‘Twin Peaks’ and Beyond the Alphabet
“The failure of language permeates ‘Twin Peaks,’
an abundance of verbiage disintegrating under the looming and ageless presence in the woods.”
Vague Visages Is FilmStruck: François Truffaut’s ‘Shoot the Piano Player’
“Truffaut and Coutard punctuate ‘Shoot the Piano Player’ with a vibrant rendering of its wintry Parisian setting, where the city is an ever-present visual marker…”
Two Violences: ‘Shield for Murder’
“Movies aren’t neutral vessels that we can stuff with our cultural baggage.”
Redemptive Criminality in David Mackenzie’s ‘Hell or High Water’
“The grey hue of ‘Hell or High Water’ becomes more distinguishable when juxtaposed to films with plots that are more clearly black or white.”
In Defense Of: Pascal Laugier’s ‘The Tall Man’ (2012)
“By refusing to provide facile answers, ‘The Tall Man’ is, in many ways, just as much of a challenging film as ‘Martyrs.'”
Losses Made in Heaven: Martin Scorsese’s ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ and ‘Casino’
“In Scorsese’s inversion of the downfall, paradise isn’t the origin and its loss doesn’t mean moral decrepitude, only mediocrity.”
Weak Story Beats Muddle ‘Frank & Lola’
“There’s plenty to appreciate in ‘Frank & Lola,’ and it’s far from a bad film. However, the story beats feel awkward and random.”
Vague Visages Is FilmStruck: Jean-Pierre Melville’s ‘Le Samouraï’
“Jean-Pierre Melville’s ‘Le Samourai’ is the definition of cinematic precision. Each shot, each cut, each movement is a slice of redolent, provocative and sometimes even banal accuracy.”
‘RoboCop’ in the Age of Trump
“It only took three decades for ‘RoboCop’ to go from a sci-fi thought experiment to prescient documentary. What do the next few hold?”
Of Love and Other Demons: ‘House by the River’
“While Lang never fully embraced socialist principles over the course of his career, he always seemed to have a violent distaste for the men who stood on the shoulders of those who were less fortunate, knowing full well that social class does not correlate a strong moral conscious.”
Of Love and Other Demons: ‘The Woman in the Window’ (Fritz Lang, 1944)
“The film has an unusually conservative vibe for a noir, maintaining that the status quo may be boring but criminality has nothing to offer — not even carnal thrills.”
Neaux Reel Idea: Randy Mack’s ‘Laundry Day’
Neaux Reel Idea is a Vague Visages column by Bill Arceneaux, in which he explores the cinema of his native New Orleans.
Of Love and Other Demons: ‘Auto Focus’ (Paul Schrader, 2002)
A Weekly Column on Love and Erotica in Cinema by Justine A. Smith
SANFIC 12 Review: Paul Schrader’s ‘Dog Eat Dog’
“I think that Schrader is just reaching out, trying to stretch his directorial arms, trying to show everything that he’s got.”
Of Love and Other Demons: ‘American Gigolo’ (Paul Schrader, 1980)
“‘American Gigolo’ doesn’t necessarily work as a neo-noir, but it still has enough romance and intrigue to be well worth watching.”
Of Love and Other Demons: ‘Underworld’ (Josef von Sternberg, 1927)
A Weekly Column on Love and Erotica in Cinema by Justine A. Smith
Of Love and Other Demons: ‘The Docks of New York’ (Josef von Sternberg, 1928)
A Weekly Column on Love and Erotica in Cinema by Justine A. Smith
Of Love and Other Demons: ‘Suicide Club’ (Sion Sono, 2001)
A Weekly Column on Love and Erotica in Cinema by Justine A. Smith
Of Love and Other Demons: ‘Cold Fish’ (Sion Sono, 2010)
A Weekly Column on Love and Erotica in Cinema by Justine A. Smith
Of Love and Other Demons: ‘Tokyo Tribe’ (Sion Sono, 2014)
A Weekly Column on Love and Erotica in Cinema by Justine A. Smith