Of Love and Other Demons: ‘Suicide Club’ (Sion Sono, 2001)
A Weekly Column on Love and Erotica in Cinema by Justine A. Smith
Studio Ghibli Forever: An Initiation – ‘Ponyo’
“Perhaps not the film for the adventurous young adult, Ponyo proves that remarkable visual inventiveness more-than makes up for candy-sweet morals and glass-fragile plot lines.”
Why Criticism: Jean Epstein and Photogénie
A Column on Film Criticism by Justine A. Smith
‘Indignation’ Has a Palpable Humanity to Its Fury
“Where Indignation deviates a little from its otherwise classical trappings is in its structure.”
Cult Vault, Part Three: On Campy, Queer Figureheads In ‘Mommie Dearest’ and ‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show’
“So, what is it about these two figureheads of cult film that makes them so iconically and definitively camp?”
Of Love and Other Demons: ‘Cold Fish’ (Sion Sono, 2010)
A Weekly Column on Love and Erotica in Cinema by Justine A. Smith
Studio Ghibli Forever: An Initiation – ‘Howl’s Moving Castle’
“Abandoning messages of environmentalism and nonviolence, ‘Howl’s Moving Castle’ abandons the narrative moralities that typify the director’s style.”
Why Criticism: The Inexpressible ‘House of Psychotic Women’ by Kier-La Janisse
A Column on Film Criticism by Justine A. Smith
The Aural Horrors of Dario Argento’s ‘Suspiria’
“Can hearing something be scarier than seeing something?”
Two Drink Minimum: Mandie Fletcher’s ‘Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie’
“It’s like hanging out with your spoiled great aunt at Thanksgiving for an hour until she gets plastered and ruins everything.”
Classes, Clashes and the City of Michelangelo Antonioni’s ‘Le amiche’
“With ‘Le amiche,’ Antonioni further bridges the gap between comparatively conservative melodrama and the groundbreaking narrative and visual abstraction he would soon unleash.”
We Failed This Film: Joe Carnahan’s ‘The A-Team’ (2010)
A Series by Dylan Moses Griffin
Of Love and Other Demons: ‘Tokyo Tribe’ (Sion Sono, 2014)
A Weekly Column on Love and Erotica in Cinema by Justine A. Smith
‘Adult Life Skills’ Boasts a Commanding Performance from Jodie Whittaker
“Two personified thumbs up.”
Studio Ghibli Forever: An Initiation – ‘Spirited Away’
“A careful reframing of the typical coming-of-age narrative, ‘Spirited Away’ displays a fondness those infinitely awkward years, while showing us all how important they were in making us who we are today.”
Why Criticism: James Agee – From Critic to Filmmaker
A Column on Film Criticism by Justine A. Smith
Two Drink Minimum: Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert’s ‘Swiss Army Man’
“Sing along with a corpse and come out the other side appreciating the bus ride home.”
Two Drink Minimum: ‘The Secret Life of Pets’, Looney Tunes and Animated Logic
“A series of goofy images isn’t a comedy.”
Talk Dirty to Me: A History of Eroticism in Four Short Films
“In full metamorphosis and reinvigorated by a new voice and direction, there could be no better program to sell that cinema in Montreal is sexy again.”
Studio Ghibli Forever: An Initiation – ‘Princess Mononoke’
“‘Princess Mononoke’ explores the gaping chasm between nature’s gentle acceptance of circumstance and humanity’s steadfast refusal to quietly accept death.”