Visions of the Future from 1995: Touching with Synthetic Hands by D.M. Palmer: “These films posited that to dream in public, to build new worlds on this freshly privatized terrain, was to risk new and previously inconceivable forms of personal ruin.”
Cinema Rediscovered Essay by Fedor Tot | Women-Led Films of the 1930s | Jewel Robbery (1932) | Red-Headed Woman (1932) | Baby Face (1933)
“One of the most refreshing dimensions of ‘Nope’ resides in Peele’s willingness to trust viewers to follow him into unexpected territory.”
“The capacity to dehumanize has always been present in cinema; to witness the vanquishing of enemies on the screen has served a cathartic function for every society in which cinema has taken hold.”
“Films today, likes films of yesterday, have great trouble dealing with the poor Southern white.”
“‘Rocío’ is one of those special films that has the power to heal and calm the mind.”
“Hugo Fregonese is a director ripe for rediscovery.”
“Do some films get ignored because they are unavailable or do they get ignored because they aren’t that good to begin with? This is precisely where I stand with ‘Tony Arzenta.'”
“‘A Sexplanation’ is both timely and hilarious, a big brain event.”
“‘You Are Not My Mother’ lives at the fringes of folk horror, but the underlying family melodrama drives a story more interested in generational trauma than a supernatural fairytale.”
“‘Waterworld,’ ’12 Monkeys’ and ‘Tank Girl’ posit that when a civilization collapses, many of its customs will be upheld through authoritarian means…”
“With ‘Batman Returns’ and ‘Batman & Robin,’ Burton and Schumacher apply their collaborative and authorial sensibilities to iconic female villains.”
“9/11 was a psychic wound that fostered a new relation to the world, and those who grew up in its aftermath struggled to digest its lessons; some fell back onto intransigence, while others internalized the damage.”
“Come for Lynch and stay for the feverish celluloid love lessons that reach far beyond DKL’s oeuvre. ‘Lynch/Oz’ weaves together dozens of movies in an intertextual kaleidoscope.”
“‘Sex Appeal’ may lack the kind of nuance that powers ‘Booksmart,’ but the film deserves credit for sticking the landing.”
“‘Stealing Rodin’ is one of the most complex and narratively rich documentaries of its time.”
“‘Crimes of the Future’ doesn’t offer the same opportunities of mid-2000s highlights like ‘A History of Violence’ and ‘Eastern Promises,’ but Mortensen balances the ridiculous and the sublime like few others.”
“Perhaps David Cronenberg is owed another kind of reputation: that of a humanist filmmaker who observes and questions, who understands our pain and sorrow as well as our ambitions both intellectual and libidinous.”
“Nomi of ‘Showgirls’ and Betty of ‘Mulholland Dr.’ seem to be communicating with each other across space and time, from entirely different films yet resolutely from within the same universe.”
“Despite its storytelling flaws and omissions, ’64 Day Hero’ is a must-watch for the boxing documentary completist.”
