Lingua Franca (Isabel Sandoval, 2019)
One of the year's best American films appears to have been overlooