Movie (also film, filmic, picture, and motion picture) means a work of cinema. It’s a term that’s changing in ways that reflect changes in the medium itself, sometimes by design and others, well, not so much.
Whether it’s a drama about a couple falling in love, a fantasy about magical things that can’t happen, or a detective story about crime and violence, movies are usually about a protagonist struggling to overcome something. Filmmakers have to decide what kind of world they’re creating for their audiences – which genre they’ll be in – and then craft an arc that leads their audience through the experience of those characters.
A hunched saint of film, Frances McDormand nailed the role of a snobbish newscaster with this brilliant performance that won her an Oscar. Bill Murray, too, is at the height of his lovable-schmuck powers as the titular character of this time-loop dramedy, while Harold Ramis spins gold from this retread trope and gives us a reason to watch movies on the biggest screen possible.
It takes guts to take on a topic as charged and complex as World War II, especially while that war is still raging. But that’s exactly what director Milos Forman did with this iconic movie about the uprising of the crew of a Russian battleship against their brutal, tyrannical captain. The movie is a powerful and timeless piece of propaganda, but it also contains some of the best acting performances in history by Humphrey Bogart and Louise Fletcher.