The underappreciated gem: The Mosquito Coast (1986) “How did America get this way?” Allie Fox (Harrison Ford) asks while driving around his hometown. “This place is a toilet.” The thing is, the pictures that unfold at the start of The Mosquito Coast don’t match his words. Everything looks like run of the mill. So why…

The biographies: Raging Bull (1980), Mishima (1985), Patty Hearst (1988) & Auto Focus (2002) Raging Bull is an essential watch, but it’s the kind of unsentimental, uncomfortable two hours that’s easier to admire than love. Jake LaMotta (De Niro) is an archetypal angry, destructive and self-destructive Schraderian character, although he stops short of being suicidal.…

The Heaven’s Gate moment: Bonfire of the Vanities (1990) Do you ever avoid a flick because the critics pissed on it? You know, stuff like Ishtar and Battlefield Earth. The laughable quality of these efforts is so taken for granted that they’re only supposed to be trundled out if a snigger fest is required. I…

There’s only one way to describe Brian De Palma’s five-decade-long career: all over the shop. There have been glorious artistic highs, far too many Hitchcockian homages, the odd mainstream megahit, a sprinkling of high-profile awards, condemnation for tawdry subject matter, a pronounced tendency to work with the same collaborators both in front of and behind…