‘Arrival’ and the Perils of Science Fiction
“What is awkward about these ‘Arrival’ reviews is how they oppose the film’s best qualities to its generic roots.”
Vague Visages Is FilmStruck: Pedro Costa’s ‘In Vanda’s Room’
“Whatever its genus, ‘In Vanda’s Room’ is one harrowing motion picture… It is also one of the best films from the past 20 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 Samouraï’
“Jean-Pierre Melville’s ‘Le Samourai’ 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’ 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’
“While 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.”
Of Love and Other Demons: ‘The Woman in the Window’ (Fritz Lang, 1944)
“The 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.”
Of Love and Other Demons: ‘Someone’s Watching Me!’ (John Carpenter, 1978)
“Carpenter doesn’t frame the film as being about an outlier male abuser, but a culture that has little respect for a woman’s personal space.”
Krzysztof Kieślowski’s ‘Dekalog’: 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.”
Love and Death: The Romantic Sorrow of Fritz Lang’s ‘Destiny’
“‘Destiny’ arrives at its final satisfying destination as a poetic and deeply affecting film, an ethereal meditation from a now legendary filmmaker…”
Of Love and Other Demons: ‘American Gigolo’ (Paul Schrader, 1980)
“‘American Gigolo’ doesn’t necessarily work as a neo-noir, but it still has enough romance and intrigue to be well worth watching.”
The Style, Sins and Sympathies of Robert Bresson’s ‘Au hasard Balthazar’
“Much of Au hasard Balthazar’s transcendental value derives from its explicit openness to theological interpretation, particularly given Bresson’s oft-commented upon Catholicism and some of the film’s more overt symbolism.”
‘Modern Times’: Charlie Chaplin Finds Freedom in the Age of Industry
“‘Modern Times’ is emblematic of a ‘Hollywood realism,’ with a rather immaculate industrial setting, strategically tattered clothing and deliberately designed destitution.”
Studio Ghibli Forever: An Initiation – ‘Princess Mononoke’
“‘Princess Mononoke’ explores the gaping chasm between nature’s gentle acceptance of circumstance and humanity’s steadfast refusal to quietly accept death.”
Piecing Together the Fragments of Jean-Luc Godard’s ‘A Married Woman’
“With ‘A Married Woman,’ Godard appears fully devoted to topical bullet points through an essayistic structure, forgoing conventional narrative, character development or expedient pacing.”
Studio Ghibli Forever: An Initiation – ‘Kiki’s Delivery Service’
“‘Kiki’s Delivery Service’ captures the imaginations of young viewers while imploring the older among them to let common sense go in order to enjoy the pop music and irrefutable heart.”
The Feminine Grotesque #10: Genre Is a Woman and She Has Fangs – On ‘A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night’
“After viewing ‘A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night’ for the first time, I wondered, ‘Doesn’t a woman have to be at least a little bit monstrous to survive?'”