filmbriefs
Actor · 1929

James Hong

4
briefs
13:00
average
52 min
in total
On film.briefs4
13:00

The In-Laws

Arthur Hiller · 1979

The In-Laws (1979) pairs Alan Arkin and Peter Falk as fathers-in-law drawn into international intrigue when a mild-mannered dentist is swept up by his future son-in-law’s seemingly unhinged CIA operative father. Written by Andrew Bergman and directed by Arthur Hiller, it sustains a high-wire act of farcical escalation grounded entirely in character logic — not plot mechanics — and remains a benchmark for odd-couple comedy built on timing, contrast, and unwavering commitment to its central conceit.

13:00

Blade Runner

Ridley Scott · 1982

Ridley Scott's 1982 science fiction film, adapted from Philip K. Dick's novel, sends former police officer Rick Deckard after a group of fugitive synthetic humans, or replicants, hiding in a decaying future Los Angeles. Shot by Jordan Cronenweth with a score by Vangelis, it underperformed on release and split critics over its pacing, only to be reissued in seven different versions and become one of the defining works of neo-noir and cyberpunk cinema.

13:00

Chinatown

Roman Polanski · 1974

Chinatown sends Jack Nicholson's private investigator into a municipal water scandal modelled on the early-twentieth-century disputes that built Los Angeles, opposite Faye Dunaway and John Huston. Robert Towne's script won the film's only Oscar from eleven nominations, but the ending that gives the film its reputation was Polanski's, forced through over the writer's objections, and it is worth knowing which parts of the film are whose before deciding what the story is actually arguing.

13:00

Everything Everywhere All at Once

Dan Kwan, Daniel Scheinert · 2022

Michelle Yeoh plays a laundromat owner dragged into a battle across parallel universes while her actual life — a failing business, a strained daughter, a tax audit — keeps intruding on the spectacle. Written for Jackie Chan before Kwan and Scheinert rebuilt it around a mother and daughter, the film pairs handmade, in-house visual effects with a script that keeps returning to a marriage and a laundromat no matter how far the story wanders.