Review: Coralie Fargeat’s ‘Revenge’
“‘Revenge’ is not quietly revolutionary. It makes its message quite clear. Loud, brash, neon-colored and shot like a music video, the flick is unabashedly cool.”
Tribeca Film Festival Review: Ioana Uricaru’s ‘Lemonade’
“‘Lemonade’ makes palpable the psychological experience of immigration and the constant, self-effacing guardedness it encourages.”
Tribeca Film Festival Review: Sebastián Lelio’s ‘Disobedience’
“Given the meticulousness Lelio affords to form in ‘Disobedience,’ there’s something a bit schematic about his characters.”
Seeing the Giallo Truth in Dario Argento’s ‘Four Flies on Grey Velvet’
“One of the great characteristics of ‘Four Flies on Grey Velvet’ and numerous other giallo films is their willingness to destabilize traditional notions of subjectivity.”
Vague Visages Is FilmStruck: ‘Twentieth Century’
“Screwball comedies don’t get much funnier, or screwier, than Howard Hawks’ ‘Twentieth Century.'”
Vague Visages Is FilmStruck: Henri-Georges Clouzot’s ‘The Wages of Fear’
“Just because ‘The Wages of Fear’ is dire and pessimistic, that doesn’t make it any less perceptive or accurate. Quite the contrary: the virulent truth only makes it that much more engrossing…”
Vague Visages Is FilmStruck: Michael Haneke’s ‘Benny’s Video’
“‘Benny’s Video’ implicates us, the audience, for watching. Haneke chides the spectators, removed from the action by a screen, for their inability — or perhaps their unwillingness — to stop the violence.”
Long Live the New Flesh: Bodies, Horrors and Desires in David Cronenberg’s ‘Crash’ and ‘Videodrome’
“In ‘Crash,’ sex feels like a traffic accident. In ‘Videodrome,’ it becomes the subject of a warped, projected fantasy.”
War and Domestic Violence in Fritz Lang’s ‘Human Desire’
“In ‘Human Desire,’ the train tracks carry its hero into the sunny paradise of the American Dream, not the depths of noir’s endless night.”
Of Elephants, Daughters and Rebels: Bobby Sarma Baruah’s ‘Sonar Baran Pakhi’
“In its thorough research and extensive reconstructing of the artist’s life, ‘Sonar Baran Pakhi’ is a document of celebration. Of the artist, the daughter, the mother. And the effortless rebel.”
The Haunted House Heartbeat in Dario Argento’s ‘Inferno’
“The real strength of ‘Inferno’ is the dominant sense of terror that Argento creates through his mastery of physical space (shaded by bright reds and blues, contrastive images of grandeur and decay in the production design)…”
Vague Visages Is FilmStruck: Ingmar Bergman’s ‘Summer with Monika’
“Undeniably the central focus of ‘Summer with Monika,’ Andersson’s overt sex appeal somewhat minimizes her remarkable range in the film, her seamlessly oscillating moods and subtle facial intimations.”
Action Hero Vulnerability and Shocking Comedy in John Frankenheimer’s ‘Dead Bang’
“The vomit moment in ‘Dead Bang’ is unfailingly human.”
The Power of Suggestion in Ben Young’s ‘Hounds Of Love’
“‘Hounds of Love’ makes an intriguing case for suggestion in place of an all-out, sensationalized show.”
‘It Comes at Night’ and the Trouble with Horror Movies That Don’t Fit Into a Genre-Specific Box
“The genius of ‘It Comes at Night’ is that its monsters are, for the most part, human.”
Review: Esteban Crespo’s ‘Amar’
“‘Amar’ is passionate without being pretentious.”
The Cold Light of Day: On Agnès Varda’s ‘Le Bonheur’
“Nothing in ‘Le Bonheur’ produces lasting unhappiness, and to approach it in a spirit of contemplation, rather than one of judgment, may allow the movie its most favorable terms of engagement.”
The Anti-Romance of Agnès Varda’s ‘La Pointe Courte’
“The married couple’s conversation in ‘La Pointe Courte’ is a spellbinding predecessor to Richard Linklater’s ‘Before Trilogy’ and further proof that no great film needs ‘action’ to be great.”
Vague Visages Is FilmStruck: Jacques Demy’s ‘Lola’
“Like his characters, Demy’s camera in ‘Lola’ moves everywhere but goes nowhere; it’s a paradoxically headlong hesitation.”
Not Your Trophy: Deer Imagery in Jordan Peele’s ‘Get Out’
“‘Get Out’ explores many notions: the duplicitous nature of liberal racism, the cumulative damage of microaggressions and appropriation, assimilation versus acculturation. But it’s the deer imagery that continue to elude audiences.”