Review: Joachim Trier’s ‘Thelma’
“It’s an odd little film, more melancholy and plaintive than outright scary or troubling, that slowly crawls under your skin.”
War and Domestic Violence in Fritz Lang’s ‘Human Desire’
“In ‘Human Desire,’ the train tracks carry its hero into the sunny paradise of the American Dream, not the depths of noir’s endless night.”
Review: Luca Guadagnino’s ‘Call Me by Your Name’
“‘Call Me by Your Name’ skips through time like a dream, or a calcified, powerful memory.”
Gabe Klinger’s ‘Porto’: A Middling, Moody Romance
“‘Porto’ aims for atmosphere but merely achieves it with convention.”
Secret Defense: A Close-Up on Arnaud Desplechin’s ‘Esther Kahn’
“Phoenix delivers an opaque but strikingly physical performance, reminiscent of the women in Charlie Chaplin’s films.”
Vague Visages Is FilmStruck: Ingmar Bergman’s ‘Summer with Monika’
“Undeniably the central focus of ‘Summer with Monika,’ Andersson’s overt sex appeal somewhat minimizes her remarkable range in the film, her seamlessly oscillating moods and subtle facial intimations.”
The Joy of Creating: On Takeshi Kitano’s ‘Hana-bi’
“‘Hana-bi’ is a deeply personal labour of love made by an artist observing his own enigmatic nature from a variety of angles in an attempt to arrive at some clarifying epiphany.”
Where Does Your Hidden Smile Lie? – On Philippe Garrel’s ‘Frontier of the Dawn’
“This is a love story expressed through gaping structural absences.”
Review: Esteban Crespo’s ‘Amar’
“‘Amar’ is passionate without being pretentious.”
The Cold Light of Day: On Agnès Varda’s ‘Le Bonheur’
“Nothing in ‘Le Bonheur’ produces lasting unhappiness, and to approach it in a spirit of contemplation, rather than one of judgment, may allow the movie its most favorable terms of engagement.”
‘Beyond the Lights’ and ‘Into the Forest’: Nina Simone as a Tool for Female Empowerment
“The female gaze, when expanded and reproduced through various media, can be a significant tool of empowerment for exploring and blending different artistic themes and forms.”
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.”
Cannes Film Festival Review: John Cameron Mitchell’s ‘How to Talk to Girls at Parties’
“‘How to Talk to Girls at Parties’ is spirited but doesn’t have anything new to say.”
Vague Visages Is FilmStruck: Jeremy Carr on Jean Vigo’s ‘L’Atalante’
“‘L’Atalante’ is a movie defined by it moments, images and emotive strength, not its ostensible plot.”
Tribeca Film Festival Review: Zefrey Throwell and Josephine Decker’s ‘Flames’
“At times, Zefrey and Josephine seem more in love with their own clever filmmaking than they are with each other.”
Review: Terrence Malick’s ‘Song to Song’
“‘Song to Song’ finds itself in its vast mercies. It balances tragedies and heartbreaks with life’s many graces.”
Vague Visages Is FilmStruck: Jacques Demy’s ‘Lola’
“Like his characters, Demy’s camera in ‘Lola’ moves everywhere but goes nowhere; it’s a paradoxically headlong hesitation.”
Political and Social Conventions in Jacques Demy’s ‘The Umbrellas of Cherbourg’
“Fifty-three years after initial release, ‘The Umbrellas of Cherbourg’ continues to be a formally and contextually innovative French New Wave production; a film that has influenced contemporary directors such as Barry Jenkins, Damien Chazelle and Joachim Trier.”
Éric Rohmer’s Battle of the Sexes
“Rohmer cares more about posing questions than providing the comfort of a conclusion.”
‘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.”