“Christopher Nolan’s ‘Dark Knight’ trilogy has become THE Batman interpretation, heralded for its gritty realism. But in my book, ‘Batman’ is the better comicbook movie.”
“With the Acid Western, the genre had once again proven itself capable of assimilating new grievances and anxieties.”
“Tip-toeing on the smudged edges between fiction and documentary, ‘So Pretty’ is an experiment in means of representation and ultimately a tender ode to an unjustly forgotten author.”
“Poe’s direction creates a heightened but never unrealistic frame in which her characters can maneuver. Her singular, assured vision avoids stilted dialogue or absurd scenes.”
“The rom-com isn’t dead. It was simply evolving into something more interesting, more modern and more accepting.”
“‘Death Proof’ is too singularly grindhouse, but it works as a fun, trashy flick, and a cool female empowerment story.”
“Not everyone, and not even every Dylan fan, will go along with the tall tales, but amidst the japes are several of the most riveting live performances of Dylan’s career.”
“‘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.”
“Through sharp sound design and awkward moments of situational comedy, ‘Olla’ highlights the inner fire of a young woman; a charismatic vagabond. Like her frequent collaborator Yorgos Lanthimos, Labed uses tonally offbeat situations to hilariously explore perceptions of logical and illogical behavior.”
“There is seething, justified anger that underscores the plot of ‘Bhoga Khirikee’; an anger that could be used to create extremely radical female characters who pull the plot forward instead of becoming cardboard stand-ins for the filmmaker’s radical politics.”
“Looking back at a film like ‘Rocky IV,’ we can’t just say ‘wow, look how dumb we were back then’ because the simple truth is that we haven’t earned the right. We are still making the same mistakes, still falling for the same macho con.”
“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.”
“When everything aligns, ‘Share’ works brilliantly and feels like a true indie hit. Unfortunately, such moments are fleeting, and it ultimately feels like a glorified student film.”
“Through film, people can step outside the bounds of space and time to revisit the past, to see something old from a new vantage point.”
“Coppola’s recent work is not a ‘return to form,’ whatever that means, but rather part of an ongoing exploration of what the form can do, showing an artist increasingly interested in only trying things he hasn’t done before.”
“‘The Last Black Man in San Francisco’ soars, stretching gull wings as a poetic lament articulating longing and loss recognizable and accessible to all.”
“With his concern for the outsider, and his reorienting of the West’s perception in the American mind, Peckinpah helped to birth the Acid Western.”
“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.”
“Many ‘Starfish’ reviews pick up on the film’s unmistakable exploration of grief, but just as many neglect to mention the other half of White’s semi-autobiographical work and its reckoning with guilt and regret.”
“Brice and company get too tied up in the character comedy for ‘Corporate Animals’ to work as a satire, and the televisual filmmaking isn’t helped by a plotline that could have been a single episode of ‘The Office.'”