A movie is only as good as its ending. At the very least, that’s certainly how it can feel right after you finish watching one. Of course, each film demands a different kind of finale, and it would be futile to try and generically describe what makes for a “good” one — you know one when you see it. Some stories are best served by ending with a jarring twist that makes you reconsider everything you’ve seen before it. Others require the perfect note of ambiguity, or that immortal line of dialogue to help seal the deal. Every great film ends on its own terms, but all of them do so in a way that ultimately makes the whole experience impossible to forget. Here are the 20 best movie endings of the 21st Century.
Note: Needless to say, there’s a five-alarm spoiler alert in effect for the rest of this article.
Note: Needless to say, there’s a five-alarm spoiler alert in effect for the rest of this article.
- 8/18/2017
- by David Ehrlich, Eric Kohn, Michael Nordine, Chris O'Falt and Jude Dry
- Indiewire
In 2004, Fisher Stevens went to Ohio with a coalition of artists to help John Kerry get elected president. It didn’t work, but Stevens — an actor-turned-director best known for campy roles in a string of ’80s and ’90s films such as “Short Circuit” and “Hackers” — emerged a changed man. “It was a fucked-up time,” Stevens recalled over lunch near his offices in downtown Manhattan, “but this a whole other fucked-up time.”
Flash forward a dozen years and Stevens is enmeshed in a new stage of his career, as a prolific documentarian who moonlights as an actor. Six years ago, he won an Oscar as a co-producer of “The Cove,” photographer-turned-filmmaker Louie Psihoyos’ thrilling exposé of the Japanese fishing industry. By then, he had stepped away from GreeneStreet Films, the independent production company he started in 1996 with John Penotti. That same year, Stevens launched Insurgent Media with Andrew Kirsch and Erik Gordon...
Flash forward a dozen years and Stevens is enmeshed in a new stage of his career, as a prolific documentarian who moonlights as an actor. Six years ago, he won an Oscar as a co-producer of “The Cove,” photographer-turned-filmmaker Louie Psihoyos’ thrilling exposé of the Japanese fishing industry. By then, he had stepped away from GreeneStreet Films, the independent production company he started in 1996 with John Penotti. That same year, Stevens launched Insurgent Media with Andrew Kirsch and Erik Gordon...
- 11/8/2016
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
After doing the rounds on VoD for a few weeks, where many of you will have seen it, Sarah Polley's "Take This Waltz" starts to roll out in theaters from tomorrow, and we can't recommend it enough; it's a messy, sometimes frustrating film, but a deeply felt, beautifully made and wonderfully acted one, and we named it last week as one of the best of the year so far. It is not, however, recommended as a date movie, fitting into a long cinematic tradition of painful examinations of broken, decaying, collapsing or dead relationships.
After all, it's one of the more universal human experiences; unless you get very lucky, everyone who falls in love will at some point have the wrenching experience of falling out of it, or being fallen out of love with. And when done best in film, it can be bruising and borderline torturous for a filmmaker and an audience,...
After all, it's one of the more universal human experiences; unless you get very lucky, everyone who falls in love will at some point have the wrenching experience of falling out of it, or being fallen out of love with. And when done best in film, it can be bruising and borderline torturous for a filmmaker and an audience,...
- 6/28/2012
- by The Playlist Staff
- The Playlist
Valentine’s Day is the time to show that special someone how much you care by lavishing them with gifts! Or it’s that irksome time of year where every business exploits the promise of love and romance to sell you candy, flowers, jewelry, and bow tie-wearing bears. This holiday is at once a day of sincerity and cynicism.
It’s truly a magical time.
No matter which side of the Vday divide you fall, we’ve got some choice movie picks whether you’re a love lover or a holiday hater.
————
For Those Who Love Love
Want something sweet to screen this Valentine’s Day?
Here’s a list of spectacular flicks that prove once and for all that love conquers all!
Love Actually {2003}
Rom-com master Richard Curtis’ Christmas-set ensemble piece weaves together various feel-good tales (for the most part) that reveal the various ways of love. Full of beloved actors,...
It’s truly a magical time.
No matter which side of the Vday divide you fall, we’ve got some choice movie picks whether you’re a love lover or a holiday hater.
————
For Those Who Love Love
Want something sweet to screen this Valentine’s Day?
Here’s a list of spectacular flicks that prove once and for all that love conquers all!
Love Actually {2003}
Rom-com master Richard Curtis’ Christmas-set ensemble piece weaves together various feel-good tales (for the most part) that reveal the various ways of love. Full of beloved actors,...
- 2/11/2011
- by Kristy Puchko
- The Film Stage
A $15 million lawsuit against award-winning director Dan Klores over his documentary "Crazy Love," filed by its two stars, has been tossed out by a Queens Supreme Court judge. Disbarred lawyer Burt Pugach and Linda Riss, who married Pugach after he spent 14 years in jail for blinding her with acid, had accused Klores of falsely enticing them into signing over the rights to their story. "We are pleased, but we are not surprised" by the dismissal, said Klores' lawyer, Mathew Rosengart. But Pugach vows to appeal.
