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TÁR (Todd Field, 2022)

I haven't seen a film in quite a long time that so bracingly invited me to think about it, one that I a...

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Slaughterhouses of Modernity (Heinz Emigholz, 2022)

The NYFF Currents regime doesn't have a lot of use for the old lions of the avant-garde. So it was surp...

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Holy Spider (Ali Abbasi, 2022)



When I first moved back to Houston after several years in Syracuse, Jen and I liv...

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45th Parallel (Lawrence Abu Hamran, 2022)

It hasn't gone unnoticed that a large number of short films included in this year's NYFF Currents selec...

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Two Minor Entries


Causeway (Lily Neugebauer, 2022)

Considering the backlog of viewing I...

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Nope (Jordan Peele, 2022)

I get the sense that maybe Jordan Peele would like to work outside of the confines of genre, but his ba...

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Corsage (Marie Kreutzer, 2022)


Corsage is eminently watchable, but the fact it's being considered one of the year'...

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Detective vs. Sleuths (Wai Ka-fai, 2022)



A film does not have to make sense in order to be compelling. However, it's good ...

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Speaking Directly...

Hi there!

Although it probably isn't necessary, I did want to post a quick note to address the fa...

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A Woman Escapes (Sofia Bohdanowicz, Burak Çevik, and Blake Williams, 2022)

Disclosure of personal connections is always an odd thing when it comes to writing about experimental f...

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Stars at Noon (Claire Denis, 2022)

It's been an odd year for Claire Denis. Her film from Berlin, Both Sides of the Blade, was a F...

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Nobody's Hero (Alain Guiraudie, 2022)

The English title of this film is Nobody's Hero, while the French title, Viens je t'emmèn...

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Aftersun (Charlotte Wells, 2022)

I appear to be in a distinct minority where this film is concerned. Many reviews describe it as evocati...

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Human Flowers of Flesh (Helena Wittmann, 2022)

During a Q&A in Houston, Argentinian director Matías Piñeiro was asked why he was making so many ...

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Three Tidy Tigers Tied a Tie Tighter (Gustavo Vinagre, 2022)

One of the few remaining vestiges of the old Movie Nerd Discussion Group I used to belong to -- a Yahoo...

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Confess, Fletch (Greg Mottola, 2022)



A breezy comedy with snappy dialogue? In this economy? Obviously Paramou...

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Exhibition (Mary Helena Clark, 2022)


Mary Helena Clark has consistently been one of the most compelling avant-garde filmmakers on...

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Stonewalling (Huang Ji and Ryuji Otsuka, 2022)

Here are the basic deets, per my Viennale catalogue entry:

"In their second collaboration, Ryuji ...

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Three Thousand Years of Longing (George Miller, 2022)

It's interesting that right now, George Miller and Baz Luhrmann are the two preeminent  Australian...

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You Have to Come and See It (Jónas Trueba, 2022)

Here's my Viennale catalogue description:

Jónas Trueba follows his monumental study of Spanish y...

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"And All I'm Gonna Be Is Mean...."

If saying it in the street is a knockout, is publishing it in Cinema Scope Online a cop-out? 2022-09-17 22:45:25 +0000 UTC View Post

EVENTIDE (Sharon Lockhart, 2022)

Movement creates instability. This is a basic tenet of cinema, and it's true no matter how elegantly th...

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Crossroads 2022: Back to Basics

And lest it get lost in the TIFFing shuffle, here's my report on Crossroads 2022. Not quite as comprehe...

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2022? TIFF YOU! (final)

In addition to firing off angry film critiques to the editor of your favo(u)rite Canadian magazine, I'm...

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Cinema (1895-2022)


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The Newest Olds (Pablo Mazzolo, 2022)

TIFF WAVELENGTHS 2022

Mazzolo is one of the most intellectually provocative film...

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After Work (Céline Condorelli and Ben Rivers, 2022)

TIFF WAVELENGTHS 2022

In recent years, the great British avant-documentarian Ben...

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Another Tiffing Year (Updated 9/15 - final)

Once again, I am not attending. While this has mostly to do with discomfort with the prospect of gettin...

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Four Nights of a Dreamer (Robert Bresson, 1971)

This is a Bresson film that doesn't get as much play as it should, mostly because it hasn't been restored yet....

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Unmaking the Grade


In addition to watching and writing reviews for the various fall festivals (TIFF, NYFF, Cros...

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