Claudio's Best Shot Pick: The Godfather (1972)

The next episode of our series, ‘Hit Me With Your Best Shot,’ arrives tomorrow night. It’s focused on The Godfather on the occasion of its new restoration. You still have time to participate. For now, as something of a preview, here’s Cláudio’s entry.

The Godfather is one of those canonized classics about which there is nothing new to say. Its themes and visual strategies have been overanalyzed ad nauseam across decades, from Coppola's Viscontian staging to Gordon Willis's shadowy cinematography. Choosing the best shot from such masterpiece and justifying that choice is thus a complicated exercise where one risks obsolescence, repetition, utter failure. Indeed, of this season's best shot challenges, this was the hardest...

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Best Shot Choices & The Best Actress Race -- Romancing the Stone (1984)

Our film title this week on Hit Me With Your Best Shot was in response to the soon-to-open Sandra Bullock/Channing Tatum vehicle The Lost City. More on that one later but for now if you've never seen its kickoff inspiration, 80s classic Romancing the Stone, that's streaming on HBOMax. Here are the Best Shot choices from seven participants to celebrate this fabulous adventure romcom. Plus some thoughts on the 1984 Best Actress race since we always go to BEST ACTRESS... 

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Hit Me With Your Best Shot: Kathleen Turner and Straight Camp

by Nathaniel R

Romancing the Stone's most famous sight gag. © 20th Century Fox

At the risk of accidental humiliation, like having a stranger end up face down in your lap due to a freak mudslide, I would like to propose a theory that Romancing the Stone (1984) is straight camp. Since no one can agree on a definition of "camp", let alone a heternormative variation on such a traditionally gay style / point of view, it's a risk. But looking back at Robert Zemeckis' classic adventure rom-com, the word 'camp' if not 'campy' kept coming to mind.

Right from its defining cheesy prologue, a heightened visualization of the last pages of a romance novel's already purple prose, it's an artificial wonder...

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Best Shot Index: West Side Story (2021)

Thank you to everyone who participated tonight. Next week's film is Romancing The Stone (1984) streaming on HBOMax so we hope you'll join us and pick your own shot. Here were the eight choices from West Side Story (2021) and we're marvelling at the variety and beauty. The film is up for Best Cinematography, Best Picture and more at the Oscars. Click on the image for the article, tweet, or tumblr post...

Ryan on Twitter (thread)

Keisha at Cinema Cities (article)

Cláudio Alves at The Film Experience (article)

Working Stiff at Tumblr (multiple articles)

Intifada on Tumblr (gallery)

Ben Miller at  Ice Cream For Freaks (article)

Steven James on Twitter (capsule)

And finally we love this fascinating choice from Alexander Georgakis on Twitter who writes:

The dissolve from the former Anita to the current one is more than a clever meta moment -- it asks us to consider if over the last sixty years, America has finally become that better time and place Valentina dreams about in “Somewhere”? In some ways, yes; in others, sadly, no.

Hit Me With Your Best Shot: WEST SIDE STORY (2021)

by Cláudio Alves

A beautiful shot, full of carnality and color!

Re-watching Spielberg's interpretation of the classic musical made me realize that, beyond the mournful tonalities of Rita Moreno's Valentina, the new West Side Story works mainly as a tragedy of two gang leaders, what they symbolize, and the clashing communities they represent. So, logically, my best shot would have to feature Riff and Bernardo while also showcasing the best aspects of the picture's photographic strategy. Hopefully, it'd also hide some of my personal misgivings with it, too – namely, the overabundance of glaring lens flares...

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