‘Halloween II’: Rob Zombie’s Mad Opus on Trauma and the Tendrils of Toxic Familial Ties
“It is the rare film where form and content align at a time when its creator is close to formal mastery and itching for singular experimentation.”
The Haunted House Heartbeat in Dario Argento’s ‘Inferno’
“The real strength of ‘Inferno’ is the dominant sense of terror that Argento creates through his mastery of physical space (shaded by bright reds and blues, contrastive images of grandeur and decay in the production design)…”
Vague Visages Is FilmStruck: Ingmar Bergman’s ‘Summer with Monika’
“Undeniably the central focus of ‘Summer with Monika,’ Andersson’s overt sex appeal somewhat minimizes her remarkable range in the film, her seamlessly oscillating moods and subtle facial intimations.”
Why I Wear the Mask: Tom Hardy’s Performances of Limitation
“Behind the mask, lurking within the timbre of the vocal choices, buried beneath the shaped physique, there is truth.”
Disney Dreams in Sean Baker’s ‘The Florida Project’
“‘The Florida Project’ is a marvelous portrait of childhood that depicts how it feels to live on the fringes and just out of reach from The Happiest Place on Earth.”
The Joy of Creating: On Takeshi Kitano’s ‘Hana-bi’
“‘Hana-bi’ is a deeply personal labour of love made by an artist observing his own enigmatic nature from a variety of angles in an attempt to arrive at some clarifying epiphany.”
Clothes Make the Man: Remembering Harry Dean Stanton
“Harry Dean Stanton was dependable, durable and made whatever part his own, no matter how big or small.”
Low-Budget and Lurid: Inside the Macabre Cinematic Universe of Roger Corman’s Poe Cycle
“To watch Roger Corman’s Poe movies is to visit a mythic dreamscape where the boundaries between life and death are permeable.”
Ridley Scott’s ‘Alien: Covenant’: Another Look at the Power of Creation and Destruction
“The stories and conflicts of Scott’s android characters cause viewers to contemplate a number of issues relevant to the human condition.”
My Summer of Dunst: Series Conclusion
“Kirsten Dunst deserves an apology, and a second look, from all of us.”
‘American Made’: Cruising into Character
“One doesn’t expect an immediate return to iconic roles like Vincent Lauria or T.J. Mackey, but hopefully Barry Seal is just the start.”
Vague Visages Is FilmStruck: Kate Saccone on Lotte Reiniger’s ‘The Adventures of Prince Achmed’
“As the artist who painstakingly moved her hand-cut figures frame-by-frame, Reiniger’s presence is impossible to ignore while watching her films.”
Ten Years Later, Adam Green’s Cult Slasher ‘Hatchet’ Still Cuts
“It’s rare to find a movie that pays homage to the good ol’ days while also paving its own way, but ‘Hatchet’ is that.”
Vague Visages Is FilmStruck: Jeremy Carr on Louis Malle’s ‘Black Moon’
“Communication — or the lack thereof — is key to ‘Black Moon.’”
‘Rat Film’: Light and Dirt, Cinema and Rodents
“The past informs the present.”
TIFF 2017 Capsule Reviews
TIFF 2017: ‘Dark River,’ ‘Jeannette: The Childhood of Joan of Arc,’ ‘Alanis,’ ‘Beast,’ ‘Occidental’
Dead Kennedys at TIFF 2017: The Rise of a New Zeitgeist
“Step aside, LBJ, your time in the spotlight is done.”
Andy Muschietti’s ‘It’ Struggles with Adaptation
“As an adaptation of a great 20th century novel, ‘It’ completely misses the mark.”
The Return of ‘Twin Peaks’ and the Pleasures of a Myopic Anomaly
“I felt challenged to endure something so terrifying, so relentlessly destabilizing. I felt fear.”
The Woman and the Puppet: On Abel Ferrara’s ‘New Rose Hotel’
“Her power lies in her opaqueness.”