Why I Wear the Mask: Tom Hardy’s Performances of Limitation
“Behind the mask, lurking within the timbre of the vocal choices, buried beneath the shaped physique, there is truth.”
Album Review: Melkbelly ‘Nothing Valley’
“Melkbelly is hard to pin down; their songs flaunt a flagrant disregard for what many would consider indie rock or punk or post-punk.”
London Film Festival Review: Léonor Serraille’s ‘Jeune femme’
“Dare I say it, but ‘Jeune Femme’ is as ripe for an American remake as any film I’ve seen on this year’s festival circuit.”
London Film Festival Review: Rungano Nyoni’s ‘I Am Not a Witch’
“Shot beautifully, with an imposing yet wholly appropriate classical soundtrack to match, ‘I Am Not a Witch’ is worth the watch.”
London Film Festival Review: Andrey Zvyagintsev’s ‘Loveless’
“Much like ‘Leviathan,’ the film is oppressively bleak.”
London Film Festival Review: Vivian Qu’s ‘Angels Wear White’
“Vivian Qu’s ‘Angels Wear White’ is another realist, slow cinema meditation on the social troubles in China.”
Disney Dreams in Sean Baker’s ‘The Florida Project’
“‘The Florida Project’ is a marvelous portrait of childhood that depicts how it feels to live on the fringes and just out of reach from The Happiest Place on Earth.”
London Film Festival Review: Dee Rees’ ‘Mudbound’
“‘Mudbound’ plays the game and begins with a white man, but, throughout the course of an epic tale, it arrives at a moving destination.”
Review: Denis Villeneuve’s ‘Blade Runner 2049’
“If time has the power to render every structure and memory as null, then here are the moments that define humanity; here are the moments that we hope to remember.”
London Film Festival Review: Todd Haynes’ ‘Wonderstruck’
“This kind of world recreation doesn’t come cheap, and it’s a delight to see a filmmaker of Haynes’ caliber given such a worthy budget.”
Album Review: O.R.B. ‘Naturality’
“The first two songs on ‘Naturality’ prove O.R.B.’s members have clearly got the chops to do something different with their doom-inspired template.”
London Film Festival Review: Andrew Haigh‘s ‘Lean on Pete’
“‘Lean on Pete’ hits the mark emotionally and reveals itself to be a poised, moving film.”
The Joy of Creating: On Takeshi Kitano’s ‘Hana-bi’
“‘Hana-bi’ is a deeply personal labour of love made by an artist observing his own enigmatic nature from a variety of angles in an attempt to arrive at some clarifying epiphany.”
Clothes Make the Man: Remembering Harry Dean Stanton
“Harry Dean Stanton was dependable, durable and made whatever part his own, no matter how big or small.”
Low-Budget and Lurid: Inside the Macabre Cinematic Universe of Roger Corman’s Poe Cycle
“To watch Roger Corman’s Poe movies is to visit a mythic dreamscape where the boundaries between life and death are permeable.”
Ridley Scott’s ‘Alien: Covenant’: Another Look at the Power of Creation and Destruction
“The stories and conflicts of Scott’s android characters cause viewers to contemplate a number of issues relevant to the human condition.”
My Summer of Dunst: Series Conclusion
“Kirsten Dunst deserves an apology, and a second look, from all of us.”
New York Film Festival Review: Serge Bozon’s ‘Madame Hyde’
“‘Madame Hyde’ crystallizes its views about the absurd limitations in trying to communicate the abstract gift of knowledge.”
‘American Made’: Cruising into Character
“One doesn’t expect an immediate return to iconic roles like Vincent Lauria or T.J. Mackey, but hopefully Barry Seal is just the start.”
Review: Darren Aronofsky’s ‘mother!’
“If ‘mother!’ lacks the refinement of a manifesto for a new breed of movie theater flick, it makes up for it in the audacity to be unique.”