- 3/1/2009
- NYPost.com
- In an era where Joey Budafucco is now engaged to Amy Fischer and Mary K. Laturno is now married to the boy who fathered her child at venerable age of 12, it should come as little surprise that Linda Riss is married to Burt Pugach, the man who hired hit men to throw acid in her face more than forty years ago. It was a crime inspired by passionate jealousy after all. Dan Klores’s (Ring of Fire) new documentary Crazy Love, flows chronologically and hits all the standard interviews from friends and family who appear more than eager to comment. It’s not hard to see why a man like Burt Pugach is screwed up. The beginning of the film deals with his traumatic childhood, which included regular beatings and berating from his possessive mother. Driven into a possessive mentality Burt became a prominent negligence lawyer amassing large amounts of wealth,
- 6/1/2007
- IONCINEMA.com
The Film Sales Co. has closed international sales on Dan Klores and Fisher Stevens' Crazy Love, which premiered at January's Sundance Film Festival.
The documentary, which follows the five-decade roller-coaster relationship between Linda Riss and Burt Pugach that landed the pair's saga on the cover of newspapers and magazines, will be released in the fall by Tartan Films in the U.K., Palace Films in Australia and Shani Films in Israel.
Released domestically by Magnolia Pictures, Crazy hits U.S. theaters Friday.
The documentary, which follows the five-decade roller-coaster relationship between Linda Riss and Burt Pugach that landed the pair's saga on the cover of newspapers and magazines, will be released in the fall by Tartan Films in the U.K., Palace Films in Australia and Shani Films in Israel.
Released domestically by Magnolia Pictures, Crazy hits U.S. theaters Friday.
- 5/30/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
PARK CITY -- Magnolia Pictures nailed a deal late Saturday for North American rights to Crazy Love, director Dan Klores' provocative documentary about a couple who marries some 16 years after the man has acid thrown in his future wife's face.
In the first theatrical deal of the Sundance festival, Magnolia bought domestic rights Saturday afternoon for mid-six figures. Klores retains international, TV and remake rights to the docu.
Klores and his producing partner Fisher Stevens took the chance of pre-screening the film before the festival, a risky decision that could have backfired dependent on how the film played. But according to Fisher, they thought they had the goods. "It was Dan's idea to go early and I agreed," said Stevens.
Klores, a native New Yorker, remembers reading about the seminal incident in Linda and Burt Pugach's lives, when Pugacah had his fiance blinded because he thought he was losing her to another man. But it wasn't until Klores read a New York Times story about the couple who reconnected after Pugach's 16-year jail sentence and wound up marrying each other that he decided to pursue the project.
In the first theatrical deal of the Sundance festival, Magnolia bought domestic rights Saturday afternoon for mid-six figures. Klores retains international, TV and remake rights to the docu.
Klores and his producing partner Fisher Stevens took the chance of pre-screening the film before the festival, a risky decision that could have backfired dependent on how the film played. But according to Fisher, they thought they had the goods. "It was Dan's idea to go early and I agreed," said Stevens.
Klores, a native New Yorker, remembers reading about the seminal incident in Linda and Burt Pugach's lives, when Pugacah had his fiance blinded because he thought he was losing her to another man. But it wasn't until Klores read a New York Times story about the couple who reconnected after Pugach's 16-year jail sentence and wound up marrying each other that he decided to pursue the project.
- 1/21/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
This review was written for the festival screening of "Crazy Love".Shoot the Moon Prods. in association with Stevens/Zieff PARK CITY -- "Crazy Love", a bizarre true story of pathological love, possession and maiming, which certainly fits into the truth-is-stranger-fiction category, is a case of intriguing subject matter and lackluster execution. Despite the inherent, shocking nature of the material, Dan Klores' narrowly focused, poorly paced documentary lacks a narrative thrust that could have made for a more compelling film.
Old photographs and home movies of Linda Riss, who grew up in the 1950s, reveal an uncommonly attractive, sensual woman full of vitality. In on-camera interviews, numerous friends attest to her singular beauty and her hold over men. Her aura of glamour captured the imagination and triggered the compulsions of Burt Pugach, a philanderer and narcissistic manipulator with a lifelong habit of trimming the truth.
Burt is whom Jean Paul Sartre had in mind when he wrote: "Hell is other people". Linda, initially impressed by Burt's money and style, found out he was married. After she broke it off, Burt threatened and stalked her before dispatching criminals who threw acid in her face and blinded her. The media ate the story up.
Linda, an inveterate New Yorker and one tough lady, gamely faces the camera, her disfigurement concealed behind a wig and sunglasses. She calls herself damaged goods. He had said that if he couldn't have her, nobody else would. He got his wish.
Burt went to prison. After he was released, she married the jerk. Then they went on the TV talk show circuit, queried by incredulous interviewers. They've been together for 28 contentious years and according to Linda's friends, that, in itself, is a form of justice: He got his punishment, she got her revenge.
Old photographs and home movies of Linda Riss, who grew up in the 1950s, reveal an uncommonly attractive, sensual woman full of vitality. In on-camera interviews, numerous friends attest to her singular beauty and her hold over men. Her aura of glamour captured the imagination and triggered the compulsions of Burt Pugach, a philanderer and narcissistic manipulator with a lifelong habit of trimming the truth.
