Directed by Danny Boyle Danny Boyle's Steve Jobs is operatic and a bit silly. It tells the story of Steve Jobs' career at Apple through three long sequences leading up to a product launch. In each case his conversations (Aaron Sorkin going full Sorkin with all the snappy "walk and talks") take place in the wings … Continue reading Steve Jobs (2015)
Destroyer (2018)
Directed by Karyn Kusama Destroyer is one of those films about a broken character whose present day storyline runs parallel to a recollection of a past storyline that broke said character. Both stories reach their climax at the same time so that, in a sense, the trauma of the past directly affects the present. Another … Continue reading Destroyer (2018)
Dazed and Confused (1993) [revisited]
Directed by Richard Linklater There is actually more 'plot' than I remember in Dazed and Confused. It's a loose story set on the last day of school in 1976, following an ensemble cast of characters as they just try to have a good time. And though the biggest plot point has to do with a party … Continue reading Dazed and Confused (1993) [revisited]
Long Day’s Journey Into Night (2018)
Directed by Bi Gan I've never seen anything like Long Day's Journey Into Night. It's an unsettling, sleepy and disorienting tale about a man looking for a woman from his past, or maybe she only ever existed in his dreams, it's hard to recall. Remembering the story is like trying to piece together the fragments of … Continue reading Long Day’s Journey Into Night (2018)
Close-Up (1990)
Directed by Abbas Kiarostami Close-Up is a deeply humanistic docudrama about a poor man on trial for impersonating a well-known film director. We begin with a conversation in a car (a Kiarostami staple) between a reporter who is eager to expose this imposter and print this sensational story and his taxi driver. In the backseat … Continue reading Close-Up (1990)
The Last Metro (1980)
Directed by Francois Truffaut Francois Truffaut's The Last Metro feels like it belongs in a sub genre of nostalgic films, alongside Louis Malle's Au Revoir Les Enfants, John Boorman's Hope and Glory and Woody Allen's Radio Days. These are films tied to the moments of history in which the director was a child. Often they orbit charged moments in … Continue reading The Last Metro (1980)
Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987)
Directed by John Hughes Goddamn this film is just so sweet. It's an odd couple pairing, the pursed lipped Steve Martin and blabber-mouthed John Candy, and yet it avoids certain cliches perhaps because the subtext of their discord is brought into the open so early in the film. Before any of their travels get too crazy … Continue reading Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987)
Asako I & II (2018)
Directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi If the title character of Asako I & II were more devious, maybe even just more active, then this might be more like Vertigo. She meets and falls immediately for a young man named Baku, his stringy long hair acting like a theater curtain slowly being drawn over his face, hiding something. Asako falls … Continue reading Asako I & II (2018)
Wild Rose (2018)
Directed by Tom Harper A young Glasgow woman dreams of making it as a country star in Wild Rose. She is Rose-Lynn (Jessie Buckley), and she's not like every other wide-eyed fame-minded heroine you see in stories such as this. When we first meet her she is being released from prison, though she maintains a bubbly, … Continue reading Wild Rose (2018)
Red River (1948)
Directed by Howard Hawks John Wayne plays an effective, unexpected villain in Red River, perhaps inspiring John Ford to cast him in such a role in what is considered the greatest western of all time, 1956’s The Searchers. Ford said about Wayne in this film, “I didn’t know the son of a bitch could act.” … Continue reading Red River (1948)
