Review: Theodore Schaefer’s ‘Giving Birth to a Butterfly’
“‘Giving Birth to a Butterfly’ progressively improves from act to act, due to a cohesive narrative structure, strong character development and the director’s willingness to get weird.”
Weird Worlds: The Short Films of Ari Aster
“Aster’s short films are at present the best representation of his eclectic taste and elastic interests.”
New York African Film Festival Review: Ery Claver’s ‘Our Lady of the Chinese Shop’
“A meditation on the temptations of leisure, ‘Our Lady of the Chinese Shop’ announces a major filmmaking talent in Ery Claver.”
Review: James Gunn’s ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’
“‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’ makes use of what comes before without being totally bogged down. It’s a working film product, if not a superlatively meaningful work of art.”
Review: Sam Green’s ’32 Sounds’
“If sound is a social currency, then Green’s doc could inspire a valuable franchise, à la the ‘Up’ series from across the pond. We’re going to need more cowbell.”
Crime Scene #3: ‘Bob le Flambeur’ and the Death of Paris
“Melville’s Paris is a poetically insomniac version, one that I’m not sure ever really existed. The City of Light has been written about and filmed so much that one has long since forgotten what is real and what is urban legend.”
On György Fehér’s ‘Twilight’ and the Eternity of Nature
“‘Twilight’ is a remarkable film with its loaded minimalism and spectacular formalism.”
Review: Lee Cronin’s ‘Evil Dead Rise’
“‘Evil Dead Rise’ quickly devolves into a mean-spirited slog of self-consciously gruesome attempts at shocking an audience that will only be fooled if they’ve never seen another horror movie before.”
Follow That Dream: Generation X and Addiction Cinema
“In a climate of secular uncertainty, the addict’s commitment to something larger took on an almost religious significance; the user was transformed into an intrepid traveler.”
Review: Ari Aster’s ‘Beau Is Afraid’
“If ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ and ‘The Fabelmans’ were one film, complete with the excesses of both yet without the charm, that movie would be ‘Beau Is Afraid.'”
Review: Mickey Reece’s ‘Country Gold’
“‘Country Gold,’ with all its simplicity and overt homages, never feels boring. Reece seems invested in innovation. He’s an indie filmmaker who can take on any genre, one who probably won’t abandon his community for an MCU check.”
Review: Bastian Günther’s ‘One of These Days’
“Ok, Günther. You got me. Bold storytelling is better than milquetoast moviemaking.”
Review: Lauren Greenhall’s ‘Perfectly Good Moment’
“What is your cinematic identity, ‘Perfectly Good Moment’? It’s hard to tell. Still, there’s something to celebrate in the final act.”
Review: Julie Lecoustre and Emmanuel Marre’s ‘Zero Fucks Given’
“Exarchopoulos continues to be a daring and transcendent performer; she is expensive in the best way possible.”
Review: Kyra Elise Gardner’s ‘Living with Chucky’
“‘Living with Chucky’ isn’t exactly life-changing, but it’s enormously life-affirming, particularly for diehard horror fans.”
Crime Scene #2: ‘Collateral,’ Cars and Computers
“In Mann’s world, the car and the computer seem to join forces to anonymize and obliterate the cost of human life outside of that space, enveloped in the fragmented, disintegrated aesthetic of early digital cinematography itself.”
Show Me How to Live
“Both Guidry and Garay could easily headline a YA franchise some day. If viewers don’t remember ‘The Park,’ they should remember the lead actress’ names.”
Making ‘The Killing’: An Auteur and His Writer
“Kubrick was in many ways the embodiment of a new Hollywood — brilliant, creative and perhaps a bit ruthless, words that could also be used to describe his first great film, ‘The Killing.'”
Review: John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein’s ‘Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves’
“In a film world full of geek culture adaptations, Daley and Goldstein’s 2023 adaptation is the functional and rewarding film that ‘Dungeons & Dragons’ fans have long awaited.”
Review: Kevin Abrams’ ‘I Got a Monster’
“‘I Got a Monster’ is incredibly evocative, the dissonance between the harshness of Baltimore’s architecture and old school activities providing yet another layer to the devastating story.”