Of Love and Other Demons: ‘Gilda’ (Charles Vidor, 1946)
“‘Gilda’ is one of the great examples of onscreen masochism.”
Of Love and Other Demons: ‘Blood for Dracula’ (Paul Morrissey, 1974)
“‘Blood for Dracula’ is confusing thematically, but I think that’s part of the point. As pulpy as it is, Morrissey’s film strongly confronts and challenges our ideas of purity and gender.”
SANFIC 11: Kill (f)or Love: Hou Hsiao-Hsien’s ‘The Assassin’
Jaime Grijalba on Santiago Festival Internacional de Cine
Of Love and Other Demons: Sam Peckinpah and Sex – ‘The Getaway’
“Of all Sam Peckinpah’s films, the violence in ‘The Getaway’ often strikes me as the most senseless.”
Of Love and Other Demons: Sam Peckinpah and Sex – ‘The Ballad of Cable Hogue’
“Cable Hogue ogles and desires Hildy because she appeals to him sexually: there are no shades of grey here, no self-reflection. In the world of Peckinpah, sex is often just sex.”
Of Love and Other Demons: ‘Black Orpheus’ (Marcel Camus, 1959)
“‘Black Orpheus’ embraces sex as multiplicitous. This somehow makes the love more noble, because it is not confused with lust, and sex becomes a celebration rather than a symbol of it.”
Film Beat: Cafe Scene from Jean-Luc Godard’s ‘Vivre sa vie’
“After my first viewing of ‘Vivre sa vie,’ I closed my laptop, went out and chopped my waist-length mane to a bob. Movies have always had that mysterious power of making me feel as if I have lived all the lives I see on-screen.”
The Theater of Fear: John Cassavetes’ ‘Opening Night’
“Throughout ‘Opening Night,’ reality and make-believe are interwoven into a mass of chaos.”
VOD Review: Lone Scherfig’s ‘The Riot Club’
“A somewhat uneven protest of English nobility and a denouncement of nepotic privilege, The Riot Club’s message is a redundant one: unchecked, inherited wealth leads to problems.”
Case for Criterion: William Friedkin’s ‘Bug’
“‘Bug’ closes in on you in a curiously suffocating way. It’s disorienting in the best way possible.”
Case for Criterion: Tomas Alfredson’s ‘Let the Right One In’
“The horror reads as a treatise against a dominant culture that upholds rather old-fashioned ideas of gender…”
Case for Criterion: Jamie Babbit’s ‘But I’m a Cheerleader’
“Babbit recognizes that the characters in question have a difficult choice to make: to subscribe to a dominant culture and survive or to ‘be themselves’ and ostensibly be shunned.”
Case for Criterion: Xavier Dolan’s ‘Heartbeats’
“Critics have labeled ‘Heartbeats’ as derivative and pretentious, flamboyant and bratty, but it’s exactly the kind of film where such criticism means that it’s doing its job.”
Case for Criterion: Marc Forster’s ‘Stranger Than Fiction’
“The complexities of ‘Stranger Than Fiction’ are worthy of their own analysis, but the film’s simplicities and stark honesty about emotion are its strengths.”
Chasing Chabrol: ‘La cérémonie’
“If you have an ounce of capitalist discomfort, ‘La cérémonie’ will surely begin to boil your blood, and that’s where things get interesting.”
Chasing Chabrol: ‘Les biches’
“‘Les biches’ remains one of the more elusive and symbolic films of Chabrol’s career, as the narrative adopts a dreamlike structure that often obscures reality and truth.”
Chasing Chabrol: ‘Les bonnes femmes’
“‘Les bonnes femmes’ pushes the boundaries of expectations, leaving the audience in a place of vulnerability.”
Chasing Chabrol: ‘Violette’
“Youth is central to ‘Violette,’ and Isabelle Huppert’s petite frame and almost childlike features lend the film a skewed point of view that is colored neither by experience or shame.”
Review: Riley Stearns’ ‘Faults’
“Surprisingly, director Stearns spends little time navigating the physical world of ‘Faults’; he takes a minimalist approach and produces a game of psychological chess.”
Review: Rafaël Ouellet’s ‘Gurov and Anna’
“‘Gurov and Anna’ toys with perceptions and ultimately gives into both cynicism and brutality. While not for the faint of heart, Ouellet’s film offers a pointed portrait of obsession and ego…”