We Failed This Film: Christopher McQuarrie’s ‘The Way of the Gun’
A Series by Dylan Moses Griffin
Of Love and Other Demons: Sam Peckinpah and Sex – ‘The Getaway’
“Of all Sam Peckinpah’s films, the violence in ‘The Getaway’ often strikes me as the most senseless.”
‘Only Yesterday’ Is Studio Ghibli’s Secret Masterpiece
An Essay by Josh Slater-Williams
Film Beat: ‘In Dreams’ from David Lynch’s ‘Blue Velvet’ (1986)
A Column by Phuong Le
Of Love and Other Demons: Sam Peckinpah and Sex – ‘The Ballad of Cable Hogue’
“Cable Hogue ogles and desires Hildy because she appeals to him sexually: there are no shades of grey here, no self-reflection. In the world of Peckinpah, sex is often just sex.”
His Blazing Automatics: How One Scene in ‘Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation’ Defines the Strengths of Christopher McQuarrie
A Column by Dylan Moses Griffin
We Failed This Film: Joe Carnahan’s ‘The Grey’
A Series by Dylan Moses Griffin
‘The Diary of a Teenage Girl’ is a Modest Trailblazer
“Heller draws a refreshing beauty from her “this is what it is” approach in The Diary of a Teenage Girl, getting tenderness out of content too often used simply to titillate, shock or be used for didactic tirades.”
The Dueling Cavalier: Proof of Premise in ‘Inside Out’
A Column by Max Bledstein
His Blazing Automatics: What the Release Date Push for Jeff Nichols’ ‘Midnight Special’ Means
A Column by Dylan Moses Griffin
Of Love and Other Demons: ‘Black Orpheus’ (Marcel Camus, 1959)
“‘Black Orpheus’ embraces sex as multiplicitous. This somehow makes the love more noble, because it is not confused with lust, and sex becomes a celebration rather than a symbol of it.”
The Dueling Cavalier: ‘Tangerine,’ ‘Toy Story’ and Technology in Storytelling
A Column by Max Bledstein
Rogue Sequel: In Defence of John Woo’s ‘Mission: Impossible II’
“Fully asserting the series reboot mantra, M:I II eschews the original’s ethos in favour of half a Hitchcock riff (a lot of Notorious, with a pinch of To Catch a Thief) and half traditional, near self-parodic Woo bombast.”
Back to the Beginning: John Cassavetes’ ‘Shadows’ (1959)
The Fifth and Final Installment of “Tightrope Cinema: John Cassavetes’ Highwire World” by Phuong Le
We Failed This Film: Lana and Andy Wachowski’s ‘Speed Racer’
A Series by Dylan Moses Griffin
His Blazing Automatics: The Cinematic Connection of Chan-wook Park’s ‘Oldboy’ and Kihachi Okamoto’s ‘The Sword of Doom’
A Column by Dylan Moses Griffin
Of Love and Other Demons: ‘Mamma Roma’ (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1962)
“Pasolini suggests in ‘Mamma Roma’ that the spiritual beauty of humanity often emerges from vulgarity and contradiction.”
Gaslighting and Moral Blindness in Christian Petzold’s ‘Phoenix’
“Phoenix’s devastating final scene pretty much erases a need for the specifics of the moral blindness.”
His Blazing Automatics: What’s Going on at Blumhouse?
A Column by Dylan Moses Griffin
Film Beat: Cafe Scene from Jean-Luc Godard’s ‘Vivre sa vie’
“After my first viewing of ‘Vivre sa vie,’ I closed my laptop, went out and chopped my waist-length mane to a bob. Movies have always had that mysterious power of making me feel as if I have lived all the lives I see on-screen.”