Films as dark and subversive as Le bonheur are not usually so beautiful. Drenched in a rich, chromatic palette and played to the tune of twee renditions of Mozart (played by Jean-Michel Defaye), the third feature fromRead Full Review
Sátántangó
The characters in Sátántangó are used to persevering through brutal conditions. The rain never stops, the sky a permanent overcast grey which promises no hope for warmth or light. Their homes are crumbling and dilapidated, their belongingsRead Full Review
I’m Thinking of Ending Things
Without the filter of directors like Spike Jonze and Michel Gondry, the screenplays of Charlie Kaufman can have an unfiltered quality, as the despair so central to his stories becomes much less palatable. Directing his own scripts,Read Full Review
Cane River
The restoration and re-release of Cane River in 2018 brought independent director Horace B. Jenkins’s film to many who had not heard of it before. Jenkins’s death in 1982 occurred shortly after the film was finished, which stuntedRead Full Review
An Elephant Sitting Still
Place Hu Bo among the ranks of the tragic artists, the ones lost well before we were prepared to see them to go. An Elephant Sitting Still is his only feature film. He committed suicide in 2017Read Full Review
Young Ahmed
The tenderness of the films from the Dardenne brothers are usually contrasted by worlds offset by calamity. Their characters are often forced into inherently unfair circumstances that are made worse by their suspect judgment and poorRead Full Review
Walkabout
The human race has a fraught relationship with the natural world. We have taken much more than it was ever meant to give. We’ve given ourselves rules, and placed ourselves in a society to maintainRead Full Review
First Cow
The opening image of First Cow is of a massive cargo ship gingerly easing its way down a peaceful river. The ship itself is not peaceful, it’s loud and lumbering, but it’s far enough away toRead Full Review
Mr. Arkadin
Stories that circle behind the production of Mr. Arkadin are deliciously Welles-ian. An unfinished film, pieced together by the cineastes who adored him, with a convoluted plot that is rescued by inventive filmmaking. What more canRead Full Review
The Truth
Familial tensions abound throughout the films of Hirokazu Kore-eda. Children are often suffering the burdens of disgruntled parents, as the pride of adulthood grinds uncomfortably against the pure innocence of youth. The Truth is his firstRead Full Review
Palm Springs
Palm Springs has an exquisite first act. If you’ve happened to watch the trailer for this film then you already know the movie’s big reveal, but caught unawares, the first ten minutes is especially effective.Read Full Review
Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence
Aside from being one of the preeminent rock stars of the Twentieth Century, David Bowie proved to be a rather talented actor. His roles are few – on several occasions, he was simply asked toRead Full Review
Never Rarely Sometimes Always
“Are you abortion minded?” This question is asked early in the film Never Rarely Sometimes Always by a middle-aged woman at a women’s clinic in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania. The question is being posed to a seventeen year-old named Autumn (SidneyRead Full Review
The Watermelon Woman
An experimental filmmaker by trade, Cheryl Dunye’s feature debut, The Watermelon Woman, has very little interest in perpetuating mainstream filmmaking sensibilities. Her fusion of documentary and narrative, as well as her inclusion of metafictional aspects should alienateRead Full Review
Eight Hours Don’t Make a Day
In about thirteen years, Rainer Werner Fassbinder directed over forty feature films before dying of a drug overdose at the age of thirty-seven. This doesn’t include his ambitious television projects which includes that gargantuan Berlin Alexanderplatz,Read Full Review
Da 5 Bloods
Watching Spike Lee’s movies, you can see that he views film history as a legitimate form of American history. Consider the way BlacKKKlansman opens with segments from Gone With The Wind, extolling the power of cinema while alsoRead Full Review
The Lovebirds
A common refrain you may find yourself saying while watching The Lovebirds is “Why isn’t this funnier?”. You won’t ask this maliciously, after all, you have a lot of goodwill towards its two stars, Issa RaeRead Full Review
The French Lieutenant’s Woman
The legend of Streep having grown to such gargantuan proportions, she’s come to represent a very mainstream version of excellence. People think of her as an actress the way people think of Steven Spielberg asRead Full Review
Taste of Cherry
The words “In the name of God” open the film Taste of Cherry. It’s a modest but forceful title card that appears before we see any action. Not that there is a lot of action in theRead Full Review
Chauvinism as Fragility in Eric Rohmer’s ‘Six Moral Tales’
The men in Eric Rohmer’s Six Moral Tales are described as “fragile”. They lack a control over their feelings and emotions, specifically when they are in the company of women. Oftentimes, this lack of control projects itselfRead Full Review
Meantime
The human tensions in Mike Leighs films far outweigh the political ones, though that doesn’t mean that there is one without the other. His characters are so often wrecked by implacable restlessness, worn out by theRead Full Review
Only Angels Have Wings
Masculinity and moral codes abound in the filmography of legendary director Howard Hawks, and Only Angels Have Wings has tied both tightly within the film’s plot, influencing and often encouraging the characters. The script, by veteran JulesRead Full Review
To Be or Not To Be
Considering the polarizing response to Jojo Rabbit less than a year ago, you’d probably think that To Be or Not to Be would be perhaps a bridge to far for audiences sensitive to dark comedy involving NazisRead Full Review
The Music Room
One of the many joys to be found in the films of Satyajit Ray is his ability to delve into the humanity of his characters without judgment. His style is clear and aspires toward objectivity,Read Full Review
Bad Education
Bad Education premiered on HBO Sunday night, 4/26/20. It is now available on HBOGo and HBONow. There was controversy when HBO snatched up Bad Education in the bidding war that followed its successful premiere at lastRead Full Review
