“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“‘Les bonnes femmes’ pushes the boundaries of expectations, leaving the audience in a place of vulnerability.”
“‘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…”
“It is incredible to think that Malle was only 25 years old when he made ‘The Lovers,’ as it seems to hold the wisdom and erotic impulses of a much older man.”
“In the male dominated world of the French New Wave, Catherine in François Truffaut’s ‘Jules and Jim’ stands out as a mysterious and particularly beguiling female presence.”
“Angus MacLachlan’s ‘Goodbye to All That’ is a witty romance with real-life consequences for millennials to consider.”
“‘Copenhagen’ surprised me like no other film in 2014…”
“With ‘Comet,’ Sam Esmail offers a fresh take on romance and allows his stars to shine with ingenuous performances.”
“With such a powerful concoction of unconventional narrative techniques, ‘Thou Wast Mild and Lovely’ dares the viewer to touch the flame; a 95 minute summer poem of suppressed emotions and blistering paranoia.”
“‘Vanishing Waves’ boasts a touch of Andrei Tarkovsky, but I found many similarities to the psychosexual thrillers of French director Alain Robbe-Grillet, most notably ‘Eden and After’ (1970) and ‘Successive Slidings of Pleasure’ (1974).”
Q.V. Hough reviews Jean-Marc Vallée’s ‘Café de Flore.’