Negative Space (Chris Petit, 2000)
This is one of a number of Channel 4-sponsored essay films by Petit, perhaps best known for his Wendersesque anti-road movie Radio On (1979). I'...
2021-08-20 02:39:01 +0000 UTC View Post
msicism posts
Family Plot (Alfred Hitchcock, 1976)
Is this a controversial film among auteurists? I would assume that diehard Hitchcock fans would argue that Family Plot is appropriately valedict...
2021-08-19 18:33:54 +0000 UTC View PostSeptember Poll: Single Serving Films
In accordance with the wishes of the ruly mob, I am asking you to select FOUR films below. (You could choose more, but we are on the honor system.) I wil...
2021-08-14 18:26:28 +0000 UTC View PostFilms of the Month (Not Directors)
Hey, so the poll was nearly 3-to-1 in favor of choosing select films every month, instead of a single director. Cool.
Watch this space (or one very much like it) for a new film-laden poll. 😊
2021-08-13 18:10:04 +0000 UTC View PostAnnette (Leos Carax, 2021)
It's difficult to fairly evaluate Annette, because there's something glorious about the fact that it even exists. It's not just that ...
2021-08-13 17:10:39 +0000 UTC View PostJerzy Skolimowski: Two Early Films
Through the courtesy of the revived cinephobe.tv website, I recently saw these two early Skolimowski films, his second and third features. Wha...
2021-08-11 03:43:03 +0000 UTC View PostBefore I Go (Eric Schaeffer, 2021)
So this item randomly came up on a torrent site I frequent, and it occurred to me that I had never actually seen an Eric Schaeffer film. While this didn'...
2021-08-09 22:24:34 +0000 UTC View PostPreliminary Poll for September: Format Change?
Should I continue selecting a Filmmaker of the Month? Or should I conduct a more MD'A-esque poll involving specific major films I've never seen? (In this...
2021-08-09 03:32:25 +0000 UTC View PostWhen a Woman Ascends the Stairs (Mikio Naruse, 1960)
In his invaluable e-book A Mikio Naruse Companion, Dan Sallitt mentions that he does not consider When a Woman Ascends the Stairs to be...
2021-08-07 22:22:44 +0000 UTC View PostOrphea (Alexander Kluge and Khavn, 2020)
Last year I tried to watch Orphea and bailed after a scant 20 minutes. But recently, the Houston Cinema Arts Society selected the film for a one...
2021-08-07 21:10:54 +0000 UTC View PostÎntregalde (Radu Muntean, 2021)
The first fifteen minutes of Întregalde, the latest from Radu Muntean, are so stuffed with activity that it's difficult to even guess what the ...
2021-08-06 00:05:21 +0000 UTC View PostOh Bondage, Up Yours!
I've just watched episodes one through three, and I detest this. Any reason I should continue? I mean, it's just going to be the same thing over...
2021-08-02 02:54:15 +0000 UTC View Post
Catch-Up Poll: Powell & Pressburger
(This one is mostly procedural. I know the outcome.)
August: Voting Body
Hey everyone, I have decided to use Our Beloved Month of August as a catch-up period. More specifically, I am going to watch one more film by each of the...
2021-08-01 03:31:07 +0000 UTC View PostSome Came Running (Vincente Minnelli, 1958)
I am beginning to think that Minnelli just isn't my guy. He's certainly a competent technician, and knows how to structurally organize a film with a lot ...
2021-08-01 03:23:34 +0000 UTC View PostIl Buco (The Hole) (Michelangelo Frammartino, 2021)
[Embargoed. You are not reading this right now. It is an illusion.]
It was eleven years ago that Michelangelo Frammartino became a...
2021-07-30 04:15:43 +0000 UTC View PostZeros and Ones (Abel Ferrara, 2021)
[This is EMBARGOED, just so's you know.]
Are you by chance one of those long-time Ferrara fans out there who hasn't really appreci...
2021-07-28 04:03:34 +0000 UTC View PostCutlets (Bertrand Blier, 2003)
In deciding to catch up with some old Cannes titles, I've initially gone with some films that were severely lambasted at the time of their world premiere...
2021-07-25 21:05:04 +0000 UTC View PostPlease Evict My Dumb-Ass Senator
As you all know, I am not on Twitter. But I check in with the site now and then, just to see if there are any under-the-radar news stories I might otherw...
2021-07-23 17:40:30 +0000 UTC View PostTaurus (Aleksandr Sokurov, 2001)
As a secret contrarian, nothing would delight me more than to say that Taurus slaps. Alas, slap it does not, although I also think that the hars...
2021-07-23 03:48:12 +0000 UTC View PostPig (Michael Sarnoski, 2021)
Pig is an auspicious debut film, to put it mildly. First-timer Michael Sarnoski displays a remarkable control over tone and ambiance, which is a...
2021-07-22 18:48:09 +0000 UTC View PostWe Interrupt This Program...
Hey folks, what can I say? I have grown bored, with movies, with television, with food and drink, with life in general. So for now, I am suspending the M...
2021-07-22 02:12:45 +0000 UTC View PostTrain Again (Peter Tscherkassky, 2021)
Peter Tscherkassky's newest film world premiered in Cannes, his fourth appearance in the Quinzaine. Cannes is not particularly friendly to non-narrative ...
2021-07-19 05:15:11 +0000 UTC View PostMeet Me in St. Louis (Vincente Minnelli, 1944)
Okay, now I'm starting to get it. Minnelli's direction here actually strikes me as a distant cousin to Hawks and Capra, in that he deftly manages a large...
2021-07-18 20:56:10 +0000 UTC View PostIntroduction (Hong Sangsoo, 2021)
Hong Sangsoo's two films from 2021 form an instructive if frustrating diptych. Where his most recent effort, In Front of Your Face, r...
2021-07-16 04:18:19 +0000 UTC View Post