Building the New Queer Canon #4: Louise Weard’s ‘Castration Movie’
“Weard’s anthology series is shaping up to be one of the decade’s most impactful queer texts.”
The Restoration of Marva Nabili’s ‘The Sealed Soil’ Unearths a Gem of Women-Centric Cinema in Iran
“Nabili’s ‘The Sealed Soil’ can be seen as a precursor of the minimalist styles that came to define so much of modern Iranian cinema.”
On Dark and Lonely Waters: PIFs and Rural Landscapes as Sites of Danger
“Public Information Films, once tools for instruction, became haunted reflections of a nation’s growing uncertainty and discontent…”
Too Terrified to Log Off: 10 Years Later, ‘Unfriended’ Is Still Ruthlessly Effective
“Taken purely as a cheap thrills style horror movie, ‘Unfriended’ is hugely effective. But as an unflinching denouncement of peer pressure and cyberbullying, it’s downright terrifying.”
The Unforgiving Concrete: Lodge Kerrigan’s Cinema of Estrangement
“In Lodge Kerrigan’s first three features, he asks audiences to consider those left in the wake of his central characters…”
Building the New Queer Canon #3: Olmo Schnabel’s ‘Pet Shop Days’
“The biggest problem with ‘Pet Shop Days’ is the extent to which it feels indebted to both an earlier wave of rebellious LGBTQ cinema and current trends in American independent filmmaking, never finding a distinct identity beyond homage.”
Building the New Queer Canon #2: Bruce LaBruce’s ‘The Visitor’
“In contemporary queer cinema, there isn’t a work like ‘The Visitor’ that’s even dared to tackle the wider-ranging relationships between disadvantaged communities on the receiving end of society’s scorn.”
Building the New Queer Canon #1: Isao Fujisawa’s ‘Bye Bye Love (Baibai Rabu)’
“‘Bye Bye Love’ is very enjoyable, but its central story is neither as involving or as subversive as it perceives itself to be when leaving the frankness of its bedroom scenes behind.”
I Am of Mud and Flame: Landscapes as Conjurors in British Folk Horror
“Whether it’s Holkham Wood or the stone circle at Avebury, British folk horror frequently uses the eeriness of empty, liminal spaces to evoke a sense of psychological unease.”
The Perennial Schmuck: Elaine May’s Disappointing Men
“May was banished at a time when male auteurs were granted an unprecedented amount of latitude. She was treated as a liability rather than a maverick, and it’s difficult not to read that assessment as gendered.”
New Italy, Old Attitudes: Michelangelo Antonioni’s ‘Il Grido’
“‘Il Grido’ is about a man’s utter inability to comprehend the modern world and adapt to it. The end result is a hopeless, pitiful film, and that’s meant as a compliment.”
Crime Scene #20: ‘Tiger Bay’ and the Adolescent Capital
“Tiger Bay as a state of mind may be long gone, but ‘Tiger Bay’ the film remains a document of a place long turned to rubble. And what vital documents.”
Crime Scene #19: ‘Only the River Flows’ – A Detective Goes Around the Bend
‘Like many great crime films, ‘Only the River Flows’ makes full use of its setting, delivering a grimy and ugly story that suits its grimy and ugly central location.”
Feeling Like a Winner: Elliott Gould’s Hollywood Hot Streak
“Gould’s persona upended traditional notions of cinematic masculinity in its appeal to a generational fatigue and ambivalence; his sexual magnetism eschewed the amatory codes of the traditional leading man.”
Crime Scene #18: ‘Victims of Sin’ – Nightclubbing with Ninón Sevilla
“‘Victims of Sin’ certainly is a product of its time and place in regard to its prescriptivism, but Fernández’s movie far surpasses its simpler elements because of its rather glorious and noirish textures.”
Crime Scene #17: ‘Lone Star’ – Porous Borders at the Edge of America
“The genius of Sayles’ ‘Lone Star’ is that the film envelops its difficult, knotty questions about history, identity and geography without any didacticism.”
Questioning and Subverting Artistic Authority in ‘Through the Writer’s Mirror’
“Being multiple things at once is what makes Everett’s novels, but also his other art, so intriguing. ‘Through the Writer’s Mirror’ is its own process of plate spinning. It is its own juggling act.”
Crime Scene #16: ‘Salvatore Giuliano’ – Sicily, Power and Geography
“Many of the best crime films make a virtue of the specificity of their location. Few, however, are as specific as ‘Salvatore Giuliano,’ nor are they as cognizant of how the central locations effect the story.”
Passion, Truth and Lillian Gish: The American Film Foundation Collection Releases Digitally on Vimeo
“Gish speaks confidently and passionately about acting in Sanders’ American Masters documentary, but perhaps the most intriguing moments emerge when she discusses her love for film preservation…”
Crime Scene #15: ‘Strangler vs. Strangler’ – Belgrade Is Not a Serious City
“‘Strangler vs. Strangler’ is somewhere between the avant-garde and the absurd: a perfect description of Belgrade itself.”