Review: Bong Joon-ho’s ‘Parasite’ (Black and White Edition)
“The black and white edition of ‘Parasite’ is a gift, and the real beacon shining brightly in the dark.”
Exploring Gender in Masaaki Yuasa’s ‘The Night Is Short, Walk on Girl’
“‘The Night Is Short, Walk on Girl’ feels like an inadvertent political statement, a continuation of the status quo in the romantic comedy genre. Still, there is something there.”
Understanding Nobuhiko Ōbayashi: From ‘House’ to ‘Hanagatami’
“No director has been able to replicate Nobuhiko Ōbayashi’s iridescent, hallucinatory and infectious passion for film.”
‘But I’m a Cheerleader’: Celebrating 20 Years of Style and Sincerity
“In cinema, it’s tough to depict sincerity without it coming across as contrived or sickly-sweet, but it’s a feeling that myself and many others yearn for, especially when it comes together as beautifully as it does in ‘But I’m a Cheerleader.'”
Review: Shannon Murphy’s ‘Babyteeth’
“Much of Babyteeth’s vitality can be located in the way each of the central characters is so fully realized.”
From ‘Sex’ to ‘Girls’ to ‘Insecure’: HBO’s Feminist and Intersectional Chronicle
“HBO has come a long way in representing the intersectionality of race and gender.”
A Stone-Dumb Genius: On Charles Grodin’s Performance in ‘The Heartbreak Kid’
“Under May’s stare in ‘The Heartbreak Kid,’ and through the provocations of scene partners, Grodin creates a character of rare stature: a horrifying, stone-dumb genius.”
12 Angry Films: Sidney Lumet on Justice #12 – ‘Find Me Guilty’
“The accumulated effect of ‘Find Me Guilty,’ with its litany of absurdities, is that it is better to deliver the accused from continued subjugation than to maintain faith in a system that has lost all claim to its moral authority.”
Review: The Shakespeare Sisters’ ‘Soundtrack to Sixteen’
“The Shakespeare Sisters boldly attempt to capture a young romance, but the film occasionally loses momentum with its loose script and clunky editing.”
Why Criticism: Nichols / Soderbergh
“In their conversations, Soderbergh and Nichols work together to dismantle the artificial dividing line between art and criticism, neatly moving between the two…”
Emir Kusturica’s ‘Underground’: 25 Years Later
“‘Underground’ remains a controversial and wildly ambitious film, one that refuses to be pinned down. It’s a never-ending hall of mirrors that reveals more about the audience than the narrative itself.”
Uneasy Recognition: On Hong Sang-soo’s ‘Yourself and Yours’
“‘Yourself and Yours’ is a great summer movie, where the over-lit qualities reflect a state of mind more than an exact reality.”
Not the End: Celebrating the Directing Career of John Cassavetes
“Cassavetes’ films form a mosaic of artistic fortitude, glued together with thought.”
Review: Grímur Hákonarson’s ‘The County’
“Filled with powerful female-led moments, laid on the backdrop of the Icelandic countryside, Hákonarson’s crowd-pleasing humanist creation strengthens Iceland’s reputation within the international film circuit.”
Alike in Their Way: (Un)happy Families in ‘Teorema’ and ‘Visitor Q’
“While ‘Teorema’ and ‘Visitor Q’ share a common DNA, what’s most striking is the way each film uses The Stranger. Both figures bring with them a kind of new order, as if they were missing puzzle pieces for the families that they integrate themselves into.”
Review: Lorcan Finnegan’s ‘Vivarium’
“Taken purely at its basest form, ‘Vivarium’ is a terrifying isolation horror movie that goes for the jugular.”
Review: Kirill Sokolov’s ‘Why Don’t You Just Die!’
“Revolving around an encounter in a single Russian apartment, Kirill Sokolov’s ‘Why Don’t You Just Die?’ is an electrifyingly-kinetic black comedy with densely-packed homages to international action cinema and a satirical commentary about Russian society.”
‘Death Race 2000’: Camp Then and Now
“Perhaps the exaggerated disregard for human life in the name of national pride, entertainment and prosperity in ‘Death Race 2000’ is a timely trigger for reassessing priorities as we await a return to normalcy.”
Joy in the City: On Jacques Tati’s ‘PlayTime’
“It’s not difficult to see how PlayTime’s jubilant finale — with its invocation to fashion the city to its occupants’ sense of fun, desires and needs — is perhaps Tati’s most profound statement of his participatory cinema.”
Money Is the Game: The Strange Journey of ‘The Magic Christian’
“‘The Magic Christian’ cries out to be re-visited. For all the cultural specificity of the novel and film, Grand remains a strikingly modern figure.”