Review: Maxwell McCabe-Lokos’ ‘Stanleyville’
“An ambitious failure is often more interesting than a safe success, and what ‘Stanleyville’ lacks in narrative propulsion it makes up for with sheer audacity.”
‘Hatching’: Hanna Bergholm’s Fledgling Feature Takes Flight
“Hanna Bergholm’s feature debut ‘Hatching’ is a satisfying creature-feature delight.”
The World Is Cold: Fallen Idols and False Prophets in Post-Crash America
“The year 2012 was the first in which cinema could adequately assess the material and psychological toll of the crash. The box office tells its own story: audiences were looking for saviors…”
He’s Not Even from ‘Round Here: ‘Hot Fuzz’ at 15
“‘Hot Fuzz’ has remained a key part of the zeitgeist thanks to its specificity, but also because the movie celebrates doing the right thing, working together and being a good person above all else.”
Robert Eggers Goes Berserk with Viking Tale ‘The Northman’
“The Northman’s carefully choreographed, single-shot takes and startlingly lit close-ups blow the spatially disorienting and over-edited style of so many contemporary action films completely out of the fjord.”
‘Coach to Vienna’ and the Muddied Waters of History
“The power of ‘Coach to Vienna’ today rests in its mythic quality. The crux of the story may well be placed in the ‘real,’ but the affect of the mise-en-scène is that of a murderous fable.”
Pinky Push-ups and Weaponized Lapdogs: The Daniels Take a Spin Through the Multiverse in ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’
“‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ nearly wears out its welcome, but as far as hot dog-fingered audacity goes, the Daniels will make plenty of new eyeballs go googly.”
The Eternal Substance of ‘Into the Night: Portraits of Life and Death’
“‘Into the Night’ is a valuable resource for the ‘connoisseur of fear.'”
Finding Clarity in Claustrophobia: ‘Mass’ and ‘The Humans’
“In ‘Mass’ and ‘The Humans,’ the single location is used as a platform for ideas that seek universal understanding and collective empathy.”
The Milk of Kindness: Andrea Arnold’s ‘Cow’
“‘Cow’ strikes just the right balance between the filmmaker’s self-awareness, which punctuates the movie’s soundtrack selections, and Arnold’s long-game feminist commentary.”
Review: Ryan Marley’s ‘Candidato 34’
“‘Candidato 34,’ a documentary short by filmmaker Ryan Marley, raises important questions about disability ethics and sociopolitical norms.”
They Know Not What They Do: The Passion of the Christ in Franco Zeffirelli’s ‘Jesus of Nazareth’
“‘Jesus of Nazareth’ is precisely a film of moments, and Zeffirelli depicts them with expert technique.”
Having It All: The Career Woman Takes Over
D.M. Palmer on the career women of ‘9 to 5’ (1980), ‘Baby Boom’ (1987), ‘Big Business’ (1988), ‘Working Girl’ (1988) and ‘Disclosure’ (1994).
On Power and Pleasure in Paul Thomas Anderson’s ‘Phantom Thread’
“‘Phantom Thread’ is for anyone who has ever been hungry, for anyone who has ever been in love. Most of all, it’s for those people who know that love and hunger are, at their most acutely expressed, one and the same.”
Review: Pedro González Bermúdez’s ‘A Forbidden Orange’
“The side trips in ‘A Forbidden Orange’ are more tantalizing than the sights on the main highway.”
Only in Chaos Are We Conceivable
“The future appears bleak for the telenovela characters of ‘The Wandering Soap Opera,’ but at least they have accessible entertainment options to distract them from all the normalized chaos.”
Review: Krystin Ver Linden’s ‘Alice’
“Alice’s imaginative genre-mashup works in fits and starts, but there is no question about the quality of lead Keke Palmer’s smooth Pam Grier-inspired performance, even if she inhabits a universe that never fully comes together for viewers.”
The American Horizon: Working Life in the New Hollywood
“What is so strange about the New Hollywood renaissance of the 70s is that it took place at a time of acute crisis for the business. It was a signal of the industry’s weakness that these cracks in the veneer were not only permitted but encouraged…”
A Song of Suggestion and Sanctimonious Snakes
“Singh understands the power of suggestion and how a simple turn of the head can communicate what a character might struggle to articulate.”
Collecting Movies with Mylissa Fitzsimmons
Mylissa Fitzsimmons Interview: Greg Carlson and the filmmaker discuss movie collecting and ‘Everything in the End.’