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Reviews
The Man Who Laughs (1928)
Utterly Brilliant
Today "The Man Who Laughs" is perhaps more associated with its tie to the Joker and old Universal horror films. For this reason, I had a preconceived idea about what it would be like to watch. However, I soon found that my conception was completely wrong in the best possible way.
Although there are elements of horror, "The Man Who Laughs" is a beautiful and extremely moving film, and that is due in large part to the brilliance of Conrad Veidt. His performance as Gwynplaine is so sincere and touching that your heart breaks for him, and in many cases he is able to get an emotional response from the viewer using his eyes alone. It is very easy to see why Ray Bradbury was brought to tears both times he saw this film.
Although Veidt is excellent in every role he played, this performance is a masterpiece that deserves to be recognized as one of the greatest ever committed to film. Mary Philbin is also wonderful, and her performance as Dea shows that she was indeed a fine and underrated actress whose career ended far too soon.
I cannot recommend this film highly enough.
Skyward (1980)
Basically a Perfect Movie
I've watched this movie many times and my opinion has never changed: I find it to be basically a perfect movie. The flow is wonderful and there are no points where the film bogs down and becomes boring. There are no bad guys, no politics, a great plot, a powerful message, fine writing and excellent character development. Every main and supporting character is likable, it's well produced / directed and the cast is spectacular.