SANFIC 12 Review: Alejandro Jodorowsky’s ‘Poesía sin fin’
“Maybe it’s his own nostalgia or the naturalistic approach, but I haven’t felt someone film my city with that much love in a long time.”
At the Cinémathèque: L’ange et la femme (Gilles Carle, 1977)
“A deeply affecting and personal vision, it’s an essential entry in the history of eroticism in Canadian cinema.”
Studio Ghibli Forever: An Initiation – ‘The Tale of the Princess Kaguya’
“As in many Studio Ghibli films before it, the male director is speaking directly to his male audience, pleading with them to treat the women in their lives with the respect and equality they deserve.”
Studio Ghibli Forever: An Initiation – ‘Princess Mononoke’
“‘Princess Mononoke’ explores the gaping chasm between nature’s gentle acceptance of circumstance and humanity’s steadfast refusal to quietly accept death.”
Of Love and Other Demons: ‘The One I Love’ (Charlie McDowell, 2014)
“A fever dream of marital discontent, Charlie McDowell’s ‘The One I Love’ tackles a failing marriage with sci-fi panache.”
Of Love and Other Demons: ‘Black Orpheus’ (Marcel Camus, 1959)
“‘Black Orpheus’ embraces sex as multiplicitous. This somehow makes the love more noble, because it is not confused with lust, and sex becomes a celebration rather than a symbol of it.”
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: 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.”
Review: Marina Shron’s ‘Sea Child’
“The crystal-clear visuals of ‘Sea Child’ transcend into a an aquatic journey of surrealism…”