TIFF 2017 Review: Guillermo del Toro’s ‘The Shape of Water’
“Guillermo del Toro may very well be cinema’s reigning master of monster mythology.”
Devious Dialogues: Mike Thorn and Anya Stanley on Stephen King’s ‘It’
“It’s a good year to be a Constant Reader.”
Vague Visages Is FilmStruck: Q.V. Hough on Federico Fellini’s ‘8 1/2′
“The moments of realization transcend the typical viewing experience.”
Review: David Lowery’s ‘A Ghost Story’
“For Lowery, cosmic-historic memory is the supernatural, and this is his translation of the myth. And it is woeful.”
The Limits of Freedom in Makoto Shinkai’s ‘Your Name’
“While lush animation and detailed backdrops make Shinkai’s films visually stunning, without character depth, it’s a beauty which rings hollow.”
‘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.”
As American as Apple Pie: The Contemporary Applicability of Jacques Tourneur’s ‘Cat People’
“In regards to modern day politics, ‘Cat People’ captures the anti-immigration fervor of the 2016 American presidential campaign and election.”
Of Love and Other Demons: ‘In the Mouth of Madness’ (John Carpenter, 1994)
“In John Carpenter’s ‘In the Mouth of Madness,’ the delicate reality in which we live exists only as far we as believe it.”
Love and Death: The Romantic Sorrow of Fritz Lang’s ‘Destiny’
“‘Destiny’ arrives at its final satisfying destination as a poetic and deeply affecting film, an ethereal meditation from a now legendary filmmaker…”
The Princess’ New Clothes: Disney’s ‘Beauty and the Beast’
“The central relationship between Belle and the Beast has the unfortunate stench of Stockholm syndrome all over it.”
Of Love and Other Demons: ‘Cat People’ (Paul Schrader, 1982)
A Weekly Column on Love and Erotica in Cinema by Justine A. Smith
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…”