Collection
Screenwriter Todd M. Friedman has ambitions with the story of Collection, which is fashioned as a character study but clearly wishes to operate like a thriller. The opening scene is made of intentional...
View ArticleCriminally Underrated: G.I. Jane
In terms of criminally underrated films, one need look no further than Ridley Scott’s 1997 war drama G.I. Jane, starring Demi Moore. Although the actress’ repertoire of ‘90s films that pushed the...
View ArticleDear Evan Hansen
I knew less than nothing about Dear Evan Hansen prior to viewing director Stephen Chbosky’s screen adaptation. I say less than because up until a few months ago, I was under the misapprehension the...
View ArticleSurge
There’s a special kind of stress reserved for those moments going through airport security. Here, everything is rushed. Belts are removed and whipped into buckets on the conveyer and shoes come off...
View ArticleI’m Your Man
Between Black Mirror and the ubiquity of catfishing, the future of romantic relationships is a source of endless fascination. If our preferences and daily lives can be predicted, does that mean an...
View ArticleEast of the Mountains
A dying man goes in search of, well, something in East of the Mountains, a quiet and reflective drama from director SJ Chiro and screenwriter Thane Swigart (adapting David Guterson’s novel of the same...
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Rediscover: Touki Bouki
The ghosts of colonialism still cast a long shadow over Africa, and many films that emerge from the continent deal with the lingering effects and damage that European rule has caused its many nations....
View ArticleThe Most Beautiful Boy in the World
The troubled ex-child actor—a wild industry kid grown into a maladjusted adult—has become a cheap joke. But it’s easy to forget the very real difficulties faced by those who had a public adolescence...
View ArticleLone Wolf
Implementing a gimmick with which to frame the narrative of one’s story is never necessarily a bad thing. The challenge, of course, is to justify the reason for that gimmick, and a further challenge,...
View ArticleCriminally Underrated: Van Helsing
In 2004, before anyone besides Oregonians ever considered the city of Forks, an emerging action star Hugh Jackman took up the role of a famous vampire slayer – well, professor that is, for the...
View ArticleOeuvre: Melville: Les Enfants Terribles
There is a reason most films only have one director. Sure, there are exceptions like The Coen Brothers or Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, but these partners are known for their like-minded...
View ArticleTitane
The first images of Julia Ducournau’s Titane surf the underbelly of a car as it barrels down a highway until the camera finds a screw loose, the first of a number of blatant metaphors for Alexia,...
View ArticleComing Home in the Dark
Though Coming Home in the Dark opens as a tense thriller that hinges on a seemingly random act of violence, James Ashcroft’s debut feature unfurls into a gritty meditation on the insidious ripple...
View ArticleRevisit: City of Hope
American cinema boasts a long social realist tradition, which for most of its history has been tied to a certain theatrical style, grounded in mid-century conventions whose foundations were entrenched...
View ArticleThe Many Saints of Newark
The final episode of “The Sopranos” aired in mid-2007, but creator David Chase is apparently not finished with Tony Soprano. We live in an era now hungry for Ted Lassos, not anti-heroes like Walter...
View ArticleOld Henry
It would not be accurate to say the Western is dying as much as the Western is different nowadays. More commonly seen is the revisionist western, the neo-western, or other countries exploring their...
View ArticleFalling for Figaro
There is nothing particularly special about Falling for Figaro. The characters are warm enough – yes, even the crotchety old lady who reluctantly agrees to coach our heroine in her chosen career path....
View ArticleCriminally Underrated: Little Women
In what was an undeniably wonderful year for film—2019 featured Parasite, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and Portrait of a Lady on Fire among many other highly-touted offerings—Greta Gerwig’s Little...
View ArticleOeuvre: Melville: When You Read This Letter
For many cinephiles, when we think about the French New Wave films, a few visual and thematic motifs come immediately to mind. Among these are nuns, cars and two-bit hustlers. These are just ideas and...
View ArticleLamb
What’s the difference between ownership and family? A parent may describe a child as “mine,” much in the way they may describe their house, car or television. The connotation differs depending on the...
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