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.”
That Building Had It Coming: Distance and Disgust in the Anti-Comedy Playground
“In Alverson’s hands, anti-comedy becomes a new kind of gothic — it is the world viewed through a warped, sinister lens; a fresh excavation of the unspeakable through outsized comedic strategies.”
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.”
Review: Hong Sang-Soo’s ‘In Our Day’
“‘In Our Day’ shows that even a smaller Hong Sang-soo film, like the smaller moments of life that it portrays, can be just as rich with drama, sadness and beauty as any other, and that every fragment contains so much of the whole.”
Apocalypse Through the Ages: Reimagining in ‘The End We Start From’
“‘The End We Start From’ is a contained version of the violent, end-of-world tales we have grown accustomed to. In its quiet examination of a woman’s journey to motherhood, the questions that surround the subject are writ large on the story.”
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.”
Grief Is the Key to Getting ‘Inside Llewyn Davis’
“Grief is a quiet but unrelenting presence within ‘Inside Llewyn Davis’ that gradually reveals itself the more viewers learn about the death of Mike Timlin, the protagonist’s friend and singing partner.”
‘Mean Streets’ Establishes Martin Scorsese as a Soundtrack Virtuoso
“With its uneven pace and fragmented narrative, ‘Mean Streets’ would not have nearly the same impact without its soundtrack.”
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.”
Constructing a Madman: Lee Harvey Oswald’s Screen Life
“In our attempt to fill in the gaps of the Oswald character, we recast him again and again, hoping that the latest iteration will reveal a previously hidden angle.”
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.”
Megachurch Charms: ‘The Righteous Gemstones’ Season 3
“‘The Righteous Gemstones’ season 3 stays true to the constants that made me appreciate the show in the first place while adding more characters to love.”
Hollywood Writers and Actors on Strike: The Latest Historic Battle
“Here in the heart of Yoknapatawpha (Lafayette) County, I think about our favorite literary son, William Faulkner, during his time as a screenwriter in Hollywood and how he would feel about the current strike by members of the WGA.”
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.”
Films About Films
“The awareness of complicity in an institutional problem brings ‘The Fabelmans,’ ‘Babylon’ and ‘Empire of Light’ together.”
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.”
Don’t Expect Roses: Growth, Transformation and Illusion in Tony Blair’s Britain
“The ghosts of the divisive past that New Labour set out to consign to history’s trash heap reared their heads, presaging a politics that would cast off the Blairite technocratic order.”
‘We’re All Going to the World’s Fair’: Time, Loneliness and the Internet
“‘We’re All Going to the World’s Fair’ prefers the space between categories. This position facilitates a unique experience of time, much like the COVID-19 pandemic.”