Crime Scene #13: ‘Memories of Murder’ and Rainy Remembrances
“It’s a sense of Korean specificity that defines ‘Memories of Murder,’ which is still the best of Bong’s films.”
Crime Scene #12: ‘Amores Perros’ and Gringo Cinema
“‘Amores Perros’ is almost entirely disinterested in its central location. It feels like a film made not to speak truth to Mexican audiences, but to present a hyperreal version of Mexico for international audiences.”
Crime Scene #11: ‘Case of the Naves Brothers’ and a Sertão Mentality
“‘Case of the Naves Brothers’ is hardly in the annals of great Brazilian cinema, like the works of Rocha, but it absolutely deserves to be seen in the same breath.”
Crime Scene #10: ‘Key Largo’ and a Hurricane of Justice
“John Huston’s 1948 film ‘Key Largo’ is yet another classical Hollywood studio system film in which barely a single frame was shot on location.”
Crime Scene #9: ‘Red Rooms’ and the Iciness of Social Isolation
“‘Red Rooms’ provides a perfect recipe for isolation and alienation, encouraged by a media world around us that seeks only to capture attention and never thoughts.”
Crime Scene #8: ‘Detour’ – Nowheresville, USA
“‘Detour’ plays like a fever dream powered by guilt and dread; an existential noir about an American male lost in the nothingness and vastness of the country.”
Crime Scene #7: ‘Twilight’ and the Hungarian Hills
“In ‘Twilight,’ Fehér suggests, the force of authority truly loses its voice.”
Crime Scene #6: ‘Time and Tide’ – A Hong Kong Elegy
“‘Time and Tide’ seems to gaze both forward and backwards at once, its breaking down of editing structure creating a strange discombobulating effect.”
Crime Scene #5: ‘Branded to Kill’ and Tokyo Teardowns
“Discordant, broken, berserk: ‘Branded to Kill’ refuses all direct relations with geography in its depiction of a career hitman on the verge of losing control.”
Crime Scene #4: ‘Amsterdamned’ – The City Is Always Sinking
“‘Amsterdamned’ can’t decide if it wants to embrace those who interact with the city or kill them, and this contradiction is part of the film’s slimy, schlocky charm.”
Crime Scene #3: ‘Bob le Flambeur’ and the Death of Paris
“Melville’s Paris is a poetically insomniac version, one that I’m not sure ever really existed. The City of Light has been written about and filmed so much that one has long since forgotten what is real and what is urban legend.”
Crime Scene #2: ‘Collateral,’ Cars and Computers
“In Mann’s world, the car and the computer seem to join forces to anonymize and obliterate the cost of human life outside of that space, enveloped in the fragmented, disintegrated aesthetic of early digital cinematography itself.”
Crime Scene: ‘Pickup on South Street’ and New York Networks
“‘Pickup on South Street’ is perhaps the quintessential New York noir.”
The Art of the Score: Steven Soderbergh’s ‘Logan Lucky’
The Art of the Score #3: Blake Howard on Steven Soderbergh’s ‘Logan Lucky’
Collecting Movies with Filmmaker Nicole Rodenburg
Nicole Rodenburg Interview: A conversation about movie collecting with Vague Visages contributor Greg Carlson.
Why Criticism: The Difficulties of Depicting Genocide in ‘Quo Vadis, Aida?’ and ‘La Llorona’
“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.”
Collecting Movies with Toby Jones
Greg Carlson Interviews Filmmaker Toby Jones About Movie Collecting
Why Criticism: Can Film Criticism and Awards Season Co-Exist?
“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.”
Collecting Movies with Director Dava Whisenant
Greg Carlson Interviews Director Dava Whisenant About Movie Collecting
Collecting Movies with Tucker Lucas
Greg Carlson Interviews Fargo Native Tucker Lucas About Movie Collecting