“‘The Disciple’ can be highly rewarding if one notices and appreciates its technical brilliance. Criticizing the film for its slow pace and aloof camerawork is akin to labeling classical music as boring and tedious.”
“Seidl has produced many scenes of lengthy sexual humiliation or nasty perversion, but they are stories of the world that are drawn from the horrible truth of human behaviour.”
“Sure, ‘Saint Maud’ can be called a horror film, but it is equally a psychological drama that gets a lot of mileage from a tried and true trope: the shifting power dynamics in a superior/subordinate relationship.”
“Bellocchio’s 1986 film ‘Devil in the Flesh’ is perfectly representative of the great Italian director’s outlook.”
“If ‘Gauguin’ and ‘Guernica’ shine a light on their respective subjects, they also present a key part of Resnais’ own development as an artist.”
Author Joseph B. Atkins on Filmmaker Monte Hellman’s Life and Career
Mannhunting #2 by Bill Bria: “In Mann’s duality of man, cop and robber are, in Stevenson’s words, ‘radically both’ one and the same.”
“What do we do with the Teen Agers movies, which were no more intended to be seen 75 years later than a dinner cooked in 1947 was intended to be eaten in 2021?”
“Hozie nails the greener-grass metaphor in ‘PVT Chat’ with a clarity that reminded me of the last lines of James Joyce’s ‘Araby.'”
“Though somewhat imperfect, Pereira dos Santos’ first feature shows promise and is a testament to his ability to portray queer characters with granular subtlety and political meaning.”
“‘Bridget Jones’s Diary’ is heartbreaking and life-affirming in equal measure, which is a difficult balance to pull off, particularly in a movie that frequently treats its protagonist quite harshly.”
“‘Kubrick by Kubrick’ has the effect of placing the notoriously particular and media-shy subject in the room with the eager listener/viewer.”
“Roger Ebert once wrote ‘it’s not what a film is about, it’s how it is about it,’ and it’s this phrase that I usually return to when thinking about cinema that deals with humanity’s worst impulses.”
“‘Nina Wu’ isn’t just a ‘#MeToo thriller’ or ‘slow burn cinema,’ it’s a progressive spin on psychological horror and a master class in visceral visual design.”
“The utter sadness of Little and Big Edie’s story is why ‘Grey Gardens’ is so moving — direct cinema allowed this story to be explored with a level of intimacy previously unavailable.”
Mannhunting #1 by Bill Bria: “The protagonists and antagonists in Mann’s films tend to be mirror images of each other, all of them caught within masculinity’s shackles.”
“‘No Hard Feelings’ takes queerness as a given, capturing queer joy onscreen while never losing sight of the stark realities of migrants seeking refuge in a still highly xenophobic Europe.”
“‘Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi’ bears the unmistakable stamp of an artist at the very apogee of his creative prowess.”
“Many of us may miss the drama of awards season, but there are untold benefits to criticism if it continues to evolve away from its current state.”
“Looking back on early-2000s fare, ‘Get Over It’ stands out as smarter, sweeter, funnier and weirder than many of its contemporaries…”