‘Copenhagen Cowboy’: Something Is Rotten in Denmark
“The Danish emperor of cool has lost his clothes.”
Soundtracks of Cinema: ‘Drive’
‘Drive’ Soundtrack: A Vague Visages guide for every song in Nicolas Winding Refn’s 2011 movie.
Know the Cast & Characters: ‘Drive’
‘Drive’ Cast: A Vague Visages guide for every actor and character in Nicolas Winding Refn’s 2011 movie.
Numbness and Arousal in the Post-Postmodern Apocalypse of ‘Too Old to Die Young’
“Taken as a whole, ‘Too Old to Die Young’ is a summative statement on genre, aesthetics and the crumbling American psyche, delivered with a fury sublimated in neon glow. It is a major work of art.”
Gaspar Noé: From Extremity to Sensation
“Noé’s work has always been concerned with errant self-expression, what happens when we are wrenched from sensation and how we adjust to the comedown.”
Review: Nicolas Winding Refn’s ‘Too Old to Die Young’
“‘Too Old to Die Young’ is rough around the edges, and perhaps deliberately so. It’s almost as if the writers are two brothers in a car fighting between soft rock and techno on the radio.”
‘Vox Lux,’ 21st Century Trauma and Healing Through Pop Culture
“In ‘Vox Lux,’ pop music is an emblem of pop culture and the distractions we use to soften the growing trauma of the nation. It also plays into the main question that Corbet raises: just how long can we cling onto pop culture before society gets so bad that nothing will help?”
Seeing Double: Richard Quine’s ‘Pushover’
“As a largely disregarded noir B-side, ‘Pushover’ deliberately recalls its more famous predecessor, playing upon audience expectations of MacMurray’s screen persona to create an experience of déjà vu.”
TIFF 2018: One Small Step – A Review of Damien Chazelle’s ‘First Man’
“What ‘First Man’ might lack in emotionality, Chazelle more than compensates for in spectacle.”
Baby and The Driver: Motion, Music and Meaning
“‘Baby Driver’ and ‘Drive’ are not road maps to modernity, they don’t offer any route through it that guarantees a safe arrival. The only advice they might offer is to tear up the map itself. To simply drive.”
Lost Amidst the Architecture: Aaron Katz’s ‘Gemini’
“In straining to emulate something in the order of a traditional thriller, Katz and his team of long-time collaborators find themselves sliding perilously towards the formulaic.”
Ari Aster’s ‘Hereditary’: Hollow Horror
“What’s truly terrifying about ‘Hereditary’ is how empty it really is.”
Why I Wear the Mask: Tom Hardy’s Performances of Limitation
“Behind the mask, lurking within the timbre of the vocal choices, buried beneath the shaped physique, there is truth.”
Adrenaline and Virtuosic Filmmaking: Hal Ashby’s ‘8 Million Ways to Die’
“It’s not the edge of the knife — it’s the business end of the blade.”
Review: Fabrice Du Welz’s ‘Message from the King’ (Netflix Original)
“For the most part, ‘Message from the King’ doesn’t mess around.”
Instant Cult Classic: Gary Michael Schultz’s ‘Vincent N Roxxy’
“Either you love the squeaky rollercoaster or you’ve got no time for the squeaky rollercoaster. Welcome to the carnival.”
Sheer Heart Attack: Edgar Wright’s ‘Baby Driver’
“With ‘Baby Driver,’ Wright delivers a delightful, mid-summer cinematic treat.”
There’s Something Inside You: Nicolas Winding Refn’s ‘Drive’
“It’s the subliminal drive toward the realization of his ideal self that evokes his potential.”
The Bottom Line: Q.V. Hough, Jeremy Carr and Bill Arceneaux on ‘Cobra’
Vague Visages Chat Transcript
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.”