Smith: "Oh, I'm not so bad, once you get to know me."

Neo establishes a connection with the Source immediately upon entering the Architect's chamber. The One is granted wireless access that no other entity has, explaining his subsequent miraculous demonstrations: short-circuiting sentinels and remotely detonating waves of bombs. This telepathy enables him to see other machines the way they see each other, after Bane-Smith burns out his eyes. Those glowing, golden money shots of what I call Neovision occur…

"Old movies" aren't always stodgy and embalmed, even to contemporary viewers suffering from serotonin burnout and a shriveled attention span. The Red Shoes endures as a beloved classic in restored three-strip Technicolor in part because it uses visual language to tell the audience all they need to know in seconds rather than belaboring the point. A technique it seems modern filmmakers have largely forgotten.

As an example from late in the narrative, Boris Lermontov wants to recruit Irina, his former…

My gateway drug to the Master, intended by Ernest Lehman as the ultimate Alfred Hitchcock film. It's self-aware enough to be enjoyed as a Swiss watch of cinematic precision, playing with tropes from Hitch's oeuvre, but crafted first and foremost as clever entertainment in good taste. Because every scene is focused on the immediate present and Cary Grant's predicament at any given point in the plot (he's a man of many roles, notes James Mason), there's no distance put between…