June Director of the Month
I'll have at least one more Ray write-up (for The Big City), possibly another, before May is over. But now, let's set the agender for Pride Month.
2021-05-29 05:23:33 +0000 UTC View Post
msicism posts
Betrayal (Lewis Milestone, 1929)
That feeling when you discover your wife with your best friend.....
2021-05-28 02:42:59 +0000 UTC View PostRoad to Nowhere (Monte Hellman, 2010)
Neither a disaster nor an auteurist triumph, Road to Nowhere tells us a few things about the changes in B-movie logic since Hellman made his gen...
2021-05-27 22:19:08 +0000 UTC View PostDevi (Satyajit Ray, 1960)
Faith and reason, at it again. As is often the case in Ray's films, Devi provokes crucial questions regarding the treatment of women in Bengali ...
2021-05-27 02:37:34 +0000 UTC View PostFinal Destination Canada (and more!)
Due to my short attention span recently, I have been watching a ton of public service announcements on YouTube. Just from a filmmaking perspective, a lot...
2021-05-26 01:29:26 +0000 UTC View PostThe Big Experimental Rundown (Part Two)
ABOVE: a pharmacist working at a Steenbeck
Re...
2021-05-26 00:41:11 +0000 UTC View PostMadalena (Madiano Marchetti, 2021)
I had previously watched half an hour of Madalena during Rotterdam, and although it was certainly impressive enough formally, it left a bad tast...
2021-05-22 23:36:29 +0000 UTC View PostSlower Traffic Keep Right
Since I have not been producing writing as quickly or as often as I have been in the recent past, I figured I owed you all some explanation. You are, aft...
2021-05-22 01:59:49 +0000 UTC View PostThe Big Experimental Run-Down (Part One)
Despite the fact that avant-garde film and video are sort of my bailiwick, I've been spending much of my time on this Patreon focusing on feature-length ...
2021-05-18 03:40:51 +0000 UTC View PostGull (Kim Mi-jo, 2020)
Gull is a rather simple film, although its depiction of the aftermath of sexual assault is undeniably disturbing. In her first feature film, Kim...
2021-05-17 21:21:12 +0000 UTC View PostAparajito (Satyajit Ray, 1956)
Considering Aparajito in relation to Pather Panchali, I began having significant doubts about Ray's approach to narrative construction,...
2021-05-16 05:30:11 +0000 UTC View PostThe Killing of Two Lovers (Robert Machoian, 2020)
The Killing of Two Lovers is a film that focuses most of its attention on things that don't happen. From the opening scene, Machoian in...
2021-05-15 17:30:50 +0000 UTC View PostMoon, 66 Questions (Jacqueline Lentzou, 2021)
As has been the case with several of this year's New Directors / New Films selections, Moon, 66 Questions is a bit frustrating, since it seems t...
2021-05-14 04:55:18 +0000 UTC View PostAn Enemy of the People (Satyajit Ray, 1989)
There are a few particularly interesting things about Ray's take on Ibsen. First, until about a year ago, Ganashatru (An Enemy of the People...
2021-05-14 01:19:56 +0000 UTC View PostFaya Dayi (Jessica Beshir, 2021)
This is a uniquely frustrating documentary, because it has so much potential. First-time director Beshir uses an intellectually impressive approach ...
2021-05-13 23:16:47 +0000 UTC View PostPather Panchali (Satyajit Ray, 1955)
As I've addressed here and on other forums, I had no direct exposure to the Official Film Canon as such. Coming to cinephilia from a focus on painting an...
2021-05-09 21:54:10 +0000 UTC View PostDownstream to Kinshasa (Dieudo Hamadi, 2020)
In recent years, the documentaries of the DRC's Dieudo Hamadi have started receiving more recognition in the West. (True/False awarding him the 2018 True...
2021-05-05 23:27:47 +0000 UTC View PostComedy Corner (workshop material)
Konstantin Chernenko and Pope John Paul I walk into a bar. "One vodka and one cabernet," Chernenko announces, but the bartender points to two gentlemen on stools. "They're already having your drinks," he says.
"The Lord giveth...." remarks J...
2021-05-05 23:17:50 +0000 UTC View PostFilm About a Father Who (Lynne Sachs, 2020)
This is a difficult film to evaluate. It's the latest in a recent spate of auto-portraits of filmmakers and their families, and obviously one of the diff...
2021-05-04 21:57:25 +0000 UTC View PostWood and Water (Jonas Bak, 2021)
Clocking in at a lean 80 minutes, Wood and Water is one of those films that gets so much right for so long that it's actually a bit nerve-wracki...
2021-05-03 02:48:25 +0000 UTC View PostSleepwalk (Sara Driver, 1986)
I did not care for this movie. But it has undeniable significance as an artifact.
I'm probably in the minority here, but I just don't think this 19...
2021-05-01 06:07:24 +0000 UTC View PostMask ON! Lights DOWN! Roll FILM!
I do believe that Zhang Yimou is going to lure me back into the theater. I don't know who this Cliff Walker guy is, but he's got me intrigued.
2021-04-30 23:25:47 +0000 UTC View PostShadow of a Doubt (Alfred Hitchcock, 1943)
I decided to close out Hitchcock Month with Shadow of a Doubt mostly because I read that it was the director's personal favorite. I think I can ...
2021-04-30 18:14:16 +0000 UTC View PostFixing a Hole
Hello, friends.
I am writing this quick note to "put out feelers" on a topic of no real importance, unless you are an obsessive-compulsive like me....
2021-04-30 00:09:49 +0000 UTC View PostThe Lady Vanishes (Alfred Hitchcock, 1938)
"There is definitely something queer on this train..."
I don't know that I have a great deal to say about The Lady Vanishes beyon...
2021-04-29 18:04:20 +0000 UTC View PostRebecca (Alfred Hitchcock, 1940)
And it is here that the exactitude of Hitchcock's filmmaking runs up against the intractability of my personal taste. Rebecca is formally magnif...
2021-04-26 09:15:24 +0000 UTC View Post
But Wait! There's Moor!
The Tragedy of Othello -- the Moor of Venice (Orson Welles, 1951)
First of all, let me say that I am happy that no one has gotten ...
2021-04-24 03:34:44 +0000 UTC View PostNorth by Northwest (Alfred Hitchcock, 1959)
North by Northwest: a review by Michael Sicinski
[ABOVE: Roger and Eve meet in the trees before the Cl...
2021-04-21 03:26:36 +0000 UTC View PostRifkin's Festival (Woody Allen, 2020)
First things first. I'd kind of sworn off Woody Allen, for the obvious reasons. Even if we don't know precisely whether he is guilty, I felt that it was ...
2021-04-19 02:11:37 +0000 UTC View Post