A Quest for Happiness: On Neil Jordan’s ‘Mona Lisa’
“‘Mona Lisa’ was ahead of its time, a precursor of urban fairy tales in late 90s British cinema.”
Know the Cast: ‘Sleepaway Camp’
Know the Cast: A Vague Visages Guide for ‘Sleepaway Camp’
Trapped in the Bed Frame: On Marco Bellocchio’s ‘Devil in the Flesh’
“Bellocchio’s 1986 film ‘Devil in the Flesh’ is perfectly representative of the great Italian director’s outlook.”
Mannhunting: Exploring Masculinity in the Films of Michael Mann – Part Two
Mannhunting #2 by Bill Bria: “In Mann’s duality of man, cop and robber are, in Stevenson’s words, ‘radically both’ one and the same.”
Mannhunting: Exploring Masculinity in the Films of Michael Mann – Part One
Mannhunting #1 by Bill Bria: “The protagonists and antagonists in Mann’s films tend to be mirror images of each other, all of them caught within masculinity’s shackles.”
A Wild Ride in the Bullpen: How a Young Pedro Almodóvar Upended Genre and Gender
“For all the praise showered on Almodóvar’s later work, it lacks the wildness, freshness and exuberance of his 80s filmography, which often feels unfairly overlooked as a result.”
Nuns and ‘Dark Habits’: Spoiling God’s Servants
“By spoiling God’s servants with sex, drugs and doubt, films like Almodóvar’s ‘Dark Habits’ show that earnestly criticising the Catholic Church’s crimes is not the only way to weaken centuries of unchecked supremacy.”
Antonio and Almodóvar
Fedor Tot on Pedro Almodóvar’s Collaborations with Antonio Banderas
Pandemic-Era Prophecies of Godfrey Reggio’s ‘Koyaanisqatsi’
“Nearly 40 years after its release, ‘Koyaanisqatsi’ continues to send signals.”
A Waning Arcadia: Early 80s Punk Cinema
“The characters in ‘Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains,’ ‘Smithereens’ and ‘Suburbia’ find in punk rock a convenient shorthand for authenticity, a posture which presages its eventual absorption into the very mechanisms it sets out to oppose.”
