True/False 2018 Review: Cristina Hanes’ ‘António and Catarina’
“In ‘António and Catarina,’ the potential of youth contrasts the accumulated regrets of age.”
Days of Future Past: History and ‘Blade Runner 2049’
“As ‘Blade Runner 2049’ suggests, perhaps the way forward into a future of possibility is through a deeper investigation of the past’s secrets.”
Faith and Survival: Celebrating Christopher Nolan’s ‘Dunkirk’
“I contend that not only has Nolan grown as an auteur, but that he has perfectly captured a universal truth to which all may relate and celebrate.”
On Growing Up, First Love and Learning in ‘An Education’ and ‘Call Me by Your Name’
A Comparative Essay by Ellie Steiner
Review: Alex Garland’s ‘Annihilation’
“‘Annihilation’ is far from indecipherable, as it counts on its ability to be understood.”
Berlinale 2018 Review: Laura Bispuri’s ‘Daughter of Mine’
“Messy and real, touching and convincingly brought to the screen, ‘Daughter of Mine’ is a joyous, heart and mind-expanding film.”
Berlinale 2018 Review: Cédric Kahn’s ‘The Prayer’
“‘The Prayer’ – and its strange mountain community – is oddly timeless or out-of-our-time.”
Berlinale 2018 Review: Christian Petzold’s ‘Transit’
“For those who didn’t think Petzold could improve after ‘Phoenix,’ you might have to reconsider after experiencing ‘Transit.’”
Vague Visages Is FilmStruck: Marshall Shaffer on Paul Robeson
“As both a man and an artist, Paul Robeson deserves more recognition in 2018 and beyond.”
The Striking Punch of Subversion: Devashish Makhija’s ‘Ajji’
“‘Ajji’ successfully imparts the notion that it’s compulsory for victims to retaliate against extreme injustice by transforming into wolves.”
Vague Visages Is FilmStruck: Natalia Winkelman on Věra Chytilová’s ‘Daisies’
“The Maries, and ‘Daisies’ itself, are quintessential fruits of the Czech New Wave, deconstructing social hierarchies while embodying the free-flowing, iconoclastic ethos that roused and buoyed 1960s Czechoslovak cinema.”
Lady Bird and the War of Innocence
“Maybe this war of innocence is one that’s never really won or lost. Maybe we just take life one battle at a time.”
Bertolt Brecht, Fritz Lang and German Expressionist Fury
“Lang’s film becomes a committed act of social justice advocacy, raging against its enforced limitation, and striving to break the formal apparatus that could often be employed to constrain Classic Hollywood cinema.”
Sundance Film Festival Review: Josephine Decker’s ‘Madeline’s Madeline’
“At the risk of succumbing to the Sundance hype atmosphere, writer/director Josephine Decker may be offering a new form of altered cinematic consciousness with ‘Madeline’s Madeline.’”
Vague Visages Is FilmStruck: Henri-Georges Clouzot’s ‘The Wages of Fear’
“Just because ‘The Wages of Fear’ is dire and pessimistic, that doesn’t make it any less perceptive or accurate. Quite the contrary: the virulent truth only makes it that much more engrossing…”
Let the Right Light In: On Escapism, Coping Mechanisms and Master Projections in Paul Thomas Anderson’s ‘The Master’
“The processing conversation is perhaps the most telling sequence of all, as Quell submits to The Master — the Master Projection — and acknowledges his own self-deception.”
Review: Paul Thomas Anderson’s ‘Phantom Thread’
“If indeed this is Day-Lewis’ swan song, ‘Phantom Thread’ is the crowning achievement of a monumental career.”
‘Call Me by Your Name’: On Obsession, Growing Up and Falling in Love
An Essay by Ella Kemp
Vague Visages Is FilmStruck: Michael Haneke’s ‘Benny’s Video’
“‘Benny’s Video’ implicates us, the audience, for watching. Haneke chides the spectators, removed from the action by a screen, for their inability — or perhaps their unwillingness — to stop the violence.”
A Retreat into the Self: Introspection and Egoism in Ingmar Bergman’s ‘Wild Strawberries’
“Bergman’s penchant for giving physical form to the conscious and subconscious mind is rarely more apparent than in his 1957 masterpiece ‘Wild Strawberries.’”