The Aesthetic and Formal Challenges of Jean-Luc Godard’s ‘Contempt’
“‘Contempt’ is a daunting and formally labyrinthine work, calling its own fallibility to question even as it submits completely to the romance of cinema.”
The Wonder of Cinema and Living in ‘Voyage of Time: Life’s Journey’
“As a ‘purely experimental film,’ ‘Voyage of Time’ is ultimately an extreme, sensory experience.”
‘The Handmaiden’: A Sensuous, Sumptuous Tale of Secrecy, Sex and Subversion
“Park demonstrates how the complicated relationship between role-play, desire, secrecy, power and revenge prove ripe for darkly comic (and perverse) fodder.”
Landscape of Awkwardness: On Maren Ade’s ‘Toni Erdmann’
“‘Toni Erdmann’ understands what’s at stake: not the private destiny of an individual, but her ongoing relationship to her era.”
Two Violences: ‘Shield for Murder’
“Movies aren’t neutral vessels that we can stuff with our cultural baggage.”
Vague Visages Is FilmStruck: Jeremy Carr on Yasujirô Ozu’s ‘I Was Born, But…’
“If Ozu has taught us anything, it’s that life doesn’t get any easier. But life does go on.”
Review: Pema Tseden’s ‘Tharlo’
“Pema Tseden’s all-Tibetan film is a confrontation of old and new, of solitude and togetherness, of dreams and reality.”
When the Male Gaze Breaks: Between ‘The Neon Demon’ and ‘Black Swan’
“In Darren Aronofsky’s ‘Black Swan’ and Nicolas Winding Refn’s ‘The Neon Demon,’ the female body is used in its most delicate and presumptuously feminine form.”
Genre Whiplash: The Surprising Genius of Karyn Kusama
“By providing viewers with a satirical undertone, Kusama offers a place to rest, making the subversion of viewer expectations all the more potent.”
Vague Visages Is FilmStruck: Mikhail Kalatozov’s ‘I Am Cuba’
“‘I Am Cuba’ is more than a picturesque travelogue. It is a pulsating ethnographic profile, an excavation of sorts, uncovering and unleashing its discoveries with a sweeping scope.”
IFFR 2017 Review: Sophie Goyette’s ‘Mes nuits feront écho’
“We can’t always get what we want, but ‘Mes nuits feront écho’ shows that, in our dreams, we are in charge.”
A Woman’s Touch: The Trinity of the Body in ‘American Mary’
“With ‘American Mary,’ the Soska sisters tell a story that deserves a place alongside the likes of ‘I Spit on Your Grave’ and ‘Hostel’ in its bold but nuanced steps that push forward the genre entire.”
IFFR 2017 Review: Pedro Aguilera’s ‘Demonios tus ojos’
“All in all, ‘Demonios tus ojos’ is a movie about the excitement of doing something prohibited.”
Review: Josh Appignanesi and Devorah Baum’s ‘The New Man’
“The director’s own forthrightness is, at once, both refreshing and perplexing.”
Moments of Revelation in Martin Scorsese’s ‘Silence’ and ‘Shutter Island’
“What is the cost to oneself of living by a system of belief?”
IFFR 2017 Review: Elene Naveriani’s ‘I am Truly a Drop of Sun on Earth’
“In this promising debut, there is something beautiful about the resignation that humanity can be found in surprising places.”
Vague Visages Is FilmStruck: Carlos Saura’s ‘Cría cuervos’
“‘Cría cuervos’ is a film preoccupied with death. It surrounds Ana and obsesses her. Starting with its sobering preamble, the picture is inundated by threatening (and tempting) mortality.”
Mike Birbiglia’s ‘Don’t Think Twice’: The Anti-‘La La Land’
“Where Los Angeles offers an idyllic vision of dreamers, New York can’t help but set the stage for an all too depressing look at those left behind.”
In ‘Moonlight,’ Black Is the Warmest Color
“Not only does it feel true to its origins, but it also speaks to viewers from different parts of the world.”
Sparkling Romances and Sweet Facades: Damien Chazelle’s ‘La La Land’
“Might I put it out into the ether that a ‘weak link’ doesn’t exist in ‘La La Land’.”