Kantemir Balagov’s ‘Beanpole’ Makes Oscar Shortlist
“‘Beanpole’ masters the unseen, the unspoken and the ‘presence of absence’ in the way it unpacks the toll of ongoing armed conflict through a kind of metonymic expression of experience.”
“‘Beanpole’ masters the unseen, the unspoken and the ‘presence of absence’ in the way it unpacks the toll of ongoing armed conflict through a kind of metonymic expression of experience.”
“No director has been able to replicate Nobuhiko Ōbayashi’s iridescent, hallucinatory and infectious passion for film.”
“One of the most effective storytelling strategies in Spike Lee’s ‘Da 5 Bloods’ is the application of the simple and elegant dichotomy.”
“As always, Spike Lee asks all the right questions, and it’s up to us to recognize that even though the answers may not be ones we want to hear, we need to grapple with them all the same.”
“In their conversations, Soderbergh and Nichols work together to dismantle the artificial dividing line between art and criticism, neatly moving between the two…”
“Many directors twice Balagov’s age could only dream of making a film this unwavering and unsettling — so explicit in its understanding and exploration of extreme female pain.”
“With a fresh, new approach, Mendes memorializes not only his grandfather, but all the brave soldiers of WWI, reminding viewers of the individual tragedies that comprise warfare.”
“While a number of combat films released in 1943 focus almost exclusively on the male war effort, ‘So Proudly We Hail!’ finds nobility, heroism, anger, racism, sacrifice and camaraderie in its female characters.”
“Rossellini astonishingly blends the good and the bad into an imperfect merging of society in all its multiplicity of guises. Death, desolation and violence are as pervasive in the film as love and empathy.”
“‘The Hill’ charts a path forward for Lumet’s justice films, which increasingly depart from the idealism of ’12 Angry Men’ and reckon deeply with the justice system’s contradictory, irreconcilable principles.”
“A few of the tales are a bit of a stretch, but the scope of the ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’ universe comes out feeling much larger than ever before.”
“In ‘A Private War,’ Rosamund Pike embodies a woman under the influence, a real-life war journalist in pursuit of truth. She establishes an authentic physical interpretation — high shoulders, low vocal tone, 90-degree arm posturing — and then improvises for a more in-depth character portrait.”
“‘Inglourious Basterds’ is a study in suspense.”
“‘They Shall Not Grow Old’ is such an apt title because the experiences of these soldiers are made entirely immediate, through both technical and narrative care. Peter Jackson reaches into the past and immortalizes those lives through film.”
“‘The Deer Hunter’ encapsulates a commanding representation of a precise period in American history, a precise location and precise types of men — somewhat clichéd, yes, but remarkably representative.”
“Where is our own cinema of madness?”
“‘Fudge Sandwich’ is the kind of album that provides listeners with a new favorite track every day, no small feat for a collection of cover tunes.”
“‘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.”