“For Paul Schrader, First Reformed’s visual style realizes ideas of transcendental style that he first theorized at the beginning of his career. But that style only works because it serves the story and character he crafted so carefully.”
“‘Happy Death Day 2U’ is a light sci-fi movie with the thinnest veneer of horror, and your enjoyment of the film will depend on your willingness to accept its geeky premise and nonexistent scare factor.”
“‘Director A.J. Eaton’s rock star biography ‘David Crosby: Remember My Name’ checks all the boxes of the lion-in-winter music documentary.”
“‘BlacKkKlansman,’ fairly or not, will be judged as Lee’s ‘comeback’ movie. He never really left, of course.”
“Rodriguez’s battle scenes and the performance capture acting of Rosa Salazar (Alita) are shining aspects of the film, but not enough to render it praiseworthy overall.”
“As a movie experience, ‘Hail Satan?’ often lives deliciously.”
“Cagney’s sadistic lead in ‘White Heat,’ a searing 1949 crime drama from director Raoul Walsh, is something well past the norms of a conventional male protagonist — or antagonist, for that matter.”
“There is little doubt that ‘Gabriel Over the White House’ was a test balloon of sorts, priming the audience for a discussion on the merits of the strongman leader, asking them what they would be willing to sacrifice in order to ameliorate the national plight.”
Iana Murray on Her London Film Festival Conversation with ‘Burning’ Star Steven Yeun
“Sometimes, there’s a moment in your life when you’re experiencing something that perfectly intersects with a character on screen.”
“‘Velvet Buzzsaw’ is nicer to look at than a urinal signed ‘R. Mutt,’ but like Duchamp’s ‘Fountain,’ I won’t be rushing to see it again anytime soon.”
“How many movies have been lost or nearly lost to circumstances before a public release can provide closure for the anxious and expectant filmmaker?”
“Just as Reed’s real-life contemporaries reflect on the revolutionary ideals of their era in ‘Reds,’ Beatty bears witness to his own, staring down a massive canvas of his contemporaries’ successes and failures, the romance of their innovations and the exclusionary nature of their excess.”
“The ‘Rocky’ films have given us great heroes. Their protagonists are sweet and kind, courageous and indominable. They have given us so much to cheer for. But they’ve also grown out of an idea of masculinity that is deeply, meaningfully flawed.”
“The future of horror isn’t female, it’s the present. And it’s about bloody time.”
“Another stunning work of perfectly placed ellipses and calculated restraint, Pawel Pawlikowski’s ‘Cold War’ is a film filled with images as iconic and austere as its blunt title.”
“Part of me expects something as grandiose as ‘Assassination Nation’ to happen in real life, and that’s what’s especially terrifying.”
“Where DC trades in grim realism and Marvel does the whole snarky, joke-a-minute thing, the Shyamalanverse is a flavor all its own, a world where superheroes exist, but they don’t wear capes and their lives are usually pretty awful.”
“Despite sharing a universe with ‘Unbreakable,’ M. Night Shyamalan’s ‘Split’ fits into a deeper cinematic legacy of psychosexual horror, one that speaks to our sense of the uncanny…”
“‘The Village’ is indeed a fantastic movie, and one that deserves more credit. That is the twist that actually matters.”