“9/11 was a psychic wound that fostered a new relation to the world, and those who grew up in its aftermath struggled to digest its lessons; some fell back onto intransigence, while others internalized the damage.”
“Like an aging fighter that steps into the ring on short notice, Robert Smigel’s ‘The Week Of’ is overweight, unfocused and hungry for a paycheck.”
“In the end, the humor fades away in favor of political machinations, but the film’s killer gags are still numerable.”
“‘Lean on Pete’ hits the mark emotionally and reveals itself to be a poised, moving film.”
“Martin Scorsese’s ‘Life Lessons’ benefits more from analysis as a self-standing artistic expression than as a counterpoint to the other installments of ‘New York Stories.'”
“Like the film, as much as Fargo looks like it’s set in our universe, dashes of the absurd emphasize that the series works under its own logic.”
“Beyond being a neat stylistic trick and an effect that would make Abel Gance proud, the use of split-screens in the first two episodes of Fargo Season 2 has the helpful narrative role of directly uniting the show’s disparate narrative elements.”
