The Devil and Father Amorth
Certain films seem to exist in another dimension; these are movies that can’t be replicated, and everyone who has ever seen them remembers exactly where and when they saw it for the first time. William...
View ArticleGodard Mon Amour
Michel Hazanavicius’ Oscar-winning film The Artist (2011) paid homage to the era of silent cinema with an act of ventriloquism, a strange if tepid mixture of Hollywood fellatio and pleasant, often...
View ArticleOeuvre: Campion: Sweetie
Jane Campion’s early short films displayed a shockingly developed talent, one whose cut-up style showed an innate understanding of how to visualize her characters’ sense of displacement and dysmorphia,...
View ArticleLean on Pete
Lean on Pete, adapted from Willy Vlautin’s 2010 novel, paints a striking portrait of the rural Pacific Northwest and of the working-class people who inhabit it. British writer-director Andrew Haigh has...
View ArticleAvengers: Infinity War
Though it’s being released in theaters, it seems strange to categorize Avengers: Infinity War as a feature film. In terms of pure spectacle, no summer blockbuster this year is going to be able to...
View ArticleLet the Sunshine In
Claire Denis has been one of the great directors from the start, an emotional constructivist whose gift for hyper-specific observation and elegiac, elliptical editing transforms even her bleakest films...
View ArticleBackstabbing for Beginners
Backstabbing for Beginners takes an unsexy geopolitical scandal and makes it even more drab. Danish director Per Fly’s adaptation of Michael Soussan’s 2008 memoir of the same name focuses on the...
View ArticleRediscover: Sinai Field Mission
Now 40 years old, Frederick Wiseman’s Sinai Field Mission presents a rare instance of an old movie about a battle which is in some sense still ongoing, even if its depiction of a diplomatic dead zone...
View ArticleThe House of Tomorrow
The House of Tomorrow is a reliable, familiar type of film. It is a teenage coming of age story, with all the necessary plot twists, genre tropes and quirky you’ve-not-seen-this-character-before sort...
View ArticleIn the Last Days of the City
Cairo is perhaps the oldest city in the world and among the most populous. The political and social tumult that has transpired in its streets is enough to fill a library of volumes and the diversity...
View ArticleHoly Hell! Blade Turns 20
The history of comic book movies is a bit revisionist of late. During this watershed decade where comics form the basis of so much entertainment, it is easy to forget what came before. The ‘90s...
View ArticleOeuvre: Campion: An Angel at My Table
Watching Jane Campion’s An Angel at My Table nearly 30 years after its 1990 release puts in contrast the bloat of recent biopics. It tells the story of Janet Frame, one of New Zealand’s most acclaimed...
View ArticleTully
Jason Reitman’s typically unbearable filmography has been buoyed twice by Diablo Cody’s deceptively simple writing, which smuggles in biting critiques under the guise of simplistic comedy. Juno flipped...
View ArticleThe Cleanse
The Cleanse is a dull film dramatizing romantic relationships through clunky pop-psychological metaphors and pitifully-failed attempts at humor. It seems to want to be social commentary on modern...
View ArticleBad Samaritan
The frustrating thriller Bad Samaritan squanders an intriguing premise and tense setup by unraveling into threadbare tropes. Cat burglar Sean (Robert Sheehan) lines his pockets by using his valet job...
View ArticleThe Son of Bigfoot
With such subgenre monstrosities as The Capture of Bigfoot and Shriek of the Mutilated among its peers, it may not be saying much that The Son of Bigfoot is one of the better entries in a...
View ArticleRBG
The pedestrian yet well-intentioned documentary RBG is less a piece of nonfiction cinema and more a Wikipedia page brought to the big screen. Hitting all the beats, the film is akin to the...
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Rediscover: La poison
Though his name is not synonymous with classic French cinema in the same way a Jean Renoir or a Francois Truffaut is remembered, Sacha Guitry’s body of work is ready for reconsideration. Though...
View ArticleRacer and the Jailbird
Even when Michaël R. Roskam made his English language debut, The Drop, with powerhouse star Tom Hardy, his secret weapon was still frequent collaborator Matthias Schoenaerts, one of the most underrated...
View ArticleFrom the Vaults of Streaming Hell: Night of the Living Deb
Occasionally, the cosmos will bless the traversers of streaming hell with the perfect movie. A title will scream for attention, rising above the endless thumbnail images like a lost soul wailing for...
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