Ace in the Hole - MatthewHunt

"Issue movie" is too cheap a term to describe this account of a tobacco-industry whistleblower
(Russell Crowe at his most retiring), and a TV journalist (Al Pacino) finding similar levels of
corruption within his own industry. It's a corporate crime thriller as gripping as any cop story,
but Mann's dreamlike visual treatment gives it an extra intensity.
Intolerance
(DW Griffith, 1916)
Attempting to make up for the KKK-promoting Birth of a Nation, Griffith produced a mammoth
plea in favour of social and political harmony. Four eras get the treatment - ancient Babylon,
Christ's crucifixion, the St Bartholomew's Day massacre, and modern America; the
earnestness of his vision carries everything with it.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
(Don Siegel, 1956)
Check the basement for pods! Space-spores steal the minds of a small town's citizens. Does
body snatching stand for Eisenhower-era conformism or for lock-step communism? This is
Don Siegel, so it's more likely about the folly of surrendering your soul to anyone. Includes the
cinema's most bone-chilling kiss.
The Ipcress File
(Sidney J Furie, 1965)
Hard on the heels of 1964's Zulu, Michael Caine demonstrated ruthless star credentials as
Len Deighton's spy Harry Palmer, investigating brainwashed scientists. Palmer is 60s London
personified - he drinks ground coffee and everything! Furthering the swinging vibe, the
psychedelic direction feels like a mind-control experiment itself.
Irma Vep
(Olivier Assayas, 1996)
The restless Assayas has hopped between genres and inter-bred them, often scruffily, within
single films, so it's no surprise the postmodernist popped out at some point. Irma Vep, about a
neurotic director remaking a silent horror classic, settles down nicely into a wry, sexy tribute to
cinema, its allure personified by Maggie Cheung's slinky cat-suited muse.
The Iron Giant
(Brad Bird, 1999)
Based on the Ted Hughes story, this cartoon about a boy who befriends a huge alien robot
makes perfect all-ages entertainment. Keeping the giant secret from his parents and the
paranoid world of 1950s America proves to be impossible, as the film moves from an innocent
study of outsiders drawn together to a crushing, full-scale cold war assault when the military
mobilise.
Irréversible
(Gaspar Noé, 2002)
Firebrand Gaspar Noé may be renowned for filming the longest anal rape scene in cinema
history (nine minutes) but his film is so much more than a grindhouse curiosity. Played "in
reverse", it is deeply abrasive and shrewd study of male identity, and the tragic corollary of
revenge.
It Happened One Night
(Frank Capra, 1934)
Capra's screwball comedy sees Clark Gable's failed reporter, desperate for a scoop, teaming
up with Claudette Colbert's spoiled socialite on the run, for a Depression-era road trip. Sparky
dialogue and classic sequences, including the doughnut dunking lesson, helped it to
unprecedented Oscar victory in five categories, including for both stars.
It's a Wonderful Life
(Frank Capra, 1946)
Jimmy Stewart is in despair until an apprentice angel shows him what life in his small town