“Instead of skipping to the binary found at the beginning and end of the color swatch, ‘Palo Alto’ flushes every color in the middle, every emotion found in growing up.”
“While lush animation and detailed backdrops make Shinkai’s films visually stunning, without character depth, it’s a beauty which rings hollow.”
“The compassion Magnani and Pasolini elicit from this affectionate portrait is manifestly sympathetic — she just tries so hard.”
“Maybe the best way to counter ridiculousness is with ridiculousness.”
“The failure of language permeates ‘Twin Peaks,’
an abundance of verbiage disintegrating under the looming and ageless presence in the woods.”
“He may be suggesting that emotional and social anxiety is widespread and prevalent, but the key distinction is that not everyone can translate these uncertainties into comedy gold.”
“Audiences aren’t meant to hate Swanson, but to understand him and people like him, along with ourselves.”
“One of the hallmarks of good cyberpunk is the exploration of humanity in a post-modern world where technology is the dominant force. This philosophical probe falls short in Rupert Sanders’ ‘Ghost in the Shell.'”
“‘L’Atalante’ is a movie defined by it moments, images and emotive strength, not its ostensible plot.”
“‘Cameraperson’ is about genuine human connections, about the elements that connect us all, regardless of culture, geography, race or language.”
“To catch the eye of ‘Southland Tales’ is to look back on our past and future simultaneously, on the limitations of our technology and the humanity that screeches through it.”
“With ‘Ixcanul,’ Bustamante presents an honest and complex mother-daughter companionship that is sorely lacking in our current film and television landscape.”
“Just as with life, ‘Mulholland Dr.’ is unexplainable.”
“‘Ex Machina’ is not a projection of A.I. fear, but more of a preliminary intervention on the organized process of fearing and hating women.”
“The married couple’s conversation in ‘La Pointe Courte’ is a spellbinding predecessor to Richard Linklater’s ‘Before Trilogy’ and further proof that no great film needs ‘action’ to be great.”
“Like his characters, Demy’s camera in ‘Lola’ moves everywhere but goes nowhere; it’s a paradoxically headlong hesitation.”
“‘Get Out’ explores many notions: the duplicitous nature of liberal racism, the cumulative damage of microaggressions and appropriation, assimilation versus acculturation. But it’s the deer imagery that continue to elude audiences.”
“Fifty-three years after initial release, ‘The Umbrellas of Cherbourg’ continues to be a formally and contextually innovative French New Wave production; a film that has influenced contemporary directors such as Barry Jenkins, Damien Chazelle and Joachim Trier.”
“I foresee that VR will eventually become a key asset of filmmaking, putting itself right alongside sound, color, digital and CGI as an essential staple of the industry.”
“Truffaut and Coutard punctuate ‘Shoot the Piano Player’ with a vibrant rendering of its wintry Parisian setting, where the city is an ever-present visual marker…”