all alone, face to face, with a killer.
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