London Film Festival 2018 Review: Carlos Vermut’s ‘Quién te cantará’
“‘Quién te cantará’ is a cold, mournful study of mothers and daughters living despite each other, filtered through a mystery with a popstar shaped hole at its centre.”
London Film Festival 2018 Review: Ben Wheatley’s ‘Happy New Year, Colin Burstead’
“This film will undoubtedly become a key text for critical essays and university studies on post-referendum British cinema…”
Review: Bradley Cooper’s ‘A Star Is Born’
“Gaga’s mere presence in ‘A Star Is Born’ allows Cooper a wide berth to go big with scenes and moments that play with and embrace camp.”
Review: David Gordon Green’s ‘Halloween’
“‘Halloween’ might be funny, but it’s also the nastiest, most violent entry in the series yet.”
Brooklyn Horror Film Festival Review: Daniel Goldhaber and Isa Mazzei’s ‘Cam’
“‘Cam’ is an uncomfortable watch, despite its absolutely dazzling visuals and outstanding production design.”
Keep On Keepin’ On: Review — David Lowery’s ‘The Old Man & the Gun’
“Few actors are truly cross-generational in the manner media outlets make them out to be. Robert Redford, however, has earned this distinction.”
London Film Festival 2018 Review: Luca Guadagnino’s ‘Suspiria’
“A swirling, tumbling vision of Cold War paranoia and coven politics, ‘Suspiria’ will both astound and baffle; the conflict that defines its muted streets, full of uneasy dreams and restless feet, will come to bear on its audience and their nightmares.”
In the Shadow of ‘The Hairy Bird’
“Given what we now know about Weinstein’s welding of harassment, assault and power to control the women in his professional orbit, it’s uncanny that a seemingly frivolous film about a girls boarding school could share such parallels with the #MeToo movement.”
‘First Man’: Damien Chazelle and Ryan Gosling Take a Moonwalk
“‘First Man’ expresses no interest in probing the complexities of space race mythologizing…”
NYFF 2018 Review: Claire Denis’ ‘High Life’
“Denis’ approach resembles that of Pattinson’s performance: pointedly pared down to the bare minimum without fully untethering from recognizable humanity.”
How to Lose Control: Understanding Children and Insecurity with ‘The New Man’
Ella Kemp Interviews ‘The New Man’ Filmmakers/Subjects Devorah Baum and Josh Appignanesi
Brooklyn Horror Film Festival Review: Veronica Kedar’s ‘Family’
“‘Family’ is a gorgeous looking film with framing and editing that is often exquisite. It boasts a palette of rich earth tones and vivid dark colors that are beautiful but oppressive, much like the film itself.”
The Moon and the Kitchen: An Interview with ‘First Man’ Editor Tom Cross
Marshall Shaffer Interviews Film Editor Tom Cross
Looking Back at Steven Soderbergh’s ‘sex, lies, and videotape’
“Despite its salacious subject matter — sexuality, infidelity and voyeurism — the movie contains shockingly few sex scenes, but still remains erotically charged nearly 30 years later.”
Empathy Through Voyeurism: ‘Bad Times at the El Royale’ Review
“Goddard delineates his film from its influences by focusing almost exclusively on character. Rather than a story filled with twists and turns and manipulation of the audience, ‘Bad Times at the El Royale’ presents each character’s story as a solo vignette, before tying it into the overarching drama.”
NYFF 2018 Review: Paul Dano’s ‘Wildlife’
“The overcorrection for sentimentality does give ‘Wildlife’ a bit of a sterile feel, but the deliberate dissatisfaction that Dano allows to permeate through his debut feature provides a fitting complement to the private misery of the film’s characters.”
Review: Josh Appignanesi’s ‘Female Human Animal’
“It’s a confusing enterprise all around, but — at the very least — ‘Female Human Animal’ is unlike anything else out there, for better or worse.”
Sensual Synths and Death Drones: Listening to ‘It Follows’
“The quickening tempo of non-diegetic, alienating sounds should not be simply viewed as part of a film score, but as an access point into the fear-induced perspectives of the victims within this film world.”
Someone Else’s War: A Reckoning with Clint Eastwood’s ‘American Sniper’
“Movies aren’t proverbs — their morals are questionable, their questions are impossible to answer. This is the case for good films, at least.”
Eli Roth Replaces Trademark Irreverence with Quiet Reverence for ‘The House with a Clock in Its Walls’
“Ultimately, it seems that the film’s pleasant and inoffensive affect is exactly what Roth intends. The work is unassuming, competently handled and ably colored within its established lines. It aims clearly and unwaveringly to please a young target audience.”