Directed by Hu Bo I'm inclined to write about An Elephant Sitting Still just so that I don't forget about it. It's a long movie, nearly 4 hours, and within its tempered approach to storytelling it's easy to forget what really happens. And that's putting aside whether it even matters. It's a journey, as most good … Continue reading An Elephant Sitting Still (2018)
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Invisible Life (2019)
Directed by Karim Aïnouz When Invisible Life leans into the melodrama it becomes otherworldly. The story of two sisters separated sometime around age 18 is inherently melodramatic, based solely on the justification for their separation, but it's not until the second half that the film sheds any semblance of realism and becomes almost magical, albeit in a … Continue reading Invisible Life (2019)
A Hidden Life (2019)
Directed by Terrence Malick After seeing Kelly Reichardt's Meek's Cutoff (2010) I suddenly wished to see what her version of Into the Wild might've looked like. It's her stark, unromantic approach to her characters and worldview that I wanted to see layered onto other movies that I felt perhaps watered down or otherwise distorted the essence of … Continue reading A Hidden Life (2019)
1917 (2019)
Directed by Sam Mendes 1917 is meant to immerse you in the ultra-reality of the trenches of World War I. Cleverly edited together to simulate a single unbroken take (outside of one conscious cut), the film is remarkably simple and in a way restrained as it follows two men sent out on a dangerous mission … Continue reading 1917 (2019)
Rififi (1955)
Directed by Jules Dassin Rififi is a tense, dark little heist film with a cruel protagonist and friends who quickly turn on each other. Outside of a nearly 30 minute-long silent heist sequence, very little about this film romanticizes its story. These aren't rough and tumble heroes punching up but rather selfish characters reaching too … Continue reading Rififi (1955)
American Factory (2019)
Directed by Steven Bognar, Julia Reichert Maybe it's not appropriate to love movies like this, but I do. They depict a certain part of America that is often overlooked, and I find these documentaries both troubling and deeply fascinating. Other recent films in this vein are Rich Hill (2014) and Minding the Gap (2018). They … Continue reading American Factory (2019)
I Lost My Body (2019)
Directed by Jérémy Clapin Animated movies can cast a spell over you in a way I don't think live action can. Just the basics of how they present their worlds, the hand drawn style, can settle your or disturb you so easily. In I Lost My Body there is plenty to be disturbed by, and it … Continue reading I Lost My Body (2019)
Marriage Story (2019)
Directed by Noah Baumbach Marriage Story begins and ends with a poetic little encapsulation of a character's day to day quirks, the things that don't always make it into movies because they don't advance the plot or add conscious information to the story. In this case the film adds an instant shot of humanity to a … Continue reading Marriage Story (2019)
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (2010)
Directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul I didn't respond to this film in quite the same way I did to Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Cemetery of Slendour (2015), but I'm fascinated all the same by the stillness, thoughtfulness and mundane surreality of intersecting planes of existence and time that shows up in both films. Where Cemetery of Splendour spent more time with … Continue reading Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (2010)
The Aeronauts (2019)
Directed by Tom Harper The Aeronauts is satisfying. Half of it is a pure survival story right up there with some of the better ones (like The Martian, All is Lost, Gravity) while the other half struggles to push past constructed melodrama and instead leans into the same emotionally manipulative qualities as what we'd consider Oscar bait. In … Continue reading The Aeronauts (2019)
