Directed by Christopher Nolan Rewatching Interstellar I forgot how strange and clunky the world and exposition of act 1 was. Earth in this not so distant future is unsuitable for life. There are dust storms milling about, schools deny the moon landing, and the New York Yankees play in front of crowds less than a thousand. … Continue reading Interstellar (2014)
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Shoah (1985)
Directed by Claude Lanzmann Where do you begin with something like this? I've never seen a film like Shoah. It's hard to even call it a film. The nine and a half hour documentary is just a series of long conversations with people touched by the Holocaust, many survivors and others perpetrators. The conversations at time … Continue reading Shoah (1985)
Elvis Presley: The Searcher (2018)
Directed by Thom Zimny Elvis' story is a tragic one though perhaps the most well-known archetype of the rags to riches to untimely celebrity death story we've become acquainted with. The King was around long enough to experience multiple dramatic shifts in his career, and yet he died young enough to make us wonder what … Continue reading Elvis Presley: The Searcher (2018)
Winter Light (1963)
Directed by Ingmar Bergman "Why hast thou forsaken me?" Paster Tomas' plight is such a bare, direct expression of his existential crisis. His overt vulnerability is hard to take but also hard to deny because the rigidity of his devout despair refuses cliche or sentimentality. Instead it's almost robotic, like a programmed emotional breakdown, a … Continue reading Winter Light (1963)
Gerry (2002)
Directed by Gus Van Sant Gerry is the first of Gus Van Sant's "death trilogy," preceding Elephant (2003) and Last Days (2005). Each film is a sparse retelling of a true event, an attempt to understand what may have gone wrong. It's an effort to find truth and meaning in things that don't immediately offer any. How did something … Continue reading Gerry (2002)
The Lookout (2007)
Directed by Scott Frank The lasting image of The Lookout is a luminous, small-town bank straight out of an Edward Hopper painting. Inside is janitor Chris Pratt (not that Chris Pratt), using a mop to shoot urinal pucks into a tipped over trash can. It's a balance between these character moments and a genuinely thrilling plot … Continue reading The Lookout (2007)
True Grit (2010)
Directed by the Coen Brothers The 1969 film was a celebration of all things John Wayne while the Coen Brothers' adaptation of the same source material is much more broadly comedic, at least to a point. The Rooster Cogburn character here is played by a legendary actor in his own right, Jeff Bridges. He's somewhere … Continue reading True Grit (2010)
Medicine for Melancholy (2008)
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)
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)
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