Directed by David Robert Mitchell Myth is a constant theme in the three movies directed by David Robert Mitchell. Those three are The Myth of the American Sleepover, It Follows and now Under the Silver Lake. They are all a bit different, one a slice of life film about teenagers, another a horror film and this one a sort … Continue reading Under the Silver Lake (2018)
The Man Who Killed Don Quixote (2018)
Directed by Terry Gilliam In The Man Who Killed Don Quixote a burned out tv commercial director returns to the small Spanish village in which he shot his thesis short film ten years previous, only to discover that the shoemaker he cast as Don Quixote is lost in a delusion that he is indeed Don Quixote. … Continue reading The Man Who Killed Don Quixote (2018)
Trouble Every Day (2001)
Directed by Claire Denis Vincent Gallo can really act with his eyes, maybe not quite as much with his voice, but holy sh*t those eyes are at times frightening and magnetic. Claire Denis takes advantage of it in this moody, disturbing, sensual cannibalistic daydream of a movie. It's not exactly overtly frightening but rather deliberate … Continue reading Trouble Every Day (2001)
Alphaville (1965)
Directed by Jean-Luc Godard Alphaville imagines a grim future dominated by detrimental logic and a computer system with a voice that sounds as though it's been yanked from the death rattle of a long-time smoker. Combine that with the loud beeps, flashing lights and all around lack of personality of noir hero Lemmy Caution (Eddie … Continue reading Alphaville (1965)
Tender Mercies (1983)
Directed by Bruce Beresford The small Texas roadside motel upon which Mac Sledge (Robert Duvall) stumbles might as well exist outside of the real world. It's the place of his rebirth, a slow, arduous process that takes place over the course of this film. The movie opens there with a drunken fight that leaves him … Continue reading Tender Mercies (1983)
Tony Manero (2008)
Directed by Pablo Larrain There's some overlap between the physicality of violence and dancing, or at least they seem to be paralleled in certain movies and media. In the music video to The Shoes' "Time to Dance" Jake Gyllenhaal plays a serial killer whose compulsion seems to come from his inability to dance (so he … Continue reading Tony Manero (2008)
The Last Black Man in San Francisco (2019)
Directed by Joe Talbot The Last Black Man in San Francisco wears its heart on its sleeve, to say the least. It feels like an amped up version of a Barry Jenkins film, taking the tone and texture of If Beale Street Could Talk and combining it with the place and subject matter of Jenkins' Medicine for Melancholy. … Continue reading The Last Black Man in San Francisco (2019)
The Way We Were (1973)
Directed by Sydney Pollack The Way We Were is a good 'ol fashioned romantic drama set against a politically charged backdrop over the course of a couple decades. The couple is Katie and Hubbell (Barbra Streisand, Robert Redford), college classmates and political opposites. Well it's not so much that they're opposites, just that their political … Continue reading The Way We Were (1973)
Absence of Malice (1981)
Directed by Sydney Pollack Okay, so Absence of Malice tackles a journalist's responsibility to ensure truth in reporting and the women's liberation movement. The latter is only mentioned a couple times in passing, but I think it's intrinsically tied to the way the former is presented here, and I think the message is a little muddied. … Continue reading Absence of Malice (1981)
The Yakuza (1974)
Directed by Sydney Pollack "A Yakuza pays his debts/A Yakuza does his duty/A man without debt/A man without duty/Is not a man." This is the song sung midway through Sydney Pollack's The Yakuza and which sums up the philosophy which guides the characters of the film. It's an eastern philosophy into which the western character, Harry Kilmer … Continue reading The Yakuza (1974)