Battleship Potemkin
Sergei Eisenstein’s association with evolution in film editing is well-chronicled. He and his Soviet peers established the foundations of “montage” as a technique to rouse emotion within the audience, and Battleship Potemkin is often sighted as Eisenstein’sRead Full Review
Lady Macbeth
In a short amount of time, Florence Pugh has shown herself to be a multifaceted talent as an actress. In half a decade, she’s shown an incredible range from her Oscar-nominated Amy March in Little Women,Read Full Review
Eyes of Laura Mars
Camp has always been difficult to tie down. Even minds as renowned as Susan Sontag have had their studious definitions called into question by those who prefer to use the eye test – “You knowRead Full Review
Daughters of the Dust
It may seem strange today – it certainly surprised me – to learn that Daughters of the Dust was, in 1991, the first feature film ever directed by a black woman to receive a theatrical releaseRead Full Review
Shampoo
“I’m never serious about anything.” – Warren Beatty as George Roundy in Shampoo Set on the day of the 1968 Presidential Election, Shampoo gives itself the benefit of hindsight. Released in 1975, the film’s characters traverse acrossRead Full Review
Tremors
The ascension of a midnight movie comes from hitting that sweet spot between bubbling self-awareness and dismissive carelessness. People will make themselves blue arguing as to whether camp can be self-aware, or to what level it shouldRead Full Review
Daisies
A trademark of European cinema from the 40’s through the 60’s is its expansion of cinematic forms, but even the word ‘expansion’ often feels limiting. Through expansion, filmmakers in countries like Italy and (most famously)Read Full Review
Bacurau
Bacurau is currently streaming on Kino Now as part of their Kino Marquee Virtual Arthouse Program, which allows you to pay a rental fee which goes toward an independent movie house of your choice. IRead Full Review
The Draughtsman’s Contract
1982’s The Draughtsman’s Contract would kick off a fruitful decade for director Peter Greenaway. The muralist turned director, renowned for his strict formalist style and provocative themes, would be among the 80’s most celebrated and most polarizingRead Full Review
The Way Back
I don’t necessarily believe that Ben Affleck is an underrated actor. To the degree that his judgment can be questioned when accepting roles like the ones he chose in films like Gigli or Paycheck, I’m not sureRead Full Review
Emma
The wits of Jane Austen have graced the movie screen so often, you’d imagine the works have perhaps gone stale. After all, her body of work is not vast as say Shakespeare or Stephen King,Read Full Review
The Traitor
There’s a degree to which The Traitor understands how the movies have a large responsibility toward the connection people make between Italians and organized crime. In telling the true to story of Tomasso Buscetta (played wonderfullyRead Full Review
The Assistant
Labelling Kitty Green’s The Assistant as a ‘#MeToo Movie’ suggests that her latest film is somehow attached to a trend as opposed to a glaring document of longstanding tradition. The film takes place in a ManhattanRead Full Review
Decent Maybe Awards for 2019
Best Director Gold: Quentin Tarantino, Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood Silver: Joanna Hogg, The Souvenir Bronze: Robert Eggers, The Lighthouse Best Actress Gold: Alfre Woodard, Clemency Silver: Elizabeth Moss, Her Smell Bronze: Jennifer Lopez, Hustlers Best Actor Gold: Antonio Banderas, PainRead Full Review
1917
World War I – humanity’s greatest foible, a complete failure of dignity and reason, a brutal testament to the fatal power of ego and pride – is often judged too complicated for the movies to tackle.Read Full Review
Just Mercy
I will hear criticisms of Just Mercy. Those who will say that its adherence to a traditional story arc meant to highlight a typical hero’s journey cheapens the substance of its subject matter. That its legal proceduralRead Full Review
Bombshell
If nothing else, Bombshell is a feat of movie make-up. The amount of work in transforming this cast into a selection of contemporary media figures feels quite impressive. The film’s performances, led by Charlize Theron, areRead Full Review
Frozen II
The fervor with which 2013’s Frozen caught fire (froze over? I’m sorry) can be attributed to its songs and proves that there is a much bigger audience for musicals than people think. I’m not sure whyRead Full Review
20 Best Films of 2019
2019 felt like a particularly good year; or at least one in which mentioning ten excellent films didn’t feel sufficient. We had stellar output from movie royalty (Agnès Varda, Martin Scorsese, Pedro Almodóvar), exciting newRead Full Review
Clemency
Dramas about capital punishment should not be easy to sit through, but even in this regard, Chinonye Chukwu’s Clemency stands out. This slow burn feature focuses, with great patience and clarity, on the rippling nature andRead Full Review
Little Women
There’s a reason Louisa May Alcott’s beloved novel, Little Women, is so often adapted. Its portrait of an American family rings true today, even as its story takes place over a century and a half ago. GeorgeRead Full Review
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
**My wife – a noted Star Wars fan – has told me that I should include a SPOILERS warning at the beginning. So here is that. Proceed with caution.** It’s apparent that Rian Johnson wasRead Full Review
The Two Popes
The Two Popes finds a lot of humor within the humanity of its title characters, who despite their papal designations, are still left to deal with life’s small humiliations, such as ordering plane tickets over theRead Full Review
A Hidden Life
A Hidden Life is the sixth film from rarified filmmaker Terrence Malick this decade. He had made only four total in the four previous decades. This burst of prolific activity has had its ups andRead Full Review
Uncut Gems
The Safdie brothers universe is somewhere in between the gritty verité of 70’s William Friedkin and the neon pastiche of 80’s Michael Mann, and yet their films always escape feeling derivative. Their singular vision isRead Full Review