“Deerskin’s methodology might be new, but the central tenets of its 77 minutes are part of the same cinematic heritage that created Jim McBride’s indie darling ‘David Holzman’s Diary’ (1967) and Krzysztof Kieslowski’s ‘Camera Buff’ (1979).”
“‘Joe Versus the Volcano’ is as thoughtful and sensitive as it is goofy. It brims with the sort of amazement that can reawaken forgotten feelings, and resuscitate a heart clogged by ennui.”
“Through a graceful use of Mozart’s music, ‘She Dies Tomorrow’ urges the audience to question their lives and unavoidable deaths.”
“Given that documentaries are being pushed into hybrid spaces, and that many modern animators are covering morbid subject matter, these 12 short films give an example of contemporary moving image work pushing at cinema’s comfort zones.”
“The virility of the unwanted foreigner is a typical focal point for the average xenophobe.”
“Film criticism is so vital not because it’s a service, but because it’s a tool — a way for each person to arrive at the final word on each film they see from the critic that matters most: themselves.”
“It’s a fascinating experience to see ‘Aparisyon’ via Locarno’s ‘Open Doors’ strand, where it is presented as a key work in understanding contemporary Filipino cinema.”
“‘Memories of Underdevelopment’ shares with ‘Pixote’ a cautious destabilization, a sense of how long can this last, of tipping points, radical reform and the capricious aftermath.”
“If Ferris Bueller and his day off resemble something else universal, it is liberation. In the context of the journey, this is best understood as the ability to be in transit.”
“Jarman’s mix of time, history, memory, fantasy and dreams in ‘Jubilee’ is ultimately a hopeful warning for the future.”
“As much as I love a good story, the best movies always transport me, in an intangible sense, through the base elements.”
“As a character study, Miloš Forman’s feature directorial debut presents a realistic vision of a boy’s attempt to come of age; a path full of setbacks without a tidy resolution.”
“I was taken with You Don’t Nomi’s comfortable attitude toward the complexity and ambiguity of a text that can support and sustain such wildly opposite readings.”
“In all her dramatic iterations, Patty Hearst stands for an American purity that was always illusory but remains hallowed, that successive generations have set out to wrest back from the forces of complication.”
“If New Hollywood was an attempt to shape the future in novel ways, Bogdanovich was manifestly more interested in looking back, in reaction over revolution, in conforming his artistic impulses to an unambiguously Golden Age Hollywood influence.”
“‘The Night Is Short, Walk on Girl’ feels like an inadvertent political statement, a continuation of the status quo in the romantic comedy genre. Still, there is something there.”
“Film criticism unable to confront film’s relationship to business is destined to fail and will continue to reproduce the same tired critiques of cinema.”
“‘Clean, Shaven’ depicts a culture in which there is little empathy for the mentally ill, perhaps because it is a culture influenced by fictional portrayals in which people like Peter are predominately unfeeling mad killers.”
“Arts Picturehouse Cambridge unearthed the feisty, passionate person that I am today, and made me want to help change the cinematic landscape for the better.”
“Behold the elegance and oft-cited aesthetic minimalism with which Reichardt unfolds so many thoughts and ideas about race, representation and gender.”