Review: James Gray’s ‘Ad Astra’
“‘Ad Astra’ joins the likes of ‘Gravity’ and ‘Interstellar’ as one of Stanley Kubrick’s starchildren.”
Illness and Self-Reflection: Pedro Almodóvar’s ‘Broken Embraces’ and ‘Pain and Glory’
“By experiencing Almodóvar’s films as the product of a man whose view of the world is deeply affected by a variety of nagging medical concerns, only a few late period works thoroughly scratch under the surface of his psyche.”
‘Millennium Actress’ and the Legacy of Satoshi Kon
“No matter what one pulls from Kon’s work, there’s no denying his lasting impact and innate ability to immediately render a viewer speechless.”
Threatened Individualism: On François Truffaut’s ‘Fahrenheit 451’
“Throughout both the foreground and background of ‘Fahrenheit 451,’ Truffaut emphasizes the characters’ self-absorption via a hyper-sexual form of narcissism in a society lacking real love.”
On the Capitalist Realism of ‘The Box’
“‘The Box’ elevates the daily minutiae of capitalist cruelty into the science fiction moral framework of a ‘Twilight Zone’ yarn.”
Review: Bong Joon-ho’s ‘Parasite’
“‘Parasite’ takes a left turn that’s so hard yet so appropriate that it’s like watching a spectacularly executed high wire act.”
Live That Fantasy: Lorene Scafaria’s ‘Hustlers’
“Shaping the narrative around the complexities of female friendship and the pressures wrought by the financial crisis of 2008, Scafaria convincingly paints a psychologically resonant portrait that allows the viewer a seat on the inside looking out…”
TIFF 2019: An Interview with ‘Coming Home Again’ Director Wayne Wang
Diana Cheng Interviews Director Wayne Wang
12 Angry Films: Sidney Lumet on Justice #3 – ‘The Offence’
“For a filmmaker usually so concerned with the social causes of injustice, ‘The Offence’ is remarkably focused on the troubled psychology of its central character.”
TIFF 2019 Review: James Mangold’s ‘Ford v Ferrari’ Provides an Old-School Adult Drama
“Nothing about ‘Ford v Ferrari’ reeks of studio interference, perhaps owing to the fact that the script hews so closely to screenwriting conventions that worked well for decades.”
TIFF 2019 Review: Wayne Wang’s ‘Coming Home Again’
“A collaboration between a Chinese-American director and a Korean-American writer, ‘Coming Home Again’ is an exemplar of minimal styling that shows that what is essentially human surpasses the boundary of what is ethnic and cultural.”
Book Review: Erin Emily Ann Vance’s ‘Advice for Taxidermists and Amateur Beekeepers’
“‘Advice for Taxidermists and Amateur Beekeepers’ succeeds not only as a realist narrative about family, loss, sex and death, but also as a quietly reflexive genre piece.”
TIFF 2019 Review: ‘Knives Out’ Shows Rian Johnson Sharp as Ever
“Johnson loves whodunits so much that he racked his brain to think 10 steps ahead of the audience so that he could hoodwink them to serve the goal of establishing the genre’s viability in the present day, all while staying true to its classic roots.”
‘It Chapter Two’ Sinks, Then Treads Water
“‘It Chapter Two’ ends up as a self-conscious adolescent that nervously giggles any time it’s on the verge of doing something profound; a cringe-inducing ‘no homo’ walk-back writ large to avoid accusations of nastiness or tenderness.”
TIFF 2019 Review: On the Spiritual Strivings of Trey Edward Shults’ ‘Waves’
“For a story that engages with tough, thorny questions of redemption and reconciliation, it’s a welcome development to have a filmmaker look upwards, not inwards.”
‘The Banana Splits Movie’: A Bloody Horror Take on a Saturday Morning Favorite
“Esterhazy’s direction is consistently flat and uninspired given the nonstop opportunities for twisted weirdness, but the failure of ‘The Banana Splits Movie’ can be pinned almost entirely on the sawdust-packed script…”
Interview with ‘Bait’ Director Mark Jenkin
Bait Movie Interview: Vague Visages’ Jim Ross discusses the 2019 drama film with writer-director Mark Jenkin.
Interview: ‘Beyond the Door’ with Redd Kross’ Jeff McDonald
Redd Kross Interview: Vague Visages Leslie Hatton discusses the album ‘Beyond the Door’ with musician Jeff McDonald.
Crossover After Crossover: The Layered Discussions in ‘High Flying Bird’
“While ‘High Flying Bird’ may seem uneven at first glance, one has to appreciate that Soderbergh directly addresses controversial societal topics that always touch a nerve in America.”
Gaspar Noé: From Extremity to Sensation
“Noé’s work has always been concerned with errant self-expression, what happens when we are wrenched from sensation and how we adjust to the comedown.”