“Ducournau’s approach to cinematic lineage and influence in ‘Titane’ is a complicated one, as she develops her singular filmmaking style into something even more evasive and intricate than in ‘Raw.'”
“‘After Blue’ isn’t completely impenetrable, and it is lovely to look at, but if there’s a strong feminist statement being made — underneath the flagrant nudity and sexual escapades — it’s buried pretty deep.”
“LCD Soundsystem’s enduring legacy has always perhaps been inevitable, not least because of the way that they make music ABOUT legacy, thematically and lyrically.”
“Occupying a middle space between the classicism of Japan’s most well-known filmmakers and the politically charged avant-garde of the New Wave, Suzuki uses the trappings of noir to explore the ramifications of isolation.”
“The magic of Hadzihalilovic’s ‘Earwig’ comes in the form of its suggestion that viewers abandon their expectations and preconceptions about what cinema should be and what a story can be.”
“Skolimowski imbues his films with his signature iconographic sense of obscurity and mystique; both ‘Deep End’ and ‘The Shout’ grapple with the tensions brought about by characters suddenly entering (and quickly coming to terms with) new environments.”
“The main shock of ‘Karma & Desire’ is the acoustic pianos, bathed in reverb, and how they fit so easily with Actress’ tripping-in-slow-motion rhythms…”
“The most remarkable feature of ‘Tokyo Vampire Hotel’ is its timeliness. Though the series was released in 2017, it takes place in 2021, and something about it feels distinctly ‘2020s,’ distinctly of the cinema to come, if not distinctly of 2020 and the present moment.”
“Given that documentaries are being pushed into hybrid spaces, and that many modern animators are covering morbid subject matter, these 12 short films give an example of contemporary moving image work pushing at cinema’s comfort zones.”
“Krzysztof Komeda made sure that the films he scored would be unlikely to exist, with any real significance, without his response to the images he was provided.”
“Abstract and disjointed, the narrative of ‘Mysterious Object at Noon’ is progressively piecemeal, and what occurs in ‘Limite’ is even more inconclusive.”
“‘Yi Yi’ is a film for grown ups in the sense that the characters have lived long enough to understand how memories of people can stay with them over the course of their lives. Keeping your distance from people is not the same as giving up on them.”
“Today, what survives is a film of exquisite poise, of fleshly tenderness against concrete cruelty, an evocative warmth against the coldness of Joan’s formidable suffering.”
“As much as DAU requires certain knowledge of XX-century history and arts, its key element is the subjective, the emotional, even the intrusion. And this can be the game changer the future needs.”