Clint Eastwood's most recent JUROR #2 is a strange movie at war with itself. And that's mostly a good thing.
The premise is a bit ridiculous then underplayed to maintain the tone. And yet, it is still a well-directed, well-acted, effective work about the horrible horrible gray area of the law, justice, conscience, facts.
Ultimately, it's about one of the toughest of all human conundrums: what is the right thing to do?
The movie follows …
Read MoreGerman born emigre director Ernst Lubitsch is rightly considered one of the brightest stars in the classic Hollywood filmmaking firmament.
He had such an innate sense of the intrinsic qualities of cinema that he became Paramount's head of production in the mid 1930's WHILE still directing movies (though he was fired a year later because he couldn't delegate). Lubitsch was a wunderkind like Irving Thalberg or Steven Spielberg or Alfred Hitchcock or Stanley Kubrick. A savant of cinema.
One of his proteges, world class moviemaker Billy Wilder…
Read MoreFirst, this is a dynamite movie.
Second, maybe don't watch this movie when eating leftovers for lunch.
Coralie Fargeat's THE SUBSTANCE is powered by a rage so palpable that…
Read MoreIn some strange way, the question of relevancy in pop culture has been rendered irrelevant.
We live in beyond the looking glass times where concerted efforts appear to be made to make us all discouraged, confused, disheartened, disoriented in the surrealism of the current moment.
But, as always, even those factors have to …
Read MoreLike our review of Jason Reitman's SATURDAY NIGHT, Edward Berger's meticulous, engrossing CONCLAVE, about a fictitious election of a new pope beset by mystery, scandal, and intrigue, is a kind of cinematic comfort food.
And again, that's not a bad thing. CONCLAVE is an excellent movie that smuggles in intriguing ideas under the cloak of a 70's style Alan J Pakula (ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN, KLUTE) thriller.
It's also …
Read MoreThe movie follows beleaguered but determined SNL creator/producer Lorne Michaels (a surprisingly agile Gabrielle LaBelle) as he fights battles on numerous fronts to willpower his show to air at 11:30pm live on television despite everyone and everything saying it can't be done.
The movie is at once…
Read MoreAs we gather ‘round the cinema family table for Thanksgiving 2024, we find a cinematic family in flux.
Some at the table say the family has disbanded. Some say the family will never die. Some say viva the family! Each feels the truth of what they say in their hearts. Who’s right? Is everyone right? Is everyone wrong?
Will this Cinematic Thanksgiving devolve into tense family squabbling? Will the cinematic Turkey be dry and overcooked? I hate an overcooked cinematic Turkey!
Well, I’m gonna stop the extended allegory train before it crashes and focus it down.
I’d like to offer a little Cinematic Thanksgiving prayer if I could.
Thank you …
Read MoreDISCLAIMER is a worthy, interesting, pointed work. It is full of committed performances, incredible technique and craft, and important themes. And yet, in some ways, it feels like a missed opportunity.
Alfonso Cuaron is one of the most talented and daring of the current crop of world cinema masters. Each new movie is a cause for celebration. Each new work is an experiment in genre, form, narrative. Yet each movie coheres to a continuum of Cuaron concerns…
Read MoreFirst off, please watch this movie (it's available to stream on CRITERION). It's a masterpiece that somehow has slipped through the cracks of the more talked about canonical movies of the time.
PANIQUE, based on a novel by master existential mystery/thriller author, Georges Simenon, directed by the famed Julien Duvivier, and staring the incomparable Michel Simon (one of the best actors to have ever practiced the craft), is brutal.
And unfortunately, in our strange and uncertain times, maybe a brutal “it can happen here” wake up call is what we need.
It tells the story of a mistrusted loner…
Read MoreNo one knows who wrote folk classic, “Wayfaring Stranger.” It emerges from history fully formed as if the wanderer has always been lost, always singing of his journey home. Hundreds of years later and thousands of miles away, the song plays out of a car speaker before a crash…
Titane opens with …
Read MoreSome films are like a punch to the face. It’s a good feeling. Rarely does, a project come along that hits all over your body for the entire duration. This is frenzied filmmaking, held together through sustained energy. Tetsuo: The Iron Man is like driving through an hour-long carwash full of fists, an assault on the senses that doesn’t let up. This would be trying if the approach wasn’t so electric.
Tetsuo: The Iron Man uses…
Read MoreThe vessel that houses our perspective, desire, and identity is a flawed mechanism. Vital functions operate in silence and impact waking life. Some fixate or make changes out of necessity but there’s a population with a fractured relationship, living as a sort of floating head. Bodies are uncomfortable to think about because …
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