NYFF 2018 Review: Claire Denis’ ‘High Life’
“Denis’ approach resembles that of Pattinson’s performance: pointedly pared down to the bare minimum without fully untethering from recognizable humanity.”
How to Lose Control: Understanding Children and Insecurity with ‘The New Man’
Ella Kemp Interviews ‘The New Man’ Filmmakers/Subjects Devorah Baum and Josh Appignanesi
Looking Back at Steven Soderbergh’s ‘sex, lies, and videotape’
“Despite its salacious subject matter — sexuality, infidelity and voyeurism — the movie contains shockingly few sex scenes, but still remains erotically charged nearly 30 years later.”
Empathy Through Voyeurism: ‘Bad Times at the El Royale’ Review
“Goddard delineates his film from its influences by focusing almost exclusively on character. Rather than a story filled with twists and turns and manipulation of the audience, ‘Bad Times at the El Royale’ presents each character’s story as a solo vignette, before tying it into the overarching drama.”
NYFF 2018 Review: Paul Dano’s ‘Wildlife’
“The overcorrection for sentimentality does give ‘Wildlife’ a bit of a sterile feel, but the deliberate dissatisfaction that Dano allows to permeate through his debut feature provides a fitting complement to the private misery of the film’s characters.”
Review: Josh Appignanesi’s ‘Female Human Animal’
“It’s a confusing enterprise all around, but — at the very least — ‘Female Human Animal’ is unlike anything else out there, for better or worse.”
Sensual Synths and Death Drones: Listening to ‘It Follows’
“The quickening tempo of non-diegetic, alienating sounds should not be simply viewed as part of a film score, but as an access point into the fear-induced perspectives of the victims within this film world.”
Someone Else’s War: A Reckoning with Clint Eastwood’s ‘American Sniper’
“Movies aren’t proverbs — their morals are questionable, their questions are impossible to answer. This is the case for good films, at least.”
Eli Roth Replaces Trademark Irreverence with Quiet Reverence for ‘The House with a Clock in Its Walls’
“Ultimately, it seems that the film’s pleasant and inoffensive affect is exactly what Roth intends. The work is unassuming, competently handled and ably colored within its established lines. It aims clearly and unwaveringly to please a young target audience.”
VV Shudder Selects: Using the Camera to Confront the Male Gaze in ‘Revenge’
“Fargeat is almost saying, ‘well, if you want to look at her, you must look at her no matter her condition.’ It is a grotesque way of calling out the male gaze, but it is an effective one.”
Vague Visages Is FilmStruck: Alejandro Jodorowsky’s ‘El Topo’
“Jodorowsky’s film is a potpourri of consecrated iconography and symbolism, providing ‘El Topo’ a breadth of sacred resonance and no doubt augmenting its potential for provocation and interpretation.”
Outside the Frame: On ‘Hale County This Morning, This Evening’
“‘Hale County This Morning, This Evening’ is a cinema of living and breathing freedom: a poetry in light and sound that is bridling at the constraints of the very documentary form itself.”
Preview: Brooklyn Horror Film Festival 2018
Leslie Hatton Previews the Brooklyn Horror Film Festival 2018
Blowback: Peter Berg’s ‘Mile 22’
“Blowback occurs when policymakers fail to take into account the far-reaching ramifications of their actions.”
TIFF 2018 Review: Peter Farrelly’s ‘Green Book’
“‘Green Book’ becomes more than a comforting story of a friendship that today would actually be perfectly likely when its baseline intersectionality shows its limits.”
TIFF 2018 Review: Felix Van Groeningen’s ‘Beautiful Boy’
“‘Beautiful Boy’ occasionally veers into prevention video territory, but the despair and forced acceptance that David goes through show a side of fatherhood that cinema rarely confronts. Sometimes, your child has to help himself.”
TIFF 2018: Like the Hope of Rain After a Long Summer – A Review of John Butler’s ‘Papi Chulo’
“Apart from fantastic performances from its cast, especially Bomer and Patiño, Papi Chulo’s biggest strength is the subtlety and grace with which it deals with the wide cross-section of issues it touches upon.”
TIFF 2018 Review: Alfonso Cuarón’s ‘Roma’
“Anchored by a deeply sympathetic performance from Aparicio, ‘Roma’ is an empathetic, sentimental, stirring delight.”
TIFF 2018 Review: Neil Jordan’s ‘Greta’
“Greta’s biggest asset is that it’s a film that relishes in its own absurdity.”
TIFF 2018 Review: Jonah Hill’s ‘Mid90s’
“The influence of Larry Clark’s 1995 cult film ‘Kids’ may be all over ‘Mid90s,’ but Hill has a more tender and perhaps more realistic approach of his young subjects: they are smart enough to know when they’re going too far.”