“‘Argo’ allows you to enjoy the CIA’s outlandish caper, but it also confronts you with the ambivalence of the larger picture.”
“Maybe this war of innocence is one that’s never really won or lost. Maybe we just take life one battle at a time.”
“For all its attempts at dissecting human cruelty, there’s no human core to this story, which makes its 135-minute runtime feel twice as long.”
“As a portrait of differing wartime experiences, ‘Dunkirk’ is too plot-oriented to be successful.”
“Answers don’t come easy, but they do come if you’re looking for them.”
“There’s no blaze of glory, but rather a collective maturation. Patience is their virtue.”
“What ‘Sweet Virginia’ and ‘Hondros’ have in common is the notion that men with guns aren’t as brave or bloodthirsty as they seem.”
“With everything combined, ‘I Am Cuba’ overwhelms with its unparalleled filmic inventiveness and its occasionally jarring intensity.”
Vague Visages Is FilmStruck: A Column Devoted to the Streaming Platform FilmStruck
“Ultimately, Ang Lee delivers a smart war film that offers a great deal of empathy to its social actors while still remaining critical of imperialist impulses in American culture.”