Directed by Barry Jenkins Medicine for Melancholy feels like a film from the French New Wave. It's a character study with no real plot. The shots are handheld, and the image is bleached and desaturated so much so that the movie calls attention to the ways in which it is just that, a movie. This … Continue reading Medicine for Melancholy (2008)
Month: August 2018
Pavilion (2012)
Directed by Tim Sutton Tim Sutton's movies are visual poems, sparse and distant. His characters are people we regard from afar, often non actors playing a part that surely overlaps with who they are in everyday life. Pavilion is a brief movie (70 minutes) that takes place in upstate New York and somewhere in Arizona. … Continue reading Pavilion (2012)
Out of the Past (1947)
Directed by Jacques Tourneur "I'm no good, and neither are you." Are films noir sexist? A female character is only 'good' if she serves the male hero's storyline. The traditional noir hero is only out for himself, and he inevitably runs into the femme fatale who really is just doing the same thing. She's protecting … Continue reading Out of the Past (1947)
True Grit (1969)
Directed by Henry Hathaway John Wayne more or less plays John Wayne in True Grit. As Rooster Cogburn he is an old Marshall, drunk and lazy but quick with a gun and honorable to boot when the moment calls. Cogburn is the man young Mattie Ross (Kim Darby) turns to for help tracking down Tom Chaney, … Continue reading True Grit (1969)
Altered States (1980)
Directed by Ken Russell Altered States will remind you of other 80's movies like The Fly and An American Werewolf in London. It's one of those stories that builds to a particularly gruesome, practical effects-laden transformation which marks the protagonist's irreversible shift from an everyman into something monstrous. William Hurt plays Eddie Jessup, a scientist obsessed with finding … Continue reading Altered States (1980)
Man on the Moon (1999) / Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond (2017)
Directed by Milos Forman, Chris Smith Man on the Moon is a well-made, if familiar biopic about a fascinating comedian, Andy Kaufman. Jim & Andy is an engaging documentary about Jim Carrey during the production of Man on the Moon, and if watched together it helps you see the profundity behind the 1999 biopic. The film is … Continue reading Man on the Moon (1999) / Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond (2017)
Mom and Dad (2017)
Directed by Brian Taylor Mom and Dad is exactly what it should be, but a little too long. It's crazy, but crazy has a hard time out-crazy-ing itself as movies push forward. What is sensational in minute 10 might feel rote by minute 80. There is another wonderfully over the top Nicolas Cage performance, though … Continue reading Mom and Dad (2017)
Unfriended (2014)
Directed by Levan Gabriadze Unfriended is a horror movie in real time as seen through the perspective of a computer screen. That it works as effectively as it does is a testament to the significance of our online lives. Or maybe you thought it was silly, but sh*t I was hooked. The computer screen, reflective … Continue reading Unfriended (2014)
Cronos (1993)
Directed by Guillermo Del Toro In Cronos one man stumbles upon that which another will do anything to find. Jesus Gris (Federico Luppi) is the affable owner of a store of artifacts and grandfather to young Aurora (Tamara Shanath). He soon finds a device which will render him immortal, but his sudden obsession with eternal … Continue reading Cronos (1993)
Ballast (2008)
Directed by Lance Hammer “Filmmakers are from a privileged class and tend to make films about themselves. That’s decadent and in my opinion worthless.” - Lance Hammer Ballast concerns three people tied together by one man's suicide. They live in the Mississippi Delta, but the environment feels much more out of this world than that. Hammer … Continue reading Ballast (2008)
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