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.”
New York Film Festival Review: Serge Bozon’s ‘Madame Hyde’
“‘Madame Hyde’ crystallizes its views about the absurd limitations in trying to communicate the abstract gift of knowledge.”
‘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.”
Review: Darren Aronofsky’s ‘mother!’
“If ‘mother!’ lacks the refinement of a manifesto for a new breed of movie theater flick, it makes up for it in the audacity to be unique.”
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.”
TIFF 2017 Review: Lucrecia Martel’s ‘Zama’
“‘Zama’ is the kind of historical film that refuses to concede even the smallest positivity to the history in question.”
TIFF 2017 Review: Guillermo del Toro’s ‘The Shape of Water’
“Guillermo del Toro may very well be cinema’s reigning master of monster mythology.”
TIFF 2017 Review (Wavelengths): Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Verena Paravel’s ‘Caniba’
“Have they never heard of negative space?”
TIFF 2017 Review: Govinda Van Maele’s ‘Gutland’
“The brooding ominousness Van Maele plays with throughout seems to run through many of this year’s European offerings.”
Andy Muschietti’s ‘It’ Struggles with Adaptation
“As an adaptation of a great 20th century novel, ‘It’ completely misses the mark.”
TIFF 2017 Review: Alexander Payne’s ‘Downsizing’
“‘Downsizing’ thinks it has big ideas, but artistically and intellectually, it’s as small as its protagonists.”