The Greatest Samurai Films
September 11, 2026
Every samurai film reviewed on this site, ranked. Kurosawa, Kobayashi, Gosha and Okamoto, and a genre whose masterpieces are nearly all arguments against the thing they depict.
Tag: Period Piece
Period pieces resurrect an era in costume, speech, and detail, and live or die on the accuracy of the resurrection. This tag collects reviews of period films and what their world-rebuilding teaches historical writers.
Fiction WritingThe Greatest Historical Epics
September 11, 2026
Every historical epic reviewed on this site, ranked. Dreyer, Bondarchuk, Kubrick, Zinnemann and Branagh, plus the two Musketeers films shot simultaneously and released as a swindle.
Fiction WritingThe Greatest Medieval Films
September 11, 2026
Every medieval film reviewed on this site, ranked. Arthur, Becket, Bergman, Boorman and the Pythons, plus the crusader epic that exists in two completely different cuts.
1990sElizabeth (1998) Review
September 11, 2026
Elizabeth (1998) rates 8 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. Shekhar Kapur made a Tudor film that behaves like a political thriller, with Cate Blanchett moving from frightened prisoner to constructed icon across two hours. She lost Best Actress…
2010sJudy (2019) Review
September 11, 2026
Judy (2019) rates 5 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. Renee Zellweger won Best Actress for a technically accomplished transformation inside a film that exists to contain it, covering Judy Garland's five-week London run five months before her death.
2010sThe King’s Speech (2010) Review
September 11, 2026
The King's Speech (2010) rates 7 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. A well-made two-hander about a man with a stammer and the unqualified Australian who treated him, which beat The Social Network for Best Picture and Best Director…
1990sShakespeare in Love (1998) Review
September 11, 2026
Shakespeare in Love (1998) rates 7 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. A genuinely witty romantic comedy with a superb Tom Stoppard screenplay, which beat Saving Private Ryan for Best Picture through the most studied campaign in Academy history…
1990sLife is Beautiful (1998) Review
September 11, 2026
Life is Beautiful (1998) rates 6 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. Roberto Benigni made a comedy about a father convincing his son that a concentration camp is a game, won Best Actor, and produced the most divisive film…
1940sHow Green Was My Valley (1941) Review
September 11, 2026
How Green Was My Valley (1941) rates 7 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. John Ford's film about a Welsh mining family across roughly twenty years is a good film that has spent eighty-four years being the answer to…
1980sDriving Miss Daisy (1989) Review
September 11, 2026
Driving Miss Daisy (1989) rates 5 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. Two superb performances inside a film that covers twenty-five years of the American South and declines to examine any of it, in the year Do the Right…
1990sDances with Wolves (1990) Review
September 11, 2026
Dances with Wolves (1990) rates 7 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. Costner directed a three-hour Western largely in Lakota with subtitles, which nobody wanted financed, and it made four hundred million dollars and beat Goodfellas. The film is…
1950sAround the World in 80 Days (1956) Review
September 11, 2026
Around the World in 80 Days (1956) rates 4 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. Mike Todd shot the Verne novel in six countries with about forty recognizable faces in one-scene appearances, invented the modern cameo, and beat Giant…