‘Indignation’ Has a Palpable Humanity to Its Fury
“Where Indignation deviates a little from its otherwise classical trappings is in its structure.”
Josh Slater-Williams
Josh Slater-Williams (@jslaterwilliams) is a freelance writer based in England. Alongside writing for Vague Visages, he is a regular contributor to independent British magazine The Skinny and has written for Little White Lies magazine, VODzilla.co, The Film Stage, and PopOptiq.
‘Adult Life Skills’ Boasts a Commanding Performance from Jodie Whittaker
“Two personified thumbs up.”
EIFF 2016: Agnieszka Smoczynska’s ‘The Lure’
“It may sound like an odd compliment to praise a film for coming across like an ambien trip.”
EIFF 2016 Review: Zach Clark’s ‘Little Sister’
“‘Little Sister’ has a uniformly strong cast, but Addison Timlin gives one of those star-making turns that, if the universe is at all just, will be but the first prominent stepping stone for an extraordinary career.”
EIFF 2016 Review: Christy Garland’s ‘Cheer Up’
“Garland’s structure with the film’s construction is part observational documentary, part techniques used more with fiction features.”
Todd Solondz Offers Surprising Homages to French Filmmakers in ‘Wiener-Dog’
“It can’t help but seem like there was one film about a dog bringing people together in light of troubled times, if only briefly, but then it was decided that there would also be a film about a dog being a prop for stories that his detractors would label as ‘autopilot Solondz.'”
‘Candyman’ or (How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Say Farewell to the Flesh)
“As an adult viewer with a wider range of experiences and reference points than my pubescent self (this is what I tell myself anyway), what engages me most about ‘Candyman’ now is the themes on the fringes of the urban legend focus.”
Vague Visages on Agnès Varda’s 88th: ‘Le Bonheur’
“Happiness for someone, then, is only achievable at the expense of someone else’s full experience?”
‘The Nice Guys’ Doesn’t Finish Last But Occasionally Stumbles
“Considering so many buddy cop movies of late treat their stories as afterthoughts, kudos to Black for actually delving into a compelling mystery with The Nice Guys… “
Review: Susanna White’s ‘Our Kind of Traitor’
“A solidly constructed sophomore feature from director Susanna White, ‘Our Kind of Traitor’ is a tight thriller that, while rarely excelling to any sort of transcendent heights, never really steps a foot wrong.”
Is Michael Mann’s Horror ‘The Keep’ a Hidden Gem? Well…
“Really, the main worth of The Keep is as a curiosity; to see a significantly different career path that Mann could have taken had this film had any sort of positive impact on pop culture.”
IndieLisboa 2016 Review: José Barahona’s ‘I Was in Lisbon and Remembered You’
“Sometimes the most difficult kind of review to write is one for a film that’s full of good intentions; a film that’s never outright hateful or anything like that, but lacking or floundering when it comes to certain decisions at a script or direction level.”
Kinoteka Polish Film Festival: Rediscovering ‘The Secret Garden’
Josh Slater-Williams on the Nostalgic Element of Agnieszka Holland’s 1993 Film
Kinoteka Polish Film Festival: Jerzy Skolimowski’s ‘Barrier’ and the Sneaky Cameo
Josh Slater-Williams on Polish Director Jerzy Skolimowski
‘The Huntsman: Winter’s War’ Turns Snow White Into Keyser Söze
“Considering how little ‘Winter’s War’ really has to do with its predecessor and subject, they might as well just make her the lead for a third film.”
‘The Young One’ Sees Luis Buñuel Tackle the American South
“With The Young One, Buñuel rejects the surrealism that would define his early films and almost all the European work that followed, presenting a rather straightforward narrative with superficial similarities to a Tennessee Williams screenplay.”
Jacques Tardi Adaptation ‘April and the Extraordinary World’ Offers a Thrilling Alternate History
“The extraordinary world of April and the Extraordinary World is no simple one, and it’s welcome that its worldview veers away from the simplistic.”
With ‘The Mermaid’, Stephen Chow Fully Utilizes the Camera as Comedic Tool
“Stephen Chow’s invigorating, irreverent, slapstick, but occasionally serious, comedy The Mermaid is an odd beast to pin down.”
Glasgow Film Festival Review: Joachim Trier’s ‘Louder Than Bombs’
“Louder Than Bombs may be the first foray into (fully) English-language features for Norwegian director Joachim Trier and his regular screenwriting partner Eskil Vogt, but it absolutely feels like a logical progression of their impressive prior collaboration, the sombre Oslo, August 31st.”
Glasgow Film Festival Review: John Carney’s ‘Sing Street’
“As the saying goes, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”