@Gern: Funny you should mention Scorsese's commentary track, because I think I was semi-consciously echoing that very line. Although I happen to love both of the moments that Scorsese singles out as possibly excessive—the dancers turning into flowers and birds, and Julian coming out of the orchestra pit to join Vicky…

@Gern: I like that close-up of Kathleen Byron's photo, too.

I'm not a huge fan of Gone to Earth, which strikes me as a little more routine than most of their movies, perhaps because of Selznick's involvement. Although Cyril Cusack is great, as always. And it's possible that the movie simply suffers by comparison to what came before. I should probably give it another chance…

Interesting question. I don't know the answer offhand, but the visual style of each film is so suited to the story that I can't help but think that it was intentional. (Of course, it's also possible that Powell's vision was shaped by the constraints of the material he had available, which is true of almost all great…

Beyond genre
I've found that one of the most underrated aspects of the Archers' work is their ability to play with—and ignore—genre, to an extent that wouldn't be seen again until the French New Wave.

Agreed on all points. I think that the Archers are often stereotyped as filmmakers of gothic fantasy and excess, when in fact they're just the opposite, at least at their best: their finest movies are told with amazing economy, while also displaying a limitless inventiveness. (I can't think of another director who has…

The Small Back Room is awesome. I saw it for the first time at Lincoln Center's Michael Powell retrospective back in 2005, and it blew me away. I think it's probably the Archers' last great movie, and it completes the amazing sequence that began with Contraband and went through 49th Parallel, One of Our Aircraft is…

I think Pressburger more than merits his billing as co-director: Powell was the man in charge on the set, but Pressburger seems to have been more involved in pre- and post-production, although this is a point that is endlessly debated. If nothing else, Pressburger is probably the most talented screenwriter who ever…

Powell and Pressburger
First on my list of the greatest directors of all time. (It's true, too, even if this is a firstie attempt.)

X-Files
I'd just like to give a shout-out to this guy's work on The X-Files, which remains distinctive and surprising, even after all this time. Gilligan joined the show fairly late, as a freelance writer, and while his first episode ("Soft Light") wasn't all that memorable, he got better really fast: "Pusher," his…

Not sure why, but when I need a Darin Morgan fix these days, it's usually War of the Coprophages. Maybe it's because I've watched all of his other episodes to death, but it's also because it comes off as halfway optimistic, unlike most of his other stuff. (Like Chris Ware and Charlie Kaufman, Morgan seems obsessed…

Favorite mythology eps?

I tried reading one of the tie-in novels back in the day, and couldn't get past the first few pages. Maybe it's unfair to say this, but I get the distinct impression that Kevin J. Anderson destroys everything he touches.

@Bill: Brad Bird is a major talent, but he has a tendency to rely too much on cartoonish villains and frenetic action, at least in his Pixar movies. Which is another way of saying that I can't fucking wait for Mission: Impossible 4.

As long as we're talking about books: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I wasn't a huge fan of that book anyway, but the last 150 pages are utterly unnecessary. (So are the first 100, but this is a discussion about third acts, right?)

I agree that Miyazaki is having one of the all-time great late-career resurgences. I can't wait to see what he does next.

@Unregistered Migrant: Funny you should mention Ponyo, because I think it has some pretty substantial third-act problems—and yet it's my favorite movie from last year, and possibly the Miyazaki movie I love the most (although Spirited Away is more impressive). The first hour of Ponyo is just so good that I'm willing…

@Buck: I think A.I. is pretty good as it is, but you'll get no argument from me there.

Personally, I think that Vanilla Sky is one of the most underrated movies of the past decade. It's a bit of a mess, but that's the point: it's simultaneously a thriller, a deconstruction of the Tom Cruise persona, and a fantasia on how we use pop culture to construct our inner lives. Hence the endless pop musical…

For me, Wall-E is actually a perfect example of a third-act failure of nerve. The first forty minutes are amazing, but once the humans show up, it becomes garish, sanctimonious, and illogical. And it isn't just the tonal change that bugs me: I simply don't buy the optimism of the ending, in which humanity returns to…