Review: Daniel Espinosa’s ‘Child 44’
“A Kafka-esque condemnation of Stalin’s government ham-handedly plopped into a John le Carré spy thriller, Child 44 is ambiguous cinematic fluff.”
The Act of Clicking: Levan Gabriadze’s ‘Unfriended’
“Unfriended intelligently explores the act of clicking and how those split-second decisions can change everything.”
A Hero of Our Time: Mad Men ‘The Forecast’ (Precap)
“The end is coming for both Mad Men and its anti-hero, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Don’s final breath comes during a heroic moment.”
Review: Noah Baumbach’s ‘While We’re Young’
“A plethora of likable characters and tidy wrap-ups diminish the artistic potential of While We’re Young, as Baumbach doesn’t compromise the film’s abilities as a general crowdpleaser.”
Review: Don Hertzfeldt’s ‘World of Tomorrow’
“A deeply impactful film (regardless of length or medium), Hertzfeldt’s World of Tomorrow has a penetrating gift for resplendent empathy — solidifying itself as a shining star of 2015, and one of the finest films of the decade.”
Recap: Game of Thrones ‘The Wars to Come’
“The beginning of ‘The Wars to Come’ sets the tone for an episode that interlocks present and past while discarding hopeful ideals of a peaceful future.”
VOD Review: Ryan Gosling’s ‘Lost River’
“Like a pilfered Fabergé egg, Ryan Gosling’s freshman effort, ‘Lost River,’ is a sight to behold but completely hollow beneath its bejeweled veneer.”
VOD Review: Lone Scherfig’s ‘The Riot Club’
“A somewhat uneven protest of English nobility and a denouncement of nepotic privilege, The Riot Club’s message is a redundant one: unchecked, inherited wealth leads to problems.”
Case for Criterion: William Friedkin’s ‘Bug’
“‘Bug’ closes in on you in a curiously suffocating way. It’s disorienting in the best way possible.”
Case for Criterion: Tomas Alfredson’s ‘Let the Right One In’
“The horror reads as a treatise against a dominant culture that upholds rather old-fashioned ideas of gender…”
Case for Criterion: Jamie Babbit’s ‘But I’m a Cheerleader’
“Babbit recognizes that the characters in question have a difficult choice to make: to subscribe to a dominant culture and survive or to ‘be themselves’ and ostensibly be shunned.”
Case for Criterion: Xavier Dolan’s ‘Heartbeats’
“Critics have labeled ‘Heartbeats’ as derivative and pretentious, flamboyant and bratty, but it’s exactly the kind of film where such criticism means that it’s doing its job.”
A Man Alone: Mad Men ‘Severance’ (Recap)
“The beginning of Mad Men’s final flight enforced the idea that individuals may physically change but outward appearances don’t always reflect the inner-self.”
Case for Criterion: Marc Forster’s ‘Stranger Than Fiction’
“The complexities of ‘Stranger Than Fiction’ are worthy of their own analysis, but the film’s simplicities and stark honesty about emotion are its strengths.”
After the Darkness: Jean Rollin’s ‘The Iron Rose’ (1973)
“Tastefully erotic and mystical in tone, The Iron Rose shines a light on youthful arrogance that often blinds us from darker realities.”
Chasing Chabrol: ‘La cérémonie’
“If you have an ounce of capitalist discomfort, ‘La cérémonie’ will surely begin to boil your blood, and that’s where things get interesting.”
Chasing Chabrol: ‘Les biches’
“‘Les biches’ remains one of the more elusive and symbolic films of Chabrol’s career, as the narrative adopts a dreamlike structure that often obscures reality and truth.”
Ambitious and Flawed: Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead’s ‘Spring’
“At a certain point, and you’ll know when, the dialogue takes a dramatic turn; it’s almost as if Benson decided to use every pre-production joke centered around a most obvious plot point.”
Chasing Chabrol: ‘Les bonnes femmes’
“‘Les bonnes femmes’ pushes the boundaries of expectations, leaving the audience in a place of vulnerability.”
Chasing Chabrol: ‘Violette’
“Youth is central to ‘Violette,’ and Isabelle Huppert’s petite frame and almost childlike features lend the film a skewed point of view that is colored neither by experience or shame.”