Book Review: ‘Yuletide Terror: Christmas Horror on Film and Television’
“‘Yuletide Terror: Christmas Horror On Film And Television’ provides insights not only on genre cinema, but on origins and aspects of the holiday season itself.”
Murphy’s Law and the Man Who Murdered Himself: Nikhil Nagesh Bhat’s ‘Long Live Brij Mohan!’
“If Murphy’s Law were to be made into a film, it’d look a lot like Nikhil Nagesh Bhat’s ‘Long Live Brij Mohan!’ His production, in more ways than one, is also a metaphor for the city of Delhi.”
Vague Visages Writers’ Room: 2017’s Under the Radar Films
In the Vague Visages Writers’ Room on Facebook, freelancers were asked to comment about their favorite under the radar films of 2017. Enjoy!
Review: James Franco’s ‘The Disaster Artist’
“The Hollywood dream lives on proudly in ‘The Disaster Artist.’”
The Uninhibited Spirit of Hope: Rima Das’ ‘Village Rockstars’
“‘Village Rockstars’ represents a cultural category that is largely ignored by mainstream cinema and heralds a new chapter in the contemporary practice of serious filmmaking in India.”
Review: Martin McDonagh’s ‘Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri’
“McDonagh’s film is as much of a message movie as summiting Mount Kilimanjaro is a relaxing family-friendly vacation.”
Despite Needing Tune-Ups, Pixar’s ‘Coco’ Is a Color-Saturated Celebration of Family
“A dance of layered visuals and eye-popping patterns, ‘Coco’ is well balanced with the understated”
Review: Feng Xiaogang’s ‘Youth’
“Achieving a vibrant mix of swooning sincerity and bitter irony, Feng Xiaogang’s ‘Youth’ walks the tightrope of Chinese history with a showman’s flair and a subversive wit, channelling its conflicting perceptions of the past into a single cohesive, ultimately jaded vision.”
Framing the Breakdown: Visual Psychosis in Lucrecia Martel’s ‘The Headless Woman’
“Martel’s film is an absolute masterpiece in visual symbolism and deserves to be seen on that basis alone.”
Review: Joachim Trier’s ‘Thelma’
“It’s an odd little film, more melancholy and plaintive than outright scary or troubling, that slowly crawls under your skin.”
On Ruben Östlund’s Dystopian Realities: ‘Force Majeure’ and ‘The Square’
“Painfully ironic, aggressive and humorously on point, Östlund’s films are timely cinematic pieces that put their characters’ moral compasses at stake.”
Long Live the New Flesh: Bodies, Horrors and Desires in David Cronenberg’s ‘Crash’ and ‘Videodrome’
“In ‘Crash,’ sex feels like a traffic accident. In ‘Videodrome,’ it becomes the subject of a warped, projected fantasy.”
Vincent Price and the Art of Darkness
“He always took the horror genre seriously, and that often meant daring to laugh in the face of the darkest horrors, toeing the line between irony and total seriousness.”
‘Tormenting the Hen’ Director Theodore Collatos on the Use and Misuse of Language
Tanner Tafelski Interviews Theodore Collatos
Devious Dialogues: An Interview with ‘Darkest Hours’ Author Mike Thorn
‘Darkest Hours,’ Genre and Writing: A.M. Stanley Interviews Mike Thorn
Pop Culture as Emotional Self-Defense in ‘Baby Driver’ and ‘The LEGO Batman Movie’
“Observing the dangerous consequences of retreating too far into escapist entertainment, these two films suggest that beneath all this cultural noise is the unacknowledged truth that the most fervent of music nerds and fanboys may indeed be ‘scared as shit.’”
War and Domestic Violence in Fritz Lang’s ‘Human Desire’
“In ‘Human Desire,’ the train tracks carry its hero into the sunny paradise of the American Dream, not the depths of noir’s endless night.”
Zack Snyder’s ‘Justice League’ Saves the Earth but Not the DC Extended Universe
“The DC Extended Universe is not doomed, but it needs its own clear identity and purpose. Rebranding ‘The Avengers’ is not the answer.”
Review: Luca Guadagnino’s ‘Call Me by Your Name’
“‘Call Me by Your Name’ skips through time like a dream, or a calcified, powerful memory.”
Vague Visages Writers’ Room: Favorite Neo-Noir Films
In the Vague Visages Writers’ Room on Facebook, freelancers were asked to comment about their favorite neo-noir films in celebration of #Noirvember.