Capsule reviews.

Mostly crime, for some reason.

Rear Window (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958)

OK, I have a theory about Alfred Hitchcock, to be elaborated on at a later date: his movies are at their best when they are sort of romantic comedies and dark, screwed-up thrillers at the same time. Importantly, they are not “romantic comedy thrillers.” This is two different things coexisting in the same movie without ever quite combining into a coherent genre type. That’s what makes them good.

So, movies of this type: Rear Window, Notorious, The Lady Vanishes, kind of The Birds, maybe North by Northwest but I haven’t seen that one in a long time. I’m not going to make the argument that Strangers on a Train is a romcom but I’m sure somebody could. Rebecca, which is definitely a top five Hitchcock movie, is more of a single “type,” though I think it shares certain sympathies with Notorious and Rear Window that help it fit i…