Berlinale 2016: ‘Alone in Berlin’ – A Lifeless Tale of White Heroism
“An overlong melodramatic exercise in aridity, Alone in Berlin fails as a testament to the efforts of the Quangels and fails to tell a cohesive, engaging story.”
Berlinale 2016: Jeff Nichols’ ‘Midnight Special’ – A Refreshingly Familiar Sci-Fi Adventure
“Midnight Special has an emotional core compelling enough to draw in massive crowds of cinemagoers, a sci-fi grandeur showy enough to pull in the Marvel/DC crowd (is there a still a DC crowd?), and a visual acuity worthy of the interest of even the most hardened cinephiles.”
We Failed This Film: Richard Ayoade’s ‘The Double’
A Series by Dylan Moses Griffin
Berlinale 2016: ‘Hail, Caesar!’ – A Serious Investigation of Film
“Like the films it contains, Hail, Caesar! mystifies its audience via otherworldly charm and magnificent grandeur — it is not a love letter to anything, it is a hymnal to the divine spirit of film.”
Of Love and Other Demons: ‘School Daze’ (Spike Lee, 1988)
A Weekly Column on Love and Erotica in Cinema by Justine A. Smith
The Terrible Love of Werner Herzog’s ‘Grizzly Man’
“Faith is an admirable quality in the age of secular reasoning. How can a person believe in something that is not there? Only with their whole hearts.”
Martin Scorsese’s ‘Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore’ and Why His Female Protagonist Matters
“For a legendary director known more for gangsters, hookers, and tough guys, Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore stands as a remarkable chapter in the Scorsese canon.”
A Serious Investigation: The Coen Brothers’ ‘Raising Arizona’ (1987)
Leading up to the release of Hail, Caesar!, Vague Visages explores the work of Joel and Ethan Coen.
A Serious Investigation: The Coen Brothers’ ‘Blood Simple’ (1984)
Leading up to the release of Hail, Caesar!, Vague Visages explores the work of Joel and Ethan Coen.
A Serious Investigation: The Coen Brothers’ ‘Barton Fink’ (1991)
Leading up to the release of Hail, Caesar!, Vague Visages explores the work of Joel and Ethan Coen.
Of Love and Other Demons: ‘Black Girl’ (Ousmane Sembène, 1966)
A Weekly Column on Love and Erotica in Cinema by Justine A. Smith
A Serious Investigation: A Fargoan on the Coen Brothers’ ‘Fargo’ (1996)
Leading up to the release of Hail, Caesar!, Vague Visages explores the work of Joel and Ethan Coen.
A Serious Investigation: The Coen Brothers’ ‘A Serious Man’ (2009)
Leading up to the release of Hail, Caesar!, Vague Visages explores the work of Joel and Ethan Coen.
A Serious Investigation: The Coen Brothers’ ‘Inside Llewyn Davis’ (2013)
Leading up to the release of Hail, Caesar!, Vague Visages explores the work of Joel and Ethan Coen.
Of Love and Other Demons: ‘L’inconnu du lac’ (Alain Guiraudie, 2013)
A Weekly Column on Love and Erotica in Cinema by Justine A. Smith
The Inescapable Fever Dream of John Schlesinger’s ‘Midnight Cowboy’
“We dream, we fantasize, and we are haunted by that we cannot change. We are desperate to reinvent ourselves, and we always think some other place will be better.”
His Blazing Automatics: Gareth Evans Just Made the Best Action Film of 2016 in 5 Minutes with ‘Pre Vis Action’
“It’s not even February, but it feels safe calling Pre Vis Action the best action film of 2016.”
The Dueling Cavalier: The Horror of Maternal Sexuality in ‘The Boy’ and ‘The Babadook’
“Both films deal with maternal sexuality: The Boy punishes it and rebukes mothers for caring about anything other than their children, and The Babadook acknowledges it as difficult to balance with childcare, but an inescapable part of motherhood nonetheless.”
His Blazing Automatics: 2016 Is the Year of Keanu Reeves
“Don’t call it a comeback, call it a Reeves-urrection.”
Of Love and Other Demons: ‘Agnes of God’ (Norman Jewison, 1985)
A Weekly Column on Love and Erotica in Cinema by Justine A. Smith