ArteKino Festival 2018 Review: Gábor Reisz’s ‘For Some Inexplicable Reason’
“‘For Some Inexplicable Reason’ strains for authenticity but only registers as a compendium of conventions familiar to the tired subgenre of the post-collegiate dramedy.”
James Slaymaker
Leaning on the Everlasting Arms: On Transcendental Style and Paul Schrader’s ‘First Reformed’
“The power of ‘First Reformed’ is rooted in Schrader’s ability to take a number of clear forbearers — Bresson, Dreyer, Pialat — and twist them into a style that feels wholly unique and rooted in a personal set of values and obsessions.”
Imitation of Life: The Films of Frank Mosley
“The short films of Frank Mosley are miracles of economy. Finely observed, conceptually audacious and formally assured, Mosley’s filmmaking reflects a remarkable maturity and ambition rarely exhibited in the contemporary landscape of low-budget American cinema.”
In the Presence of a Clown: On the Films of Rick Alverson
“Alverson takes familiar images, milieus and scenarios as a starting point, only to render them alien, jettisoning the usual tenets of narrative cinema in favour of a style that’s far more challenging and hard to define.”
An Interview with Independent Filmmaker Caveh Zahedi
“I like failure because it’s spiritualizing. We think we know what will make us happy, but we’re usually wrong. Failure forces us to rethink our salvational strategies.”
Secret Defense: A Close-Up on Arnaud Desplechin’s ‘Esther Kahn’
“Phoenix delivers an opaque but strikingly physical performance, reminiscent of the women in Charlie Chaplin’s films.”
The Woman and the Puppet: On Abel Ferrara’s ‘New Rose Hotel’
“Her power lies in her opaqueness.”
Where Does Your Hidden Smile Lie? – On Philippe Garrel’s ‘Frontier of the Dawn’
“This is a love story expressed through gaping structural absences.”
In the Shadow of Women: On the Farrelly Brothers’ ‘There’s Something About Mary’
“What begins as a seemingly lightweight romantic comedy gradually expands into a surprisingly sophisticated exploration of romantic obsession and self-delusion.”