“When you're in love with a married man, you shouldn't wear mascara.”

Released in an odd, fascinating filmic window between the beginning of the sex comedy movement and before action cinema would alter sexual politics onscreen forever, Billy Wilder’s greatest film is simultaneously the best comedy of its era as well as the most rewatchable sad drama ever. So effortlessly does Jack Lemmon imbue his physical comedy into such a haplessly romantic performance, providing the perfect foil for the command of…

Most satires about the film industry—while the best can be absolutely spectacular (THE PLAYER, SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN)—tend to border on being smug, often filled with thinly veiled avatars for the filmmakers congratulating themselves (THE UNBEARABLE WEIGHT OF MASSIVE TALENT).

STATE AND MAIN leans more toward the former. It’s not my favorite of David Mamet’s work; I tend to prefer his icier, more biting scripts. But this is easily the most low-stakes film I’ve seen from him.

What makes it…

If I had to describe Robert Pattinson’s portrayal of the Caped Crusader, imagine he riffs on Kurt Cobain as Jack Nicholson’s J.J. Gittes by way of Frank Miller’s Bruce Wayne. The moodiness of his take, as he and director Matt Reeves have almost irascibly described at length during numerous recent interviews, is more than justified upon watching this film; yet the movie has such a heart, genuine sexual chemistry and the detective aspects that have been missing from several previous…