Ace in the Hole - MatthewHunt

progression into a post-human, or super-human existence. Very few films really inspire awe,
but this is one.
Ugetsu Monogatari
(Kenji Mizoguchi, 1953)
A haunting fable about the vanity of human wishes, as incarnated in two men in 16th-century
Japan: a potter and a merchant. One yearns for riches, and is seduced by a phantom
princess; the other longs to be a samurai, and leaves for the warrior's life while his wife drifts
into prostitution. An absorbing and beautifully photographed tale.
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
(Jacques Demy, 1964)
A wartime romance told entirely in song - something of a first. The pop-art colour schemes
and beautiful people (led by the young Catherine Deneuve) might suggest a sugared almond
of a movie, but there's a bitter flavour to both the music and story, and a hard centre.
The Unbelievable Truth
(Hal Hartley, 1989)
Now sadly overshadowed by lead actor Adrienne Shelly's recent murder in New York, this
remains a key entry in the American independent scene of the 1980s. Hartley's deadpan
comedy about a Long Island girl (Shelly) and her obsession with a mysterious stranger
(Robert Burke) is still as smart as a lick of paint.
Under the Skin
(Carine Adler, 1997)
One of the performances that launched the movie career of Samantha Morton: she plays Iris,
a young woman deeply affected by the sudden death of her mother (played by Rita
Tushingham). Iris embarks on an odyssey of casual sex, emotional anguish and
psychological self-harm. A classic arthouse vehicle for a risky, raw performance.
Unforgiven
(Clint Eastwood, 1992)
The latest, maybe greatest phase of the icon's career began with an interesting half-retraction
from the omniscient death-dealer of spaghetti westerns. Starting with his ageing gunfighter's
shaking hands, Eastwood fastidiously debunks America's founding mythology, though the
final act of vengeance suggests that maybe there could have been no other way.
United 93
(Paul Greengrass, 2006)
Harrowing recreation of the hijacking of the fourth plane on 9/11. Given that we already know
its tragic outcome, the story manages to remain gripping by allowing the action to unfold in
real time. The sober, unsensational treatment of its subject matter makes it all the more
emotionally devastating.
The Untouchables
(Brian De Palma, 1987)
Incorruptible cop Elliot Ness (Kevin Costner) tries to bring down Robert De Niro's bulked-up Al
Capone in this Prohibition-era thriller. Sharp-shooter Andy Garcia, grizzly old-timer Sean
Connery and nerdy accountant Charles Martin Smith are hand-picked by Ness to break the
Chicago mob's all-pervasive grip on the city through a series of shoot-outs and stand-offs,
with De Palma even finding room for a homage to Battleship Potempkin's Odessa steps
sequence.
The Usual Suspects
(Bryan Singer, 1995)
A scriptwriter's tour de force for Christopher McQuarrie - a piece of classic impenetrable noir
that talks, talks, then talks some more as, Rashomon-style, it sets into motion one of the best