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.”
Locarno 2015: ‘Chevalier’ (Athina Rachel Tsangari, 2015)
“Masculinity has been the love-theme of this year’s edition of Locarno, and Chevalier further indulges in the dank impulses and fragility of the male ego.”
Review: Carol Morley’s ‘The Falling’
“Morley pushes the film’s “mystery” beyond any audience guessing games to a level of bewilderment above any useful analysis, leaving viewers in a state of excited shock.”
‘Only Yesterday’ Is Studio Ghibli’s Secret Masterpiece
An Essay by Josh Slater-Williams
Locarno 2015: ‘Cosmos’ (Andrzej Zulawski, 2015)
“Cosmos feels more like a parody of Zulawski’s work than a larger part of it.”
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
Review: Christopher McQuarrie’s ‘Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation’
“Matched by the acrobatic ferocity of Ferguson’s Faust, Cruise’s antics transform Rogue Nation into an explosive Cirque du Soleil performance on the grandest of scales.”
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
Review: Kris Swanberg’s ‘Unexpected’
“Throughout Unexpected, little is ever gained or lost, ultimately raising the question (albeit a rather absurd one when considering film): for whom was this made, and what is its intended purpose?”
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