Burt is whom Jean Paul Sartre had in mind when he wrote: "Hell is other people". Linda, initially impressed by Burt's money and style, found out he was married. After she broke it off, Burt threatened and stalked her before dispatching criminals who threw acid in her face and blinded her. The media ate the story up.
Linda, an inveterate New Yorker and one tough lady, gamely faces the camera, her disfigurement concealed behind a wig and sunglasses. She calls herself damaged goods. He had said that if he couldn't have her, nobody else would. He got his wish.
Burt went to prison. After he was released, she married the jerk. Then they went on the TV talk show circuit, queried by incredulous interviewers. They've been together for 28 contentious years and according to Linda's friends, that, in itself, is a form of justice: He got his punishment, she got her revenge.
- 1/20/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
PARK CITY -- Crazy Love, a bizarre true story of pathological love, possession and maiming, which certainly fits into the truth-is-stranger-fiction category, is a case of intriguing subject matter and lackluster execution. Despite the inherent, shocking nature of the material, Dan Klores' narrowly focused, poorly paced documentary lacks a narrative thrust that could have made for a more compelling film.
Old photographs and home movies of Linda Riss, who grew up in the 1950s, reveal an uncommonly attractive, sensual woman full of vitality. In on-camera interviews, numerous friends attest to her singular beauty and her hold over men. Her aura of glamour captured the imagination and triggered the compulsions of Burt Pugach, a philanderer and narcissistic manipulator with a lifelong habit of trimming the truth.
Burt is whom Jean Paul Sartre had in mind when he wrote: Hell is other people. Linda, initially impressed by Burt's money and style, found out he was married. After she broke it off, Burt threatened and stalked her before dispatching criminals who threw acid in her face and blinded her. The media ate the story up.
Linda, an inveterate New Yorker and one tough lady, gamely faces the camera, her disfigurement concealed behind a wig and sunglasses. She calls herself damaged goods. He had said that if he couldn't have her, nobody else would. He got his wish.
Burt went to prison. After he was released, she married the jerk. Then they went on the TV talk show circuit, queried by incredulous interviewers. They've been together for 28 contentious years and according to Linda's friends, that, in itself, is a form of justice: He got his punishment, she got her revenge.
Shoot the Moon Prods. in association with Stevens/Zieff...
Old photographs and home movies of Linda Riss, who grew up in the 1950s, reveal an uncommonly attractive, sensual woman full of vitality. In on-camera interviews, numerous friends attest to her singular beauty and her hold over men. Her aura of glamour captured the imagination and triggered the compulsions of Burt Pugach, a philanderer and narcissistic manipulator with a lifelong habit of trimming the truth.
Burt is whom Jean Paul Sartre had in mind when he wrote: Hell is other people. Linda, initially impressed by Burt's money and style, found out he was married. After she broke it off, Burt threatened and stalked her before dispatching criminals who threw acid in her face and blinded her. The media ate the story up.
Linda, an inveterate New Yorker and one tough lady, gamely faces the camera, her disfigurement concealed behind a wig and sunglasses. She calls herself damaged goods. He had said that if he couldn't have her, nobody else would. He got his wish.
Burt went to prison. After he was released, she married the jerk. Then they went on the TV talk show circuit, queried by incredulous interviewers. They've been together for 28 contentious years and according to Linda's friends, that, in itself, is a form of justice: He got his punishment, she got her revenge.
Shoot the Moon Prods. in association with Stevens/Zieff...
- 1/20/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
PARK CITY -- Magnolia Pictures has nailed a deal for North American rights and possible other territories for "Crazy Love", director Dan Klores' provocative documentary about a couple who marries some 16 years after the man has acid thrown in his future wife's face.
In the first theatrical deal of the Sundance festival, Magnolia was the frontrunner in a high-six/low-seven figure payout that went into final negotiations Saturday afternoon with a few deal points outstanding, including questions of whether the distributor would obtain North American, worldwide and/or remake rights to the docu in the package.
Klores and his producing partner Fisher Stevens took the chance of pre-screening the film before the festival, a risky decision that could have backfired dependent on how the film played. But according to Fisher, they thought they had the goods. "It was Dan's idea to go early and I agreed," said Stevens.
Klores, a native New Yorker, remembers reading about the seminal incident in Linda and Burt Pugach's lives, when Pugacah had his fiance blinded because he thought he was losing her to another man.
In the first theatrical deal of the Sundance festival, Magnolia was the frontrunner in a high-six/low-seven figure payout that went into final negotiations Saturday afternoon with a few deal points outstanding, including questions of whether the distributor would obtain North American, worldwide and/or remake rights to the docu in the package.
Klores and his producing partner Fisher Stevens took the chance of pre-screening the film before the festival, a risky decision that could have backfired dependent on how the film played. But according to Fisher, they thought they had the goods. "It was Dan's idea to go early and I agreed," said Stevens.
Klores, a native New Yorker, remembers reading about the seminal incident in Linda and Burt Pugach's lives, when Pugacah had his fiance blinded because he thought he was losing her to another man.
- 1/20/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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