TIFF Review: Cristian Mungiu’s ‘R.M.N.’
“The bleak and restless nature of ‘R.M.N.’ is manifest in Tudor Vladimir Panduru’s cinematography.”
Soham Gadre
TIFF Review: Darren Aronofsky’s ‘The Whale’
“Fraser keeps Charlie’s fully formed humanity at the forefront of ‘The Whale,’ despite various filmmaking decisions that could flatten his character into a saccharine pity case.”
‘Once Upon a Time in Calcutta’: A Melancholy Tribute to a Disappearing City
“‘Once Upon a Time in Calcutta’ speaks to West Bengal’s eroding cultural and artistic history in the face of modernization, due to greed and a capitalist attitude of advancement at all costs.”
Berlin Critics’ Week: Tripping Through Cities and Centuries in ‘Detours’ and ‘Nosferasta: First Bite’
“The same way our minds shift under the influence of drugs, so too do they shift under the influence of new information, new truths. The higher the walls, the taller the ladders people will build to overcome them.”
Berlin Critics’ Week: Replacing the Beauty of an Image with the Clarity of a Message
Berlin Critics’ Week: Soham Gadre on the Losing Transmissions Program (‘Notes for a Déjà Vu’, ‘The Dream and the Radio’)
TIFF Review: Lucile Hadzihalilovic’s ‘Earwig’
“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.”
You Must Be THIS OLD to Ride in George A. Romero’s ‘The Amusement Park’
“Romero’s movies have a workshop feel to them, which elevates the horror to a startlingly realistic terror as if it was being documented live.”
SXSW Review: Alex Noyer’s ‘Sound of Violence’ – A Loud but Toothless Slasher
“Sound of Violence’s nonchalant depictions of violence, which occur with such obfuscation due to uncoordinated quick-cut editing and color filters, render it a fangless drama with un-engaging sequences of killing and torture.”
SXSW Review: Jaco Bouwer’s ‘Gaia’ Sacrifices Its Timely Idea for Cheap Thrills
“There are many ways that Gaia’s concepts can be expounded into more interesting discussions, yet Bouwer is fine with maintaining a simplistic if metaphorically informed tale about Mother Nature’s revenge.”
Ben Wheatley’s ‘Rebecca’: There’s Nothing Behind the Wallpaper
“‘Rebecca’ feels sanded out, erased of all imperfection, identity and mystery.”
‘Santa Sangre’: A Graveyard for Alejandro Jodorowsky’s Memories
“Santa Sangre’s themes of empathy and hope are uniquely personal for Jodorowsky, and they help bring the film’s horrors and bloodshed into perspective…”
Dreams and Horrors in Bohemia: ‘Marketa Lazarová’ and ‘Valerie and Her Week of Wonders’
“As much as I love a good story, the best movies always transport me, in an intangible sense, through the base elements.”
Review: Josh Trank’s ‘Capone’
“Hardy provides something alien, both amusing and disgusting, a unique cross between Jack Nicholson’s Jack Torrance in ‘The Shining’ and Vincent D’Onofrio’s Bug in ‘Men in Black.'”
Review: Steve Elkins’ ‘Echoes of the Invisible’
“‘Echoes of the Invisible’ is both calming and exhilarating in equal measure.”
‘Finding Yingying’: A Search for Answers to an Unanswerable Situation
“‘Finding Yingying’ doesn’t try to offer answers that it can’t manifest in reality, and instead allows the legacy of its subject to lead the way, through intimate diary entries, by pondering the important questions of who we want to be, for each other and for our communities.”
Why Criticism: You Can’t Take the “Film” Out of Film Criticism
“Over time, a film critic should be able to engage with cinema in an all-encompassing manner, acknowledging the interior and exterior forces of what makes a movie…”
Genre at Terminal Velocity: The Films of Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani
“What allows Cattet and Forzani’s films to flourish is that they modify cinematic influences to accommodate today’s instant gratification culture.”
Sergio Caballero’s ‘Je te tiens’: The Many Machinations of a Movie
“‘Je te tiens’ connotes a representation of the conversation that exists between the inner contextual world of a film and the overarching art of filmmaking itself.”
India’s 25-Year Absence from Cannes’ Official Selection and the Eurocentrism of Film Culture
“Imagine the largest film-producing nation in the world. Now imagine that nation, with more than one 100 years of film history and a global audience in the billions, being conspicuously absent from the single most prestigious and prominent film festival in the world.”
The Mozart of Madras: Why A.R. Rahman’s Music Took So Long to Reach the West
“His songs and compositions are featured in commercials, sampled in TV shows, used at sporting events and play as ringtones on people’s cellphones. There isn’t a place in India where Rahman’s music hasn’t reached.”