1990sNatural Born Killers (1994) rates 6 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. Oliver Stone made a satire about media appetite for violence that is itself a two-hour delivery system for violence. Tarantino wrote the story, disowned it, and asked…
1960sMidnight Cowboy (1969) rates 9 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. The only X-rated film ever to win Best Picture, and the X was self-inflicted by a nervous studio head who consulted a psychiatrist. Three million dollars, forty-five back,…
2010sGone Girl (2014) rates 9 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. Gillian Flynn adapted her own novel and took a hammer to her own third act. Fincher shot it mostly in one small Missouri town for sixty-one million dollars,…
1960sGodfather of Harlem (2019-2025) rates 8 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. A mafia series where you can state the protagonist's motivation in one sentence, which almost none of them manage. Bumpy Johnson wants his neighborhood back, and the…
1980sAmerican Psycho (2000) rates 8 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. Mary Harron read a novel everybody called unfilmable and found the comedy in it. Made for seven million dollars, mostly in Toronto, and it is far funnier and…
1970sThree Days of the Condor (1975) rates 9 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. A man who reads books for the CIA goes out for lunch and comes back to find everybody he works with shot. The film changed…
1990sSe7en (1995) rates 9 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. The rain never stops, the city has no name, and the killer wins exactly as planned. Fincher's second film, made after a first one he has disowned.
2010sBoardwalk Empire (2010-2014) rates 9 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. The first three seasons are in my top ten of anything ever put on a screen. Then it degrades, badly. Watch to the end of season three and…
1970sTaxi Driver (1976) rates 9 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. Schrader wrote it living in his car after a divorce, and the film never once steps outside Travis Bickle's head. The narration sounds reasonable. That is the horror.
AmbiguityA foundation contractor drills through a coffin lid and finds forty dead souls underneath, one of whom is past reasoning and wants him dead in the hole. Dale talks for his life, makes the wrong offer, and learns that the…
1970sMartin earns its 8 by asking a question that quietly dismantles the entire vampire genre. What if there is no such thing as a vampire, only a disturbed young man who believes he is one?
1970sTobe Hooper's 1974 verite slasher. Leatherface, sledgehammer dinner, hundred-forty-thousand-dollar budget.
Professional ghostwriting for executives, founders, coaches, and authors who want to get the book done right. 113+ books authored. 54+ ghostwritten for clients.
Ready to discuss your book?
BOOK YOUR PRIVATE CONSULTATIONNo pitch. No pressure.
© 2026 Richard Lowe. The Writing King. All rights reserved.
