“By dissecting and re-representing time through the cinematic apparatus, ‘Chungking Express’ demonstrates that modern life is not unequivocally devoid of romanticism.”
“It’s telling that all of the human interactions in ‘Murder by Contract’ involve either money or business. The illusions of the profit motive and market forces have alienated Claude from his own emotions and left him broken and alone.”
“‘Ash Is Purest White,’ Zhangke’s latest film, is another masterful chapter of the director’s artistic journey, one that works wonderfully as a point of entry into his oeuvre.”
“In ‘Evangelion,’ youth is depicted not as an event to look back on with nostalgia, but as an arduous task to be overcome. Shinji’s story is one that demands he confront rather than escape…”
“Sometimes, films set in and around Hollywood manage to capture a sense about the place that’s strange and uncanny, a place in love with its past and afraid of its future, leaving nothing but ghosts behind to haunt the hills, and to walk the empty mansions.”
“Jordan Peele’s ‘Us’ cements the filmmaker’s reputation as a master craftsman and visual stylist. Creepy, funny and wicked sharp, the film’s genre is horror, the ideas are expansive and the execution is clean.”
“‘10 Things I Hate About You’ has that slap-you-in-the-face energy. Wake up, it shouts, teen movies can be smart, empowering, entertaining and funny all at once. And they really don’t get much better than this.”
“Sexism and toxic masculinity are not unusual in this genre, but DaCosta’s emphasis on sisterhood and the presentation of a female point of view turn ‘Little Woods’ into a fresh, must-see cinematic experience.”
“The characters in ‘Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains,’ ‘Smithereens’ and ‘Suburbia’ find in punk rock a convenient shorthand for authenticity, a posture which presages its eventual absorption into the very mechanisms it sets out to oppose.”
“Uggadottir’s ‘And Breathe Normally’ evokes a whole new style of Icelandic cinema, one which is inseparable from the country’s physical existence.”
