Review: Brandon Christensen’s ‘Z’
“As a genre exercise, ‘Z’ shows promise for what Christensen might do with a higher budget.”
12 Angry Films: Sidney Lumet on Justice #11 – ‘Night Falls on Manhattan’
“In ‘Night Falls on Manhattan,’ Lumet arrives at acceptance — the system is what it is. He is resigned to his inability to chronicle any meaningful change through his work.”
Foreign Objects: ‘Swallow’ Is a Convincing Feature Debut for Director Carlo Mirabella-Davis
“Haley Bennett’s central performance is career-best work.”
The Disaster Area: From ‘Airport’ to ‘Airplane!’ – Part One
“It is during the 70s that the disaster film’s most pure and admirable entries were made, bookended by two significantly different stories involving air travel fiascos.”
Why Criticism: Not Quite the Apocalypse
“In Australia, our cinematic art has been trying to shake us from apathy for 50 years.”
Review: Liz Garbus’ ‘Lost Girls’
“The lack of resolution inherent in the source material sets up an insurmountable task: the solution to the central crime and mystery that puts this particular story in motion.”
12 Angry Films: Sidney Lumet on Justice #9 – ‘Q & A’
“The thrill of a film like ‘Q & A’ comes in watching how Lumet finds new ways to level his criticisms, harnessing the cynicism that has propelled his work and suffusing each frame with deep, corrupting rot.”
Tone in the Films of Joe Dante: Attack of the Multi-Layers!
“Not quite comedies, not entirely horror movies and not normal family films, Dante’s work continues to impress with the layers each work reveals over time, a key factor in their lasting power.”
Glasgow Film Festival Review: Régis Roinsard’s ‘Les traducteurs’
“Roinsard is so preoccupied with setting up the next twist that ‘Les traducteurs’ does little to establish why viewers should care.”
Review: ‘Dark Whispers: Volume 1’
“The problem with ‘Dark Whispers: Volume 1’ is the same as with any horror anthology — the stories are only as good as what’s come before.”
Review: Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz’s ‘The Lodge’
“Franz and Fiala scale down Kubrick’s more expansive vision, and the result offers its own kind of skin-crawling satisfaction.”
Why Criticism: The One-Inch Tall Barrier of Foreign Cinema
“Tucked in our so-called privileged positions, we need to not only hold tight but also need to learn when to engage and when to let things go.”
‘The Wave’: A Promising Fiction Debut from Gille Klabin
“‘The Wave’ spotlights the proverbial writing on the wall for its most flawed characters, but also makes sure to settle on the base-level humanity of others. The result is an affecting and forward-thinking film that pinpoints what it means to be self-aware.”
Why Criticism: You Can’t Take the “Film” Out of Film Criticism
“Over time, a film critic should be able to engage with cinema in an all-encompassing manner, acknowledging the interior and exterior forces of what makes a movie…”
Review: Sam Mendes’ ‘1917’
“With a fresh, new approach, Mendes memorializes not only his grandfather, but all the brave soldiers of WWI, reminding viewers of the individual tragedies that comprise warfare.”
Review: Sophia Takal’s ‘Black Christmas’
“Playing with of-the-moment vocabulary familiar on college campuses, the latest ‘Black Christmas’ upends several slasher conventions, even if the film is a step down from the director’s excellent ‘Always Shine.'”
Jennifer Kent Sings a Bloody Song in ‘The Nightingale’
“Jennifer Kent’s ‘The Nightingale’ will not attract the same cult following or breadth of widespread fan devotion as ‘The Babadook,’ but her latest marks significant progress in the filmmaker’s command of story and cinematic language.”
Bong Joon-Ho’s ‘Parasite’ Infiltrates Year-End Best Movies Lists
“Like the Master of Suspense before him, Bong effortlessly blends the horrific and the comic en route to the icebox talk that has viewers questioning their own attitudes and beliefs through the unanswered mysteries of the story.”
The Absent Presence in ‘Klute’
“In dramatizing themes of absence and presence so thoroughly, ‘Klute’ embodies a central feature of neo-noir; as a self-conscious revision of a classic film cycle, noir is always both absent and present in neo-noir films.”
Review: Alice Waddington’s ‘Paradise Hills’
“One can’t help but wonder how Waddington might reinvigorate other sci-fi tales with her fairy tale stylings.”