Review: Esteban Crespoโs โAmarโ
“‘Amar’ is passionate without being pretentious.”
The Cold Light of Day: On Agnรจs 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 Agnรจs Varda’s ‘La Pointe Courte’
“The married coupleโs conversation in ‘La Pointe Courte’ย is a spellbinding predecessor to Richard Linklater’s ‘Beforeย Trilogy’ and further proof that no great film needs ‘action’ to be great.”
Vague Visages Is FilmStruck: Jacques Demy’s ‘Lola’
“Like his characters, Demyโs camera in ‘Lola’ moves everywhere but goes nowhere; itโs 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 itโs the deer imagery that continue to elude audiences.”
Vague Visages Is FilmStruck: Mikhail Kalatozov’s ‘I Am Cuba’
“‘I Am Cuba’ is more than a picturesque travelogue. It is a pulsating ethnographic profile, an excavation of sorts, uncovering and unleashing its discoveries with a sweeping scope.”
A Womanโs Touch: The Trinity of the Body in ‘American Mary’
“With ‘American Mary,’ the Soska sisters tell a storyย that deserves a place alongside the likes of ‘I Spit on Your Grave’ and ‘Hostel’ in its bold but nuanced steps that push forward theย genre entire.”
Casting a Spell for Peace: On ‘Arrival,’ Max Richter and Our Unending Need for Violence
“It’s in Louise’s absolute refusal to allow our barbaric side to win that ‘Arrival’ shows its moral core.”
‘Arrival’ and the Perils of Science Fiction
“What is awkward about these ‘Arrival’ reviews is how they oppose the filmโs best qualities to its generic roots.”
Vague Visages Is FilmStruck: Pedro Costaโs ‘In Vanda’s Roomโ
“Whatever its genus, ‘In Vandaโs Room’ is one harrowing motion picture… It is also one of the best films from the past 20ย years.”
Of Love and Other Demons: ‘Baby Doll’ Celebrates Its 60th Anniversary
A Column on Love and Erotica in Cinema by Justine A. Smith
Vague Visages Is FilmStruck: Stanley Kubrick’s ‘Fear and Desire’
“‘Fear and Desire’ is more than just a curio for the Kubrick completist. It is indeed a genuinely revealing work.”
Vague Visages Is FilmStruck: Jean-Pierre Melville’s ‘Le Samouraรฏ’
“Jean-Pierre Melvilleโs ‘Le Samourai’ย is the definition of cinematic precision. Each shot, each cut, each movement is a slice of redolent, provocative and sometimes even banal accuracy.”
Los Cabos IFF Review: Kenneth Lonergan’s ‘Manchester by the Sea’
“‘Manchester by the Sea’ย will make your dad cry by showing him how he deals with emotions and the instructional framework through which he learned how to deal with emotions.”
Of Love and Other Demons: ‘House by the River’
โWhile Lang never fully embraced socialist principles over the course of his career, he always seemed to have a violent distaste for the men who stood on the shoulders of those who were less fortunate, knowing full well that social class does not correlate a strong moral conscious.โ
Of Love and Other Demons: ‘The Woman in the Window’ (Fritz Lang, 1944)
โThe film has an unusually conservative vibe for a noir, maintaining that the status quo may be boring but criminality has nothing to offer — not even carnal thrills.โ
Of Love and Other Demons: ‘Someone’s Watching Me!’ (John Carpenter, 1978)
โCarpenter doesnโt frame the film as being about an outlier male abuser, but a culture that has little respect for a womanโs personal space.โ
Krzysztof Kieลlowskiโs โDekalogโ: Putting Faith in the Everyday
“Identity, like meaning in ‘Dekalog,’ is delivered piecemeal. Do immediate deeds define a person, or are these characters more than what they do in any given episode?”
Of Love and Other Demons: ‘Prince of Darkness’ (John Carpenter, 1987)
“At the heart of ‘Prince of Darkness,’ the failures of religion and science reflect the limits of the human mind to grasp the immensity of the universe and our menial position within it.”
Of Love and Other Demons: ‘In the Mouth of Madness’ (John Carpenter, 1994)
“In John Carpenter’s ‘In the Mouth of Madness,’ the delicate reality in which we live exists only as far we as believe it.”