Magical Mojo: Lee Toland Krieger’s ‘The Age of Adaline’
“Filled with sappy moments but fueled by Lively’s classical mojo, The Age of Adaline holds back just enough to capitalize on its magical realism.”
New German Cinema: Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s ‘Beware of a Holy Whore’
“While Beware of a Holy Whore symbolizes a voice for Fassbinder’s many criticisms of the filmmaking process, he uses aspects of the film to parody his own life and dispositions.”
Review: Olivier Assayas’ ‘Clouds of Sils Maria’
“An Olivier Assayas film in which an artist reflects on their own creative past in a new light — there must be something in the air at Sils Maria.”
Review: Thomas Vinterberg’s ‘Far from the Madding Crowd’
“Far from the Madding Crowd is a uniquely intimate adaptation in its focus on accumulating small moments and emotions to provide spark to its characters.”
New German Cinema: Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s ‘The American Soldier’
“A surrealist bookend to his unofficial gangster trilogy, The American Soldier finds R.W. Fassbinder not only at peace with his version of cinematic grace but more cynically-minded than ever.”
New German Cinema: Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s ‘Gods of the Plague’
“A complex study of character and mood, Gods of the Plague relies heavily on subtly-crafted and detached scenes to amass larger thematic ideas of isolation, jealousy and love.”
New German Cinema: Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s ‘Love is Colder Than Death’
“Basking in drawn-out pauses and uninterrupted tracking shots, Fassbinder strives to make his audience feel a profound discomfort and delights in presenting an errant challenge to his viewers’ integrity.”
Review: Alex Garland’s ‘Ex Machina’
“A commanding first directorial effort from Alex Garland, Ex Machina is the product of a perfectly-tuned collaborative endeavor, much like the mind of its artificial centerpiece.”
Channeling Chekhov and Cassavetes: Chris Messina’s ‘Alex of Venice’
“From the fluid cinematography of Doug Emmett to Mary Elizabeth Winstead’s obvious transition into an undeniable star, the directorial debut of Chris Messina, Alex of Venice, contains a natural honesty that simply feels right.”
Review: Daniel Espinosa’s ‘Child 44’
“A Kafka-esque condemnation of Stalin’s government ham-handedly plopped into a John le Carré spy thriller, Child 44 is ambiguous cinematic fluff.”
The Act of Clicking: Levan Gabriadze’s ‘Unfriended’
“Unfriended intelligently explores the act of clicking and how those split-second decisions can change everything.”
Review: Noah Baumbach’s ‘While We’re Young’
“A plethora of likable characters and tidy wrap-ups diminish the artistic potential of While We’re Young, as Baumbach doesn’t compromise the film’s abilities as a general crowdpleaser.”
Review: Don Hertzfeldt’s ‘World of Tomorrow’
“A deeply impactful film (regardless of length or medium), Hertzfeldt’s World of Tomorrow has a penetrating gift for resplendent empathy — solidifying itself as a shining star of 2015, and one of the finest films of the decade.”
VOD Review: Ryan Gosling’s ‘Lost River’
“Like a pilfered Fabergé egg, Ryan Gosling’s freshman effort, ‘Lost River,’ is a sight to behold but completely hollow beneath its bejeweled veneer.”
VOD Review: Lone Scherfig’s ‘The Riot Club’
“A somewhat uneven protest of English nobility and a denouncement of nepotic privilege, The Riot Club’s message is a redundant one: unchecked, inherited wealth leads to problems.”
Case for Criterion: William Friedkin’s ‘Bug’
“‘Bug’ closes in on you in a curiously suffocating way. It’s disorienting in the best way possible.”
Case for Criterion: Tomas Alfredson’s ‘Let the Right One In’
“The horror reads as a treatise against a dominant culture that upholds rather old-fashioned ideas of gender…”
Case for Criterion: Jamie Babbit’s ‘But I’m a Cheerleader’
“Babbit recognizes that the characters in question have a difficult choice to make: to subscribe to a dominant culture and survive or to ‘be themselves’ and ostensibly be shunned.”
Case for Criterion: Xavier Dolan’s ‘Heartbeats’
“Critics have labeled ‘Heartbeats’ as derivative and pretentious, flamboyant and bratty, but it’s exactly the kind of film where such criticism means that it’s doing its job.”
Case for Criterion: Marc Forster’s ‘Stranger Than Fiction’
“The complexities of ‘Stranger Than Fiction’ are worthy of their own analysis, but the film’s simplicities and stark honesty about emotion are its strengths.”