One of the finest films of the '70s, it follows the attempts of Vietnam veteran and taxi driver Travis Bickle to save an underage prostitute from her pimp, as he is eventually driven to extreme acts of violence.Īt once a fascinating character study and a compelling psychological thriller, Bickle is one of the finest film characters of all time, and De Niro's performance was instantly iconic – including the classic (and improvised) line "You talkin' to me?" That performance, alongside Scorsese's masterful direction and Paul Schrader's faultless script, combine to make this a film that remains just as shocking and disturbing to this day. Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro have worked together on nine feature films (with a tenth, The Killers of the Flower Moon, set for release later this year) but this landmark descent into madness remains perhaps the pinnacle of their creative relationship. Helmed by The Haunting of Hill House and Midnight Mass director Mike Flanagan, the film includes plenty of visual flair and enough frightening images to keep you up at night for weeks – with Rebecca Ferguson particularly excelling as the leader of a terrifying witchy cult.
This adaptation of Stephen King's sequel to his classic novel The Shining handles the material in rather a different way to Stanley Kubrick's 1980 masterpiece but still manages to be an effective and interesting horror film in its own right, as Ewan McGregor's Danny Torrance struggles to overcome his traumatic past at the Overlook hotel.
It moves at a pace, and with sublime central performances by Eisenberg, Garfield and Justin Timberlake, it will have you gripped right up until the credits roll. It tells the story of the founding of Facebook, including all the backstabbing and legal battles that went on behind the scenes, in such succinct, understandable terms, while making sure that the focus at all times remains on the central relationship which led to it all.Ĭharting the rise of an impossible yet oft-times brilliant head of a corporation has almost become a sub-genre of its own, but this was one of the originals and the best. The film that catapulted both Jesse Eisenberg and Andrew Garfield into the big time, while also solidifying David Fincher's status as one of the greatest directors working today, The Social Network is a masterpiece. Jesse Eisenberg in Columbia Pictures' "The Social Network."