Brian De Palma
The 100 Greatest Summer Blockbuster Movies of All Time
“Cool.” “Riveting.” “Gripping.” “High-Octane Thrill Ride!” All cliches of film criticism and yet all feelings we’ve experienced while watching a crackerjack summer blockbuster. Oops, there we go again. All things considered, any moviegoer can speak to the divine feeling of sitting in a cool, packed theater in the heat of the summer and being united by narrative. Not just united, but hypnotized, mentally convinced that the fate of the world is before your eyes, and there is nothing more important in that very moment. It’s escapism. It’s popcorn. It’s Chinatown. But also, it’s the power of spectacle. Over the years, Hollywood has certainly run that concept through the ringer, having turned what used to be a summer blockbuster season into, well, an entire calendar year. Now, all those aforeme...
10 Years, 10 Questions With David Koepp: On Jurassic Park, Indiana Jones, Spider-Man, and Stephen King
“I love the idea that you can go into a house and your grip on reality starts to loosen,” says director and screenwriter David Koepp, who confesses, “I feel like I’ve been telling that story for 25 years, but what can you do? You like what you like.” Over Zoom, the Hollywood veteran weighs in on the parallels between his latest film You Should Have Left and his previous directorial efforts, particularly 1999’s Stir of Echoes and 2004’s Secret Window. He’s not wrong: All three films revolve around troubled male protagonists left to their own devices as they dig deeper holes for themselves. But Koepp is also being modest. After all, you don’t become one of the most successful screenwriters of all time by telling the same damn story again and again — and, to be frank, he hasn’t. For 30 years ...
