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.”
Album Review: Wand ‘Plum’
“Perhaps ‘Plum’ represents the incarnation of what Wand fans didn’t know they were looking for until they heard it.”
Vague Visages Is FilmStruck: Kate Saccone on Lotte Reiniger’s ‘The Adventures of Prince Achmed’
“As the artist who painstakingly moved her hand-cut figures frame-by-frame, Reiniger’s presence is impossible to ignore while watching her films.”
Ten Years Later, Adam Green’s Cult Slasher ‘Hatchet’ Still Cuts
“It’s rare to find a movie that pays homage to the good ol’ days while also paving its own way, but ‘Hatchet’ is that.”
Vague Visages Is FilmStruck: Jeremy Carr on Louis Malle’s ‘Black Moon’
“Communication — or the lack thereof — is key to ‘Black Moon.’”
‘Rat Film’: Light and Dirt, Cinema and Rodents
“The past informs the present.”
Ty Segall Goes Acoustic at Toronto’s Night Owl Festival
“As Segall’s self-assurance increased, so did his funny banter.”
TIFF 2017 Capsule Reviews
TIFF 2017: ‘Dark River,’ ‘Jeannette: The Childhood of Joan of Arc,’ ‘Alanis,’ ‘Beast,’ ‘Occidental’
Dead Kennedys at TIFF 2017: The Rise of a New Zeitgeist
“Step aside, LBJ, your time in the spotlight is done.”
TIFF 2017 Review: Lucrecia Martel’s ‘Zama’
“‘Zama’ is the kind of historical film that refuses to concede even the smallest positivity to the history in question.”
TIFF 2017 Review: Guillermo del Toro’s ‘The Shape of Water’
“Guillermo del Toro may very well be cinema’s reigning master of monster mythology.”
TIFF 2017 Review (Wavelengths): Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Verena Paravel’s ‘Caniba’
“Have they never heard of negative space?”
TIFF 2017 Review: Govinda Van Maele’s ‘Gutland’
“The brooding ominousness Van Maele plays with throughout seems to run through many of this year’s European offerings.”