Review: Nicolas Winding Refn’s ‘Too Old to Die Young’
“‘Too Old to Die Young’ is rough around the edges, and perhaps deliberately so. It’s almost as if the writers are two brothers in a car fighting between soft rock and techno on the radio.”
The Voluptuous and Telling Pleasures of Obscure Gialli
Julia Bozzone on Quad Cinema’s Fresh Meat: Giallo Restorations, Part Two
Hate and War: Michael Cimino’s ‘Year of the Dragon’
“‘Year of the Dragon’ offers little comfort, and when it does, Cimino heavily suggests its victories are hollow and insincere. It is a dark-mirror exercise in genre fragmentation that shatters the vigilante cop thriller into thousands of pieces and lays its ugliest instincts frighteningly bare.”
A Long Time Ago, in Northern California: When David Lynch Met George Lucas
“Both Lucas and Lynch’s world views allow for the possibility of personal atonement, and for external peace emerging from inner peace.”
12 Angry Films: Sidney Lumet on Justice #1 – ’12 Angry Men’
“Spaces are key to Lumet’s vision of the justice system; the ideas that bind it together must play out in physical spaces, and in them, Lumet finds the embodiment of all its flaws and virtues.”
VOD Review: Jason B. Kohl’s ‘New Money’
“The questions ‘New Money’ poses are numerous and mostly left unanswered. The film is scattershot at times and tonally inconsistent throughout, flirting with elements of a crime thriller and a goofy comedy.”
Sundance London Review: Daniel Scheinert’s ‘The Death of Dick Long’
“At least, ‘The Death of Dick Long’ is a homecoming for the Alabamian Scheinert that uses his warped view of the place to create a glowing nostalgia and a strong vision for American Indie cinema.”
Shattering Orientalism Through Noir: Samuel Fuller’s ‘House of Bamboo’
“The gritty and hard-nosed film noir genre is rife with actors and directors that helped to not only change conversations about American cinema, but also the nation’s consciousness.”
Once Upon a Time in Tarantinoland: ‘Kill Bill’ Is a Visually Explosive Love Letter to Cinema
“All in all, ‘the 4th film by Quentin Tarantino’ is a wild, eclectic action movie with visual flair, great performances and personality up the wazoo.”
Review: Chad Stahelski’s ‘John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum’
“As a whole, ‘John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum’ is a fun romp and continues the Greek/pulp mythology set up in ‘John Wick: Chapter 2.’ In future installments, Stahelski might want to tone down the campiness, otherwise the series will lunge into self-parody.”
Indulgent Food and Ephemeral Connections in ‘Chungking Express’
“Food, particularly junk food, plays a large role in ‘Chungking Express’ by signifying the type of sweet but ultimately fleeting connections (and self-doubt) that occur so frequently for the characters in the bustling Chungking Mansions.”
Once Upon a Time in Tarantinoland: ‘Jackie Brown’ Is a Subtle Outlier in Quentin Tarantino’s Oeuvre
“While ‘Jackie Brown’ does revel in nostalgia and feature its fair share of firearms, it’s a much more subdued, nuanced and mature film than any of Tarantino’s previous works, or any other production within his entire filmography.’
Stefon Bristol Makes Bright Debut with ‘See You Yesterday’
“One of the greatest pleasures of ‘See You Yesterday’ is that the challenges and complexities of the jumps get better as the story unfolds.”
Tribeca Film Festival Review: Mary Harron’s ‘Charlie Says’
“If ‘Charlie Says’ marks the official kickoff of Manson-50-years-later discourse, we’re lucky that it prioritizes the insidiousness of his ideology.”
Once Upon a Time in Tarantinoland: ‘Pulp Fiction’ Is a Rule-Breaking, Pop Culture-Obsessed Good Time
“As a whole, ‘Pulp Fiction’ hinges on the audience’s awareness of tropes, and it offers something new by subverting expectations.”
Tribeca Film Festival Review: Christoph Waltz’s ‘Georgetown’
“‘Georgetown’ is far from an egregious festival bomb, but Waltz’s directorial craftsmanship lacks the flair of his performance work.”
A Romanticized Tale of Time: Jia Zhangke’s ‘Ash Is Purest White’
“‘Ash Is Purest White,’ Zhangke’s latest film, is another masterful chapter of the director’s artistic journey, one that works wonderfully as a point of entry into his oeuvre.”
In an Excellent Debut, Writer-Director Nia DaCosta Explores ‘Little Woods’
“Sexism and toxic masculinity are not unusual in this genre, but DaCosta’s emphasis on sisterhood and the presentation of a female point of view turn ‘Little Woods’ into a fresh, must-see cinematic experience.”
Man on Fire: ‘White Heat’ and the Dynamic James Cagney
“Cagney’s sadistic lead in ‘White Heat,’ a searing 1949 crime drama from director Raoul Walsh, is something well past the norms of a conventional male protagonist — or antagonist, for that matter.”
On ‘The House That Jack Built,’ Art Monsters and Not-So-Guilty Pleasures
“Perhaps dismissing von Trier’s work is the right course of action for those that have never found anything to connect to in his films. As for the rest of us (women)… the relationship will only continue to take warped, strained forms.”