‘The Martian’ Is a Surprisingly Light-Hearted Success for Ridley Scott
“As a piece of sweeping populist entertainment, The Martian is a great success, despite a couple of issues that perturb throughout.”
The Dueling Cavalier: Gravity of Violence in ‘Sicario’
A Column by Max Bledstein
His Blazing Automatics: Ramin Bahrani’s ‘Chop Shop’ and the New Americana Film Movement
A Column by Dylan Moses Griffin
Of Love and Other Demons: ‘Smooth Talk’ (Joyce Chopra, 1985)
A Weekly Column on Love and Erotica in Cinema by Justine A. Smith
Review: Andrew Haigh’s “45 Years”
“45 Years is unconcerned with the “cuteness” of love — Haigh wants to know what makes it tick.”
Vague Visages’ Q.V. Hough and Max Bledstein Discuss ‘Narcos’
A Conversation about Netflix’s Polarizing Series
Review: David Chen’s ‘The Primary Instinct’
“A remarkably pervasive journey through one man’s search for meaning in his own life, The Primary Instinct captures an utterly captivating performance in a very standard way.”
Struggling to Portray Evil: ‘Narcos’ Episodes 1.6-1.10
“Narcos resorts to cheap tactics to depict just how ‘bad’ these characters are.”
Review: Baltasar Kormákur’s ‘Everest’
“As impressive and excruciating as Hall and his team’s journey was, Everest fails to capture the specifics.”
We Failed This Film: Scott Cooper’s ‘Out of the Furnace’
A Series by Dylan Moses Griffin
Of Love and Other Demons: ‘Bullhead’ (Michaël R. Roskam, 2011)
A Weekly Column on Love and Erotica in Cinema by Justine A. Smith
Not Fall Apart: The New York Mets and September Collapses
“Someone pull Don Draper off his office couch, it’s time to meet the Mets.”
VOD Review: ‘The Overnight’ Is a Sincere Sex Farce
“The Buñuelian meets the Duplassian in The Overnight, a chamber comedy of social and sexual manners from director Patrick Brice (2014’s Creep).”
Limited Omniscience: ‘Narcos’ Episodes 1.1-1.5
“Netflix’s new series Narcos begins with a quote regarding the birth of magical realism, and its point of emphasis reveals quite a bit about the series it precedes.”
His Blazing Automatics: The Theme Park Ride Exhilaration of Marcus Dunstan’s ‘The Collector’ and ‘The Collection’
A Column by Dylan Moses Griffin
Of Love and Other Demons: ‘Cat People’ (Jacques Tourneur, 1942)
A Weekly Column on Love and Erotica in Cinema by Justine A. Smith
Review: Brian Helgeland’s ‘Legend’
“Little more than an extravagant, blood-soaked and alcohol-fueled story, Legend fulfills its title; an overinflated piece of bar room folklore better told over a cold pint of Guinness (or several)”
The Dueling Cavalier: The Challenge of Representing Creative Genius in ‘The End of the Tour’ and ‘Whiplash’
A Column by Max Bledstein
Alison Brie Shines in ‘Sleeping with Other People’
“Headland’s screenplay fires a couple of blanks, which serves to only highlight some of the more token traditional rom-com tropes still on offer here. That said, when Sleeping with Other People does hit — which is a lot of the time — it’s an invigorating spicing up of formula; a winning balance of hedonism and heart that’s unapologetic about either quality.”
SANFIC 11: Kill (f)or Love: Hou Hsiao-Hsien’s ‘The Assassin’
Jaime Grijalba on Santiago Festival Internacional de Cine