Of Love and Other Demons: ‘Sweetie’ (Jane Campion, 1989)
A Weekly Column on Love and Erotica in Cinema by Justine A. Smith
‘Candyman’ or (How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Say Farewell to the Flesh)
“As an adult viewer with a wider range of experiences and reference points than my pubescent self (this is what I tell myself anyway), what engages me most about ‘Candyman’ now is the themes on the fringes of the urban legend focus.”
Studio Ghibli Forever: An Initiation – ‘Grave of the Fireflies’
“A gripping drama whose defiant youths refuse to bow to war, hunger and indifference, Grave of the Fireflies is a film for children to learn the harsh realities of life so that they can do all in their power to prevent the cycle from continuing.”
Moving Picture: ‘Frances Ha’ and Me
An Essay by Kyle Turner
A Cinema of Relics: ‘The Phantom’ at 20
“Call it the Silver Age of Comic Book Movies.”
Why Criticism: Writing about Acting and Performance in 2016
A Column on Film Criticism by Justine A. Smith
Preacher Recap: ‘Pilot’ and ‘See’
“It’s clear from the early stages of ‘Preacher’ that Rogen, Goldberg and Catlin are going to be taking a deliberate pace with the material.”
The Boundaries of Intimacy Are Explored in Porn-Based Dramas ‘After Eden’ and ‘Malgré la nuit’
“In the end, the two films are essentially stories about connections with others, with life itself and ourselves.”
Another Return: Game of Thrones ‘The Broken Man’ (Recap)
“One can only hope that Game of Thrones has exhausted its season quotient of character reappearances ostensibly designed to catch us some degree of off-guard, but perhaps future cold opens are coming.”
Review: Hong-jin Na’s ‘The Wailing’
“It’s a film that doesn’t so much scare as it harrows, boring deep into the psyche.”
Vague Visages on Agnès Varda’s 88th: ‘Vagabond’
“People often fear or misrepresent what they don’t understand.”
Demon in Utero Pregnancy: ‘Shelley’ Opens Transilvania Film Festival
“With clear references to the cult horror ‘Rosemary’s Baby’, ‘Shelley’ explores the theme of pregnancy as an invasion.”
We Failed This Film: Jody Hill’s ‘Observe and Report’ (2009)
A Series by Dylan Moses Griffin
Studio Ghibli Forever: An Initiation – ‘My Neighbor Totoro’
“An astonishing achievement of handcrafted animation, Miyazaki’s third Ghibli film solidified the studio’s presence, and has become an enduring symbol of its excellence.”
Of Love and Other Demons: ‘In the Cut’ (Jane Campion, 2003)
A Weekly Column on Love and Erotica in Cinema by Justine A. Smith
Vague Visages on Agnès Varda’s 88th: ‘Jane B. par Agnès V.’
“An uncompromising visionary, Agnès Varda seems unable to acknowledge precedent or standard practice when becoming involved with creative works.”
Review: Laura Bispuri’s ‘Sworn Virgin’
“One problem with ‘Sworn Virgin’, particularly in its later stages, is a distinct lack of stakes.”
Vague Visages on Agnès Varda’s 88th: ‘The Gleaners & I’
“Varda’s sense of play, fun, silliness and humor comes from a collected bricolage of incident, travel and people.”
Why Criticism: Setting Up a Podcast with Francisco Peres
A Column on Film Criticism by Justine A. Smith
Vague Visages on Agnès Varda’s 88th: ‘Le Bonheur’
“Happiness for someone, then, is only achievable at the expense of someone else’s full experience?”