In Conversation: Cillian Murphy from ‘Kitten’ Braden to Tommy Shelby
Leslie Hatton and Ciara Wardlow Discuss Cillian Murphy’s Career
Berlinale 2018 Review: Cédric Kahn’s ‘The Prayer’
“‘The Prayer’ – and its strange mountain community – is oddly timeless or out-of-our-time.”
Vague Visages Is FilmStruck: ‘Twentieth Century’
“Screwball comedies don’t get much funnier, or screwier, than Howard Hawks’ ‘Twentieth Century.'”
Berlinale 2018 Review: Christian Petzold’s ‘Transit’
“For those who didn’t think Petzold could improve after ‘Phoenix,’ you might have to reconsider after experiencing ‘Transit.’”
Vague Visages Is FilmStruck: Marshall Shaffer on Paul Robeson
“As both a man and an artist, Paul Robeson deserves more recognition in 2018 and beyond.”
Vague Visages Writers’ Room: Weekend Vibes 2.16.18
Weekend Vibes is a Friday column about streaming recommendations, new release hype and entertainment events.
2018 Oscar-Nominated Short Reviews: Best Live Action Short Film and Best Documentary (Short Subject)
“While nearly all Oscar-nominated shorts are doomed to eventual obscurity whether they win or not, that’s the key to one’s artistic staying power.”
Vague Visages Is FilmStruck: Marshall Shaffer on Valentine’s Day and a FilmStruck Wedding
Love Is Love: Peter Putzel Marries FilmStruck
The Digital Perverse: Dario Argento’s ‘Dracula 3D’
“This filmmaker’s oeuvre has never been a showcase of ‘good taste’ or conventional demonstrations in character/story development, so why should we expect him to play by the rules now?”
Vague Visages Is FilmStruck: Marshall Shaffer on Agnès Varda’s ‘Mur murs’
“New York might have the physical structure where one can project themselves onto a city, but Los Angeles’ mutability allows people to graft their life into its cultural fabric.”
The Striking Punch of Subversion: Devashish Makhija’s ‘Ajji’
“‘Ajji’ successfully imparts the notion that it’s compulsory for victims to retaliate against extreme injustice by transforming into wolves.”
Album Review: The Soft Moon ‘Criminal’
“While The Soft Moon has always released music that could best be described as ‘none more bleak,’ with ‘Criminal,’ there seems to be something like acceptance. Maybe that’s the bleakest timeline of all.”
Could Jordan Peele’s ‘Get Out’ Break Horror’s Dry Spell at the Oscars?
“Art is a product of its time; is it Get Out’s fault that the time mostly resembles a horror production?”
Vague Visages Is FilmStruck: Marshall Shaffer’s #FilmStruckFebruary – The Beginning
Marshall Shaffer’s 2nd annual #FilmStruckFebruary begins!
Vague Visages Is FilmStruck: Natalia Winkelman on Věra Chytilová’s ‘Daisies’
“The Maries, and ‘Daisies’ itself, are quintessential fruits of the Czech New Wave, deconstructing social hierarchies while embodying the free-flowing, iconoclastic ethos that roused and buoyed 1960s Czechoslovak cinema.”
‘Mary and the Witch’s Flower’ Is Chock-Full of Studio Ghibli Fairy Dust
“While it doesn’t pop with philosophical resonance like Ghibli pictures, it has enough fairy dust in its sleeves to keep you transfixed and rooting for the heroine.”
Lady Bird and the War of Innocence
“Maybe this war of innocence is one that’s never really won or lost. Maybe we just take life one battle at a time.”
Sundance Film Festival Review: David and Nathan Zellner’s ‘Damsel’
“A tremendously fun movie, ‘Damsel’ reinvigorates the Western aesthetic even as it defies many of the genre’s story conventions.”
Album Review: Ty Segall ‘Freedom’s Goblin’
“These are songs that don’t feel like they’ve been corrupted by overthinking or compressed by studio gloss.”
Devious Dialogues: Mike Thorn and Anya Stanley on the ‘Insidious’ Franchise
“Well, we’re definitely in agreement that ‘Chapter 2’ is the best of the series!”