My Golden Days
Early in My Golden Days, as he returns to Paris after years spent in unofficial exile, Paul Dédalus (Mathieu Amalric) discovers that he has a double. Detained by French officials while attempting to...
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Revisit: The Fisher King
Once upon a time, way back in 1991, Monty Python-alum Terry Gilliam directed The Fisher King, a modern-day fairy tale starring Robin Williams and Jeff Bridges, a story about madness, loss and...
View ArticleThe Brainwashing of My Dad
Back in February of 2014, Salon’s Edwin Lyngar published “I Lost My Dad to Fox News,” a personal essay detailing the transformation of his father, a man who in his youth had been “conventionally and...
View ArticleThe Preppie Connection
Set in 1984 in an America that stomps on the impoverished, the non-white and the non-straight, The Preppie Connection promises an enthralling, pathos-laden tale of a child who grew up poor in one of...
View ArticleThe Confirmation
Bob Nelson is best known for his Academy Award-nominated screenplay for Nebraska, a film about a father and his son going on a seemingly futile quest to collect prize money. Nelson’s directorial debut,...
View ArticleHoly Hell! Twister Turns 20
After its blockbuster release in 1996, Twister held the distinction of being the first major motion picture to make it to home video in the DVD format. It was also one of the first DVDs my family ever...
View ArticleOeuvre: Wong Kar-wai: As Tears Go By
Samuel Johnson said, “No man was ever great by imitation,” but in show business, it’s a fine place to start. For Wong Kar-wai, imitation was a means by which to forge his own, unmistakable style. In...
View ArticleMy Big Fat Greek Wedding 2
According to a list published by The Hollywood Reporter in 2013, the three highest-grossing independent movies of all time are Mel Gibson’s pious snuff film, Danny Boyle’s joyous Oscar darling and Nia...
View ArticleBatman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
The most tiresome conversation in modern geek culture is the endless feedback loop of Marvel loyalists and DC devotees shouting epithets at one another over which cinematic universe reigns supreme. The...
View ArticleBorn to Be Blue
The history of jazz—America’s greatest art form—is haunted by the specter of heroin. It destroyed many of the greats like Charlie Parker and Billie Holiday; countless others, such as Miles Davis and...
View ArticleBaskin
Its phantasmagorical visuals and offbeat rhythms notwithstanding, Baskin is a weird movie. It’s an independent Turkish horror-fantasy film (when’s the last time you saw one of those?) that comes...
View ArticleRevisit: It’s Pat
In 2016, most paperwork might still make us choose between “M” and “F,” but the fight for transgender rights has at least entered non-binary concepts of gender into mainstream circulation. This makes...
View ArticleThey’re Watching
The feature debut for Nickelodeon veterans Jay Lender and Micah Wright, They’re Watching is a well-executed horror film that pairs an enjoyable cinematographic style with a withering critique of the...
View ArticleFrom the Vaults of Streaming Hell: Altar
A family moves into a haunted mansion. This is the start of countless, mostly derivative horror films, and that’s how Nick Willing’s Altar begins. Willing may be familiar to those who frequently watch...
View ArticleValley of Love
The single biggest draw in Guillaume Nicloux’s Valley of Love is the reunion of French greats Isabelle Huppert and Gérard Depardieu nearly 40 years after their roles in Bertrand Blier’s Going Places...
View ArticleOeuvre: Wong Kar-Wai: Days of Being Wild
The first time we meet Yuddy (Leslie Cheung), we see only his back. Director Wong Kar-wai’s camera follows him through an empty hall and even though we can’t see his face, he’s got panache. When he...
View ArticleMidnight Special
The latest collaboration between director/star duo Jeff Nichols and actor Michael Shannon sees the pair exploring the outer limits of their respective talents through the lens of science fiction. From...
View ArticleThe Dark Horse
There are many familiar elements in The Dark Horse, a New Zealand drama heralded by some native critics as one of the country’s great films. Several thoroughly worn-out genres—the prestige biopic, the...
View ArticleFrancofonia
An obvious companion piece to Aleksandr Sokurov’s most well-known feature, Russian Ark, Francofonia is an examination of the cultural and political significance of art dressed up as an ode to the...
View ArticleDarling
The line between imitation and homage is sometimes quite blurry. Mickey Keating’s Darling would seem to earn the title of homage, courtesy of its dreamy horror that directly references—but not...
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