The Master’s Voice: Gregory Monro’s ‘Kubrick by Kubrick’
“‘Kubrick by Kubrick’ has the effect of placing the notoriously particular and media-shy subject in the room with the eager listener/viewer.”
Why Criticism: The Difficulties of Depicting Genocide in ‘Quo Vadis, Aida?’ and ‘La Llorona’
“Roger Ebert once wrote ‘it’s not what a film is about, it’s how it is about it,’ and it’s this phrase that I usually return to when thinking about cinema that deals with humanity’s worst impulses.”
Caught in a Bad Romance: On Psychological Horror and Visual Design in ‘Nina Wu’
“‘Nina Wu’ isn’t just a ‘#MeToo thriller’ or ‘slow burn cinema,’ it’s a progressive spin on psychological horror and a master class in visceral visual design.”
North Dakota Environmental Rights Film Festival Review: Shannon Kring’s ‘End of the Line: The Women of Standing Rock’
“End of the Line: The Women of Standing Rock’ belongs to a tradition of activist filmmaking that draws from investigative journalism as well as from artistic principles and techniques.”
How Questions of Exploitation Stain the Triumph of ‘Grey Gardens’
“The utter sadness of Little and Big Edie’s story is why ‘Grey Gardens’ is so moving — direct cinema allowed this story to be explored with a level of intimacy previously unavailable.”
Mannhunting: Exploring Masculinity in the Films of Michael Mann – Part One
Mannhunting #1 by Bill Bria: “The protagonists and antagonists in Mann’s films tend to be mirror images of each other, all of them caught within masculinity’s shackles.”
Somewhere, There Is a Shelter: Queer Futurity in Faraz Shariat’s ‘No Hard Feelings’
“‘No Hard Feelings’ takes queerness as a given, capturing queer joy onscreen while never losing sight of the stark realities of migrants seeking refuge in a still highly xenophobic Europe.”
An Elegy of a Turbulent Phase: On Sudhir Mishra’s ‘Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi’
“‘Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi’ bears the unmistakable stamp of an artist at the very apogee of his creative prowess.”
Collecting Movies with Toby Jones
Greg Carlson Interviews Filmmaker Toby Jones About Movie Collecting
Review: Stephen Kijak’s ‘Shoplifters of the World’
“‘Shoplifters of the World’ seems more affectionate to 2000s conceptions of 1980s nostalgia than to the thing itself.”
BFI Flare Review: Anna Kerrigan’s ‘Cowboys’
“Joe’s backstory allows ‘Cowboys’ to explore the difficulty of being young and trans, but never in a way that feels exploitative.”
BFI Flare Review: Marley Morrison’s ‘Sweetheart’
“The way ‘Sweetheart’ approaches the topic of AJ’s sexuality isn’t groundbreaking, but in a world where queer coming of age stories are still defined by the “coming out” part, it feels refreshing all the same.”
BFI Flare Review: Shirel Peleg’s ‘Kiss Me Before It Blows Up’
“For a debut feature, ‘Kiss Me Before It Blows Up’ is a bold and assertive movie that nails a few funny moments, but it would’ve benefitted from a more nuanced exploration of its complex subject matter.”
Review: ‘Zack Snyder’s Justice League’
“In an era where Disney allows Marvel to experiment boldly with narrative structures in a show like ‘WandaVision,’ ‘Zack Snyder’s Justice League’ seems like a tired old horse that needs to be put out to pasture.”
Review: Taylor Morden’s ‘The Last Blockbuster’
“Too often, the tongue-in-cheek tone veers into the empty calorie territory of VH1’s cable television time-filler ‘I Love the ‘80s,’ as subjects like Doug Benson and Ron Funches can’t resist using their screen time to test what feels like standup material.”
BFI Flare Review: Patrick Sammon and Bennett Singer’s ‘Cured’
“It’s unrealistic to expect every queer film to tackle all aspects of queer life and history, but ‘Cured’ presents its narrative in a way that’s too clean and neat, too much of a happily-ever-after.”
SXSW Review: Alex Noyer’s ‘Sound of Violence’ – A Loud but Toothless Slasher
“Sound of Violence’s nonchalant depictions of violence, which occur with such obfuscation due to uncoordinated quick-cut editing and color filters, render it a fangless drama with un-engaging sequences of killing and torture.”
SXSW Review: Jaco Bouwer’s ‘Gaia’ Sacrifices Its Timely Idea for Cheap Thrills
“There are many ways that Gaia’s concepts can be expounded into more interesting discussions, yet Bouwer is fine with maintaining a simplistic if metaphorically informed tale about Mother Nature’s revenge.”
BFI Flare Review: Thomas Wilson-White’s ‘The Greenhouse’
“‘The Greenhouse’ is a cathartic and visually stunning piece of Australian Gothicism which is sure to make an impact on the festival circuit in 2021.”
BFI Flare Review: Oskar Roehler’s ‘Enfant Terrible’
“‘Enfant Terrible’ is one of the more successful examples of a director biopic, but the familiar conventions of the genre eventually do a disservice to such a talented filmmaker.”