Posted in: Review

Marry Me

There’s a blissful ignorance on display throughout Marry Me that is simultaneously discomfiting and wistful, its flowery romance presented though a lens of casual globe-hopping, packed concert venues, and glitzy nights on the town. Part of that is surely because it was shot pre-pandemic, another in the long line of films that have been sitting […]

Posted in: Review

Mass

There are few topics more galling and volatile than gun violence, no emotional terrain more ravaging than the murder of a child, and no venue more uncomfortable to explore all of the above than a small, sterile room. In a feat that is equal parts daring and frustrating, Mass centers both its narrative and its […]

Posted in: Review

Language Lessons

Once upon a time, unconventional long-distance friendships were nearly impossible to create and sustain, but the digitization of the world has made it possible to circumvent the nagging issue of distance with the onslaught of video chat services like Skype and Zoom. Now, thanks to the last year-and-a-half of intermittent isolation, these connections are more […]

Posted in: Review

The Year of the Everlasting Storm

In a world so vast and varied, sometimes it takes a tragedy to remind us how connected we are. A once-in-a-century pandemic fits that bill. Even as cultures remain divergent, lifestyles vary, and customs clash around the world, the sudden onset and rapid spread of COVID-19 brought us together even as it, quite contradictorily, forced […]

Posted in: Review

Ema

Pablo Larrain’s last film, Jackie, was a film whose ending seemed like an ongoing cascade of concluding imagery, its many blended themes finally untangling, and each given its own singular final flourish. It felt like the film ended for 15 minutes straight, but oh, what an ending. Conversely, Larrain’s latest film, Ema, feels like it’s […]

Posted in: Review

Behemoth

If you were to take a casual glance at the promotional poster for Behemoth, and you catch a glimpse of the impressively nasty looking creature that figures prominently on that poster, you might get a charge of excitement for what looks like an ornately gruesome creature feature. You’d be wrong. No, Behemoth is not a […]

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CODA

CODA lives on the very thin and dangerous line between transcendent crowd-pleaser and overwhelming manipulation. In fact, its screenplay functions like a constant one-two punch, disarming the audience with a heavy dose of conventional schmaltz before delivering a blow of deeply resonant emotion. Its rapturous response at this year’s Sundance Film Festival – where it […]

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Pig

We open on a green, misty forest somewhere in Oregon. Out there, isolated in the depths of the foliage, there sits a cabin, ramshackle and isolated, where we follow the apparent daily customs of a grizzled man…and his loyal pig. There’s a certain shabby enchantment to the environment, so removed from our everyday understanding of […]

Posted in: Review

Whirlybird

Whirlybird is a portrait documentary that operates on three different levels. First, it’s a sprawling chronicle of the rise of “eye-witness” news in 1980s Los Angeles. More acutely, it charts the use of helicopters as a primary tool of news organizations to capture and transmit live footage for sensationalistic stories. Most intriguingly, however, the film […]

Posted in: Review

Nine Days

We are each the main character in our own story. And in life’s more chaotic moments, it’s easy to think we’re living through our own TV show. Moments of high drama flatten our spirits. Our embarrassments function like screwball comedy. Moments of unspeakable irony make us wonder who’s turning the screws. Each day is a […]

Posted in: Review

Old

There is a movie inside Old that flows organically out of its characters, driven by their fears, desires, and regrets, generating a clear-eyed and affecting metaphor for the speed with which life passes us by, and our inherent unwillingness to slow down long enough to savor every moment. It’s as eloquent a thematic underpinning as […]

Posted in: Review

Holler

Holler is a film that seems to have an uncanny psychic link to its characters and environment, a kind of synthesis between form and subject that can’t be manufactured, only felt. Portraits of Rust Belt desperation are quite popular in the industry of late, to the point that Appalachian Misery Porn should be designated its […]

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What Lies West

What Lies West is a battlefield on which the screenplay’s earnest human insights war against the film’s inherent formal limitations. The ultra-low-budget feature was clearly made with love, but also under such restrictive stylistic and technical circumstances that it becomes difficult to look past those distractions and into the eyes of the characters. It’s hard […]

Posted in: Review

Four Good Days

Four Good Days strains itself to convey a hardened tale of mother-daughter turmoil through the lens of a bleak addiction drama to the point that it eventually feels like a dirge deliberately inflicted upon the audience. There’s incredible value in an unflinching cinematic portrayal of difficult material, but Rodrigo Garcia’s film seems hellbent on wallowing […]

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