A Book Review by Jeremy Carr. While Klawans routinely sings the praises of Sturges, he also expresses an evenhanded awareness of certain shortcomings, making this critical analysis from Columbia University Press a perceptive, exceptionally well-composed and earnest evaluation.” Lest there be any doubt about Stuart Klawans’s regard for the subject […]
No Escape – Fate in Film: A Deterministic Approach to Cinema
A Book Review by Dávid Szőke. Author Thomas M. Puhr concentrates on the cinematic narrative of predestination, our futile attempts to escape it, and our fear that, after all, forces greater than us direct both our internal lives and our interactions with our outside world. The book brilliantly argues that […]
Spoiler Alert: Bring a Few Hankies
By Elias Savada. Filled with keen observant and honest life revelations that warms the heart before the moments of despair, Spoiler Alert offers up a warming cup of hot cocoa in a tragicomic setting.” As terminal illness-driven comedy-dramas go, Spoiler Alert is a light, semi-sweet step up from any of […]
Unifying Chaos: What’s Up Connection
By Jeremy Carr. Nearly everyone encountered expresses some sort of erratic behavior, which does give the film a sense of genuine spontaneity and hysterical possibility.” There is a popular social media trend where someone posts a seemingly innocuous video in which something unexpected then occurs. This is usually accompanied by […]
Slashing Names Off that Naughty List: Tommy Wirkola’s Violent Night (2022)
By Thomas M. Puhr. The setup is little more than window dressing for a number of set pieces (some clever, others tedious) in which our hero kicks major ass, John McClane-style.” After about 1,000 years, even the most glamorous job loses some of its luster. Such is the experience of […]
Superfan Service: Patrick Read Johnson’s 5-25-77 (2022)
By Thomas M. Puhr. Not unlike the rough cut of a certain sci-fi epic, 5-25-77 exhibits a scrappy charm. Still, I’d leave this one to superfans and nostalgia junkies only.” “Most of this is true. The rest is even truer,” the opening text to Patrick Read Johnson’s 5-25-77 (2022) declares. […]
May the (Weird Floating) Quartz Be With You – Something in the Dirt
By Elias Savada. With Moorhead&Benson’s latest feature, they’re back in front of the camera, playing the two neighborly leads in this satirical, self-parodying Hollywood Hills nightmare of their own making.” The “intergalactic geniuses” Moorhead&Benson, a.k.a. Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead, are back to their deviously genre-bending antics for their fifth […]
Jack of All Trades – Louis Malle: Interviews
A Book Review by Thomas M. Puhr. The cumulative effect of this collection, therefore, is nothing short of revelatory. All the more reason to revisit the director’s wildly unpredictable – and consistently exceptional – body of work.” Louis Malle is hard to pin down. The French director’s genre-hopping – film […]
Childhood Bumps on Memory Lane: Armageddon Time
By Elias Savada. Takes a lot of effort to make a memorable, brooding statement; the solutions offered aren’t as satisfying as you might hope. The taste may be somewhat off-putting.” Memories comes in all shapes, sizes, and flavors, although director-writer James Gray cooks them up in with intimate, nostalgic, and […]
Refuge of the Roads: Michał Chmielewski’s Roving Woman
By Alex Ramon. The mix of the gritty and the romantic here feels fresh. Ultimately, the film is tender in tone, with unexpected humorous flashes that don’t feel forced.” Premiering at Tribeca, and featured in the Polonica strand of Polish Film Festival in Gdynia and at Raindance 2022, Michał Chmielewski’s […]