Vague Visages Is FilmStruck: David Pountain on Takeshi Kitano’s ‘Sonatine’
“From its hypnotic style to its pessimistic plot and languid pacing, ‘Sonatine’ is a mesmerizing manifestation of the troubling logic of Murakawa’s final decision.”
You Gotta Act: It’s Paul Rudd’s Time
“The sentiment that Hollywood doesn’t respect comedy persists, but Rudd is living proof that laughter is the secret to eternal youth.”
Vague Visages Is FilmStruck: John Ford’s ‘The Searchers’
“‘The Searchers’ has moments of low-brow comedy and moments of penetrating tension, its interconnected themes involve love and guilt, and its visual and spiritual essence falls somewhere in the realm of poetic melancholy.”
Vague Visages Is FilmStruck: Ciara Pitts on Abdellatif Kechiche’s ‘Blue Is the Warmest Color’
“‘Blue Is the Warmest Color’ might be most well-known for its lengthy sex scenes, but the gripping romance, elaborate imagery and realistic demonstration of the human experience are what truly keeps the film’s legacy alive.”
See and Be Seen: Aaron Schimberg’s ‘Chained for Life’
“In a borough of New York teeming with independent and micro-budget filmmakers, Aaron Schimberg is one of the handful to keep an eye out for with every new work that he makes.”
Lost Amidst the Architecture: Aaron Katz’s ‘Gemini’
“In straining to emulate something in the order of a traditional thriller, Katz and his team of long-time collaborators find themselves sliding perilously towards the formulaic.”
Telling Stories in Order to Survive: ‘Argo’
“‘Argo’ allows you to enjoy the CIA’s outlandish caper, but it also confronts you with the ambivalence of the larger picture.”
Jim McKay’s ‘En el Séptimo Día’: An Immigrant Fairy Tale
“With flexible, transparent cinematography by Charles Libin, the film captures, beat by beat, moment by moment, José’s actions and movements as he bikes, makes deliveries and encounters his boss, friends and customers.”
Permanent Shadows: Rosalind Byrne in Buster Keaton’s ‘Seven Chances’
“Put simply, Rosalind Byrne changed how I think about cinema. Yes, film is largely about fiction, but in the recording of these fictions, there is an accidental reveal that says so much about who we are and what we think.”
Ari Aster’s ‘Hereditary’: Hollow Horror
“What’s truly terrifying about ‘Hereditary’ is how empty it really is.”
Love as a Force in Francis Lee’s ‘God’s Own Country’
“What a beautiful gem of a film, one that’s carved so effectively by Francis Lee in his debut feature.”
Bela and Boris as Bela and Boris: Postmodern Icons in Early Horror
“By playing characters that feel like versions of themselves, both Bela and Boris try to manipulate the iconography that surrounds them, in a postmodern exploration of what it means to be a star, and wonder if it’s possible to escape from their own shadows.”
Real Blood, Fake News: Dan Gilroy’s ‘Nightcrawler’
“Like a modern-day Machiavelli, his amoral world-view doesn’t see the ethical shades of his actions, only the gains and losses they might occur.”
The Boundary-Pushing Comedy in Frank Henenlotter’s Films
“Frank Henenlotter and his films have the demeanor of a naughty uncle making wild, dirty jokes while telling a campfire ghost story. He wants you to take the material seriously, but he’s mostly concerned with you having a great time.”
Scrappily-Assembled Star Wars: ‘Solo’ Is Safe Galactic Fun
“The film is not without heart, though its heart exists in scattered fragments without assimilating into a cohesive whole.”
The Transcendent Banality of ‘Joe Pera Talks with You’
“In its absence of cynicism and surface mundanity, ‘Joe Pera Talks with You’ presents a conceit that feels genuinely daring in the context of a comic universe which prides itself on provocative fare from the likes of Tim and Eric, Dave Willis and Eric Andre.”
Vague Visages Is FilmStruck: Alexander Mackendrick’s ‘Sweet Smell of Success’
“‘Sweet Smell of Success’ seems to exist somewhere beyond auteurist canonization or even the traditional Hollywood studio stock.”
The Inside Is Now the Outside: Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s ‘Cure’
“Memory and identity are inextricably linked.”
On Familiar Ground: Paul Schrader and the Death Impulse
Michael J. Casey on Paul Schrader’s thematic links in ‘Taxi Driver,’ ‘Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters’ and ‘First Reformed’
‘Bullitt’ at 50: On Peter Yates’ Mastery of Visual Storytelling
“Yates delivers the message that our chosen professions and work environments define who we really are. One cannot successfully live a dual existence. Love requires the joining of oneself to another person as well as that person’s job.”