Of Love and Other Demons: ‘Black Girl’ (Ousmane Sembène, 1966)
A Weekly Column on Love and Erotica in Cinema by Justine A. Smith
Review: Burr Steers’ ‘Pride and Prejudice and Zombies’
“The morality and plot of the film, despite the hand-holding, are impossible to follow, as wars, balls, tea parties, schemes, and bizarrely combative discussions between sisters all feel as equally light and dreary as the next, like equal servings of spoiled plain yogurt.”
A Serious Investigation: A Fargoan on the Coen Brothers’ ‘Fargo’ (1996)
Leading up to the release of Hail, Caesar!, Vague Visages explores the work of Joel and Ethan Coen.
A Serious Investigation: The Coen Brothers’ ‘A Serious Man’ (2009)
Leading up to the release of Hail, Caesar!, Vague Visages explores the work of Joel and Ethan Coen.
A Serious Investigation: The Coen Brothers’ ‘Inside Llewyn Davis’ (2013)
Leading up to the release of Hail, Caesar!, Vague Visages explores the work of Joel and Ethan Coen.
Of Love and Other Demons: ‘L’inconnu du lac’ (Alain Guiraudie, 2013)
A Weekly Column on Love and Erotica in Cinema by Justine A. Smith
The Inescapable Fever Dream of John Schlesinger’s ‘Midnight Cowboy’
“We dream, we fantasize, and we are haunted by that we cannot change. We are desperate to reinvent ourselves, and we always think some other place will be better.”
Review: Doron and Yoav Paz’s ‘JeruZalem’
“Like something completely lost in translation, JeruZalem is more Troll 2 than Cloverfield and contains all the ironic hallmarks of a future cult phenomenon.”
His Blazing Automatics: Gareth Evans Just Made the Best Action Film of 2016 in 5 Minutes with ‘Pre Vis Action’
“It’s not even February, but it feels safe calling Pre Vis Action the best action film of 2016.”
The Dueling Cavalier: The Horror of Maternal Sexuality in ‘The Boy’ and ‘The Babadook’
“Both films deal with maternal sexuality: The Boy punishes it and rebukes mothers for caring about anything other than their children, and The Babadook acknowledges it as difficult to balance with childcare, but an inescapable part of motherhood nonetheless.”
His Blazing Automatics: 2016 Is the Year of Keanu Reeves
“Don’t call it a comeback, call it a Reeves-urrection.”
Of Love and Other Demons: ‘Agnes of God’ (Norman Jewison, 1985)
A Weekly Column on Love and Erotica in Cinema by Justine A. Smith
Chilean Cinema 2015: We Are What We Are by Jaime Grijalba
Chilean writer Jaime Grijalba ranks the 2015 theatrical releases of his country.
Review: Jafar Panahi’s ‘Taxi’
“A cry against governmental indifference and a cruel restriction from a chosen means of expression, Taxi is a unique work of art that defies boundaries and convention.”
BFI Southbank’s Jean-Luc Godard Retrospective: Highlights from Anna Karina’s ‘Bande à part’ Q&A
BFI Southbank: Anna Karina on Jean-Luc Godard and “Bande à part”
The Dueling Cavalier: Truth and Cinéma Vérité in ‘Serial’ and ‘Making a Murderer’
“In forgoing vérité techniques, Ricciardi and Demos make their show more compelling as entertainment and less convincing as a thorough and honest investigation of a criminal case.”
Review: Alessandro Carloni and Jennifer Yuh’s ‘Kung Fu Panda 3’
“The divine spirit of fools run deep within a film too relatively light and inconsequential to have too much staying power, but as an artistically rich Saturday morning puff piece, you could do far worse.”
Vaguebande: Views from January 11-17, 2016
Vaguebande is a column by Vague Visages founder/editor Q.V. Hough.
Lust, Caution: Paul Morrissey’s ‘Women in Revolt’
“‘Women in Revolt’ stands in defiance of the majority of transgender-specific cinema…”
Of Love and Other Demons: ‘The One I Love’ (Charlie McDowell, 2014)
“A fever dream of marital discontent, Charlie McDowell’s ‘The One I Love’ tackles a failing marriage with sci-fi panache.”