New Italy, Old Attitudes: Michelangelo Antonioni’s ‘Il Grido’
“‘Il Grido’ is about a man’s utter inability to comprehend the modern world and adapt to it. The end result is a hopeless, pitiful film, and that’s meant as a compliment.”
Fedor Tot
Review: Clint Eastwood’s ‘Juror #2’
“‘Juror #2’ is one of the finer cinematic works of 2024.”
Crime Scene #20: ‘Tiger Bay’ and the Adolescent Capital
“Tiger Bay as a state of mind may be long gone, but ‘Tiger Bay’ the film remains a document of a place long turned to rubble. And what vital documents.”
Crime Scene #19: ‘Only the River Flows’ – A Detective Goes Around the Bend
‘Like many great crime films, ‘Only the River Flows’ makes full use of its setting, delivering a grimy and ugly story that suits its grimy and ugly central location.”
Crime Scene #18: ‘Victims of Sin’ – Nightclubbing with Ninón Sevilla
“‘Victims of Sin’ certainly is a product of its time and place in regard to its prescriptivism, but Fernández’s movie far surpasses its simpler elements because of its rather glorious and noirish textures.”
Crime Scene #17: ‘Lone Star’ – Porous Borders at the Edge of America
“The genius of Sayles’ ‘Lone Star’ is that the film envelops its difficult, knotty questions about history, identity and geography without any didacticism.”
Crime Scene #16: ‘Salvatore Giuliano’ – Sicily, Power and Geography
“Many of the best crime films make a virtue of the specificity of their location. Few, however, are as specific as ‘Salvatore Giuliano,’ nor are they as cognizant of how the central locations effect the story.”
Crime Scene #15: ‘Strangler vs. Strangler’ – Belgrade Is Not a Serious City
“‘Strangler vs. Strangler’ is somewhere between the avant-garde and the absurd: a perfect description of Belgrade itself.”
Crime Scene #14: ‘Five Deadly Venoms’ and Kung Fu Criminality
“The spatial detail in ‘Five Deadly Venoms,’ aided by Chang’s sharp sense of timing, helped the film become a surprisingly labyrinthine vision of camaraderie in the face of corruption and power.”
Crime Scene #13: ‘Memories of Murder’ and Rainy Remembrances
“It’s a sense of Korean specificity that defines ‘Memories of Murder,’ which is still the best of Bong’s films.”
Berlin International Film Festival Review: Meryam Joobeur’s ‘Who Do I Belong To’
“‘Who Do I Belong To’ is social realist cinema at its stodgiest and most self-serious.”
Berlin International Film Festival Reviews: ‘Betânia’ and ‘Dormir De Olhos Abertos’
“On their own, ‘Betânia’ and ‘Dormir De Olhos Abertos’ represent excellent achievements — but taken together, the two productions provide an excellent account of gentrification and globalization in the northeast of Brazil.”
Berlin International Film Festival Review: Roman Bondarchuk’s ‘The Editorial Office’
“I hope the future of Ukrainian cinema looks like ‘The Editorial Office.'”
Crime Scene #12: ‘Amores Perros’ and Gringo Cinema
“‘Amores Perros’ is almost entirely disinterested in its central location. It feels like a film made not to speak truth to Mexican audiences, but to present a hyperreal version of Mexico for international audiences.”
Crime Scene #11: ‘Case of the Naves Brothers’ and a Sertão Mentality
“‘Case of the Naves Brothers’ is hardly in the annals of great Brazilian cinema, like the works of Rocha, but it absolutely deserves to be seen in the same breath.”
Crime Scene #10: ‘Key Largo’ and a Hurricane of Justice
“John Huston’s 1948 film ‘Key Largo’ is yet another classical Hollywood studio system film in which barely a single frame was shot on location.”
Review: William Oldroyd’s ‘Eileen’
“A film drastically less than the sum of its parts, ‘Eileen’ commits the unfortunate blunder of continually reminding one of similar, better movies.”
Review: Ridley Scott’s ‘Napoleon’
“‘Napoleon’ is very much a repudiation and a revolt against history’s ‘Great Men.'”
Crime Scene #9: ‘Red Rooms’ and the Iciness of Social Isolation
“‘Red Rooms’ provides a perfect recipe for isolation and alienation, encouraged by a media world around us that seeks only to capture attention and never thoughts.”
London Film Festival Review: Angela Schanelec’s ‘Music’
“The rhythms in ‘Music’ — the shift from one image to the next — make sense in ways that defy obvious explanation, much like the film itself.”