First Reformed
Throughout the many ups and downs of his storied career as a screenwriter and director, Paul Schrader has returned, on occasion, to a simple paradigm in his work. His “man in his room” series of films...
View ArticleOeuvre: Campion: Holy Smoke!
The Piano depicted a woman embracing herself, shortcomings and all, and refusing to live by the dictates of her husband. Jane Campion’s follow-up Holy Smoke!, co-written with her sister, Anna, tells...
View ArticleHow to Talk to Girls at Parties
Short stories tend to make better source material for motion picture adaptation than novels simply because their general breadth is closer to the form of cinema than lengthier material. But on...
View ArticleSolo
A long time ago, in the summer of 1977 to be exact, Han Solo proudly claimed he and his spaceship, the Millennium Falcon, “made the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs.” This nonsensical turn of phrase,...
View ArticleMary Shelley
If you took ninth-grade English, then you probably only know Mary Shelley as the author of Frankenstein. But to the more curious, she is a landmark female author whose novel was considered quite taboo...
View ArticleRevisit: Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer
Upon its debut in 1986, John McNaughton’s low-budget exploitation slasher Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer seemed unlikely to ever be considered a “classic” film, and yet more than 30 years after the...
View ArticleIn Darkness
Like Brit Marling a few years ago, it seems that Natalie Dormer has decided the only way she will ever get to play an interesting, empowered female lead is to write one for herself. The “Game of...
View ArticleFrom the Vaults of Streaming Hell: Koi…Mil Gaya
Few films will leave you as borderline offended, flabbergasted, entertained and touched as Koi…Mil Gaya, a Bollywood musical adapted from the same original material as E.T. the Extraterrestrial. You...
View ArticleThe Gospel According to Andre
Though he’s best known to general audiences for his role as a judge on several seasons of TV’s “America’s Next Top Model,” Andre Leon Talley’s reputation among others in the fashion and entertainment...
View ArticleOeuvre: Campion: In the Cut
A good thriller unveils itself like a magic act, often preposterously but with an exhilarating conclusion that was well worth the wait. In the Cut is not a good thriller. It doesn’t want to be. The...
View ArticleAdrift
Tales of adventure on the high seas are one of film’s most enduring subgenres, with such varied highlights as Hitchcock’s 1944 thriller Lifeboat, Spielberg’s 1975 blockbuster Jaws, Zemeckis’ 2000...
View ArticleUpgrade
Leigh Whannell’s sophomore film as a director, Upgrade, is an impressive little genre exercise, a rousing mix of cyberpunk, gruesome body horror and ’70s exploitation. Whannell is perhaps best known...
View ArticleAmerican Animals
Audiences are becoming disillusioned with the truth. Whether it’s due to the constant influx of media or the fact that most features take “artistic liberties” with history, there’s a belief that most...
View ArticleRodin
Director Jacques Doillon’s biopic of sculptor Auguste Rodin is filmed in the cold grays and whites of molding clay and sculpting marble. Its bleached palette attests to the myopic focus of the artists...
View ArticleRevisit: Cat People
I originally saw the 1942 thriller Cat People in a college class and instantly fell in love. I loved the subtle horror elements that director Jacques Tourneur came up with, particularly the famous...
View ArticleAll Summers End
“As we get older, we all come to a fork in the road.” So goes the narration at a climactic moment in All Summers End, a warmly photographed, inconsistently acted and terribly maudlin coming-of-age...
View ArticleBreath
The steady stream of “Stranger Things”-inspired nostalgia-tinged childhood dramas seems to be accelerating rather than receding. Breath is the newest addition to the cavalcade of such screen cultural...
View ArticleOeuvre: Campion: Bright Star
In 2009’s Bright Star, the most recent theatrical effort from Jane Campion, there exists a pervasive kind of sweetness that is as nourishing to the soul as it is refreshing to the senses. More than any...
View ArticleHereditary
Steeped in profound horrors associated with grief, guilt, familial resentment and mental illness, Hereditary tethers itself to real-world trauma before lifting off into the supernatural....
View ArticleOcean’s 8
The beauty of Ocean’s 8 lies less in director Gary Ross’ unspectacular execution than in the sturdy foundation of its near-perfect premise. On paper, an all-female Ocean’s 11 spin-off featuring an...
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