Flux Gourmet (Peter Strickland, 2022)
It took me a minute to catch up with Strickland's latest, for a number of tedious reasons. (It never op...
2022-08-30 05:17:54 +0000 UTC View Post
msicism posts
The Passengers of the Night (Mikhaël Hers, 2022)
Here's how I described the film for the Viennale catalogue:
Beginning with archival footage of ce...
2022-08-24 03:59:21 +0000 UTC View PostCooler Heads Prevail
So yeah. I've taken some time, and I feel like I have a more measured response to some recent events. A...
2022-08-21 05:49:10 +0000 UTC View PostIndia Song (Marguerite Duras, 1975) (take two)
I had been under the mistaken impression that I'd seen India Song many years ago. I had a very...
2022-08-21 05:12:57 +0000 UTC View PostIndia Song (Marguerite Duras, 1975)
10 Things I Prefer to Marguerite Duras:
-a bendy stras
-A Korean spas
<... 2022-08-20 06:58:57 +0000 UTC View Post
Fairytale (Aleksandr Sokurov, 2022)
Aleksandr Sokurov is a director typically perceived as having a distinctive style, a brand even. The wo...
2022-08-17 19:51:01 +0000 UTC View PostThe Adventures of Gigi the Law (Alessandro Comodin, 2022)
Following his well-liked (although unseen by me) Summer of Giacomo and his not quite as well-l...
2022-08-16 21:39:43 +0000 UTC View Post'Carno Knowledge
I reviewed a couple of Locarno competition titles for InReview Online. Here they are. Please excuse the formatting / kerning issues.
2022-08-16 21:03:52 +0000 UTC
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Too Many Ways to Be No. 1 (Wai Ka-fai, 1997)
Since Wai Ka-fai is "in the news" right now, owing to his very well-received new film Detective vs....
2022-08-07 18:53:42 +0000 UTC View PostAgainst Time (Ben Russell, 2022)
Ben Russell's latest film is in part an expansion of his 2020 film What Distinguishes the Past...
2022-08-06 19:09:33 +0000 UTC View PostWhen There Is No More Music to Write, and Other Roman Stories (Éric Baudelaire, 2022)
This new featurette by Baudelaire is actually more of a compilation, comprised to two short films and t...
2022-08-05 05:36:19 +0000 UTC View PostAfter Blue (Dirty Paradise) (Bertrand Mandico, 2021)
I have a soft spot for Bertrand Mandico. Granted, I have yet to really embrace his films. That's becaus...
2022-08-05 02:57:17 +0000 UTC View PostTalking About the Weather (Annika Pinske, 2022)
This is a graduation film from a student at Berlin's dffb, and judging from the information in the cred...
2022-08-04 19:18:22 +0000 UTC View PostThe Poll of Polls
Looking back, I see I have neglected to honor the dictates of a few earlier polls, including the 1972 f...
2022-08-03 11:01:05 +0000 UTC View PostA Summer's Tale (Éric Rohmer, 1996)
When I was a younger man, I was a complete idiot. This is not to say that I am some beacon of rationali...
2022-08-03 02:30:57 +0000 UTC View PostA little behind....
Hi folks, and thank you (once again) for your patronage, and your patience.
I'm behind on writing...
2022-08-02 04:14:04 +0000 UTC View PostRiotsville, USA (Sierra Pettengill, 2022)
A specter is haunting the world of documentary: the specter of the essay film.
Riotsville, US...
2022-07-27 20:16:03 +0000 UTC View PostThat Kind of Summer (Denis Côté, 2022)
My description for the Viennale:
The protagonists of Denis Côté’s films often live on the mar...
2022-07-27 19:52:48 +0000 UTC View PostElvis (Baz Lurhmann, 2022)
Although Elvis is generally better than one might expect, it's strangely shapeless and ungainl...
2022-07-22 03:39:23 +0000 UTC View PostMother and Son (Léonor Serraille, 2022)
Here's what I wrote for the Viennale catalog description of this film:
Léonor Serraille follows ...
2022-07-22 03:03:34 +0000 UTC View PostIt Is Night In America (Ana Vaz, 2022)
In her longest film to date, Brazilian experimentalist Ana Vaz turns her attention to habitat encroachm...
2022-07-20 02:29:32 +0000 UTC View PostThe Unstable Object II (Daniel Eisenberg, 2022)
Clocking in at just under 3 1/2 hours, The Unstable Object II bears the subtitle, "contributio...
2022-07-18 04:56:35 +0000 UTC View PostWord (Beata Parkanová, 2022)
Depictions of life under totalitarianism tend to focus on dramatic instances, moments when someone eith...
2022-07-18 02:45:46 +0000 UTC View PostHit the Road (Panah Panahi, 2021)
Encroaching fascism keeps us perpetually off balance, always braced for the next punch in the gut. This...
2022-07-15 02:00:58 +0000 UTC View PostThree Recent Experimental Films
Surface Rites (Ryan Ferko, Faraz Anoushahpor, Parastoo Anoushahpor, 2022)
The Ca...
2022-07-12 04:28:58 +0000 UTC View PostSecrets & Lies (Mike Leigh, 1996)
Yes, I am only just now catching up with Mike Leigh's Palme d'Or winner, his biggest critical and comme...
2022-07-10 02:46:39 +0000 UTC View PostLeonora Addio (Paolo Taviani, 2022)
This is a film I would have turned off well before the halfway mark, except for the fact that I have a ...
2022-07-06 03:31:09 +0000 UTC View PostMen (Alex Garland, 2022)
Having only read about Men and seen the trailer, I popped off on Twitter, as one does. I remar...
2022-07-04 02:18:28 +0000 UTC View PostThe Restless (Joachim Lafosse, 2021)
Belgian though he may be, Joachim Lafosse seems to fall into a particular category of French director w...
2022-07-02 06:31:04 +0000 UTC View Post