The Western Enters the 70s – Part 1: Sam Peckinpah’s Lonely Cowboy
“With his concern for the outsider, and his reorienting of the West’s perception in the American mind, Peckinpah helped to birth the Acid Western.”
Shattering Orientalism Through Noir: Samuel Fuller’s ‘House of Bamboo’
“The gritty and hard-nosed film noir genre is rife with actors and directors that helped to not only change conversations about American cinema, but also the nation’s consciousness.”
The Monsters Are Loose: Grief and Regret in A.T. White’s ‘Starfish’
“Many ‘Starfish’ reviews pick up on the film’s unmistakable exploration of grief, but just as many neglect to mention the other half of White’s semi-autobiographical work and its reckoning with guilt and regret.”
Eat Meat / Man, Woman: Bhaskar Hazarika’s ‘Aamis’
“Hazarika’s is a voice that comes from outside of the Bollywood canon and reverberates sharp and hard throughout the cinemascape of the country. May it grow only louder.”
Forty Years of Facehugging and Chestbursting: ‘Memory: The Origins of Alien’
“‘Alien’ is a gift that keeps on giving, and ‘Memory: The Origins of Alien’ unwraps so many colorfully wrapped boxes of various shapes and sizes.”
Once Upon a Time in Tarantinoland: ‘Kill Bill’ Is a Visually Explosive Love Letter to Cinema
“All in all, ‘the 4th film by Quentin Tarantino’ is a wild, eclectic action movie with visual flair, great performances and personality up the wazoo.”
Olivia Wilde Makes Confident Directorial Debut with ‘Booksmart’
“You don’t have to be a queer teenage activist to relate to Amy, but imagine what ‘Booksmart’ might mean to those who have not seen themselves regularly represented on the mainstream screen.”
Ridley Scott’s ‘Alien’ Is a 40-Year-Old Elevated Horror Masterpiece
“If ‘Alien’ came out today, it’d likely be hailed as some sort of genius elevated horror/prestige sci-fi movie. It’s an engrossing, pulse-pounding thriller with brains and a unique and stunning visual style. Forty years later, ‘Alien’ remains one of the best sci-fi AND horror films of all time.”
India’s 25-Year Absence from Cannes’ Official Selection and the Eurocentrism of Film Culture
“Imagine the largest film-producing nation in the world. Now imagine that nation, with more than one 100 years of film history and a global audience in the billions, being conspicuously absent from the single most prestigious and prominent film festival in the world.”
Indulgent Food and Ephemeral Connections in ‘Chungking Express’
“Food, particularly junk food, plays a large role in ‘Chungking Express’ by signifying the type of sweet but ultimately fleeting connections (and self-doubt) that occur so frequently for the characters in the bustling Chungking Mansions.”
Once Upon a Time in Tarantinoland: ‘Jackie Brown’ Is a Subtle Outlier in Quentin Tarantino’s Oeuvre
“While ‘Jackie Brown’ does revel in nostalgia and feature its fair share of firearms, it’s a much more subdued, nuanced and mature film than any of Tarantino’s previous works, or any other production within his entire filmography.’
Stefon Bristol Makes Bright Debut with ‘See You Yesterday’
“One of the greatest pleasures of ‘See You Yesterday’ is that the challenges and complexities of the jumps get better as the story unfolds.”
‘What Would Springsteen Do?’ and Other Questions: Gurinder Chadha’s ‘Blinded by the Light’
“While Springsteen takes the American dream and helps everyone navigate through its dismantling, Chadha packs it all up with ‘Blinded by the Light” and makes it speak to an entirely different country and a whole new generation.”
There Is Another: Transgenerational Trauma and the Skywalker Legacy
“By viewing a family over three generations, the audience can see patterns that the characters themselves cannot, and then see patterns in their own lives as well, hopefully.”
Once Upon a Time in Tarantinoland: ‘Pulp Fiction’ Is a Rule-Breaking, Pop Culture-Obsessed Good Time
“As a whole, ‘Pulp Fiction’ hinges on the audience’s awareness of tropes, and it offers something new by subverting expectations.”
Backlash: A Decade of John G. Avildsen
“Some of Avildsen’s men turn to violence. Some of them turn to crime. Some of them turn inward. All of them know that somehow, some way, they must turn. They cannot survive, let alone win, without surrendering some part of themselves.”
It’s Cool to Be Kind: ‘Mean Girls’ at 15
“‘Mean Girls’ might be a teenager itself now, but the movie’s popularity continues to grow as a whole new generation falls in love with its cast of crazy characters, messages of inclusion and impressively high joke rate.”
In Her Feature Directorial Debut, Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre Tames ‘The Mustang’
“Not all of Clermont-Tonnerre’s story moves hold up under logical scrutiny, but ‘The Mustang’ succeeds despite its familiarity.”
Fight Like a Man: ‘Rocky III’
“There are things about ‘Rocky III’ that definitely raise eyebrows — its racial dynamics and maybe even its class politics — but ultimately it shows a fighter overcoming his opponent by reaching out to those around him and confronting the problems within.”
The Sharp Pang of Growing Up: Rima Das’ ‘Bulbul Can Sing’
“Das’ direction examines one’s reluctance to imagine the future in any detail during childhood. She highlights the transformative power of nature, the way it allows one’s true self to shine through and thus inspires the pursuit of hidden passions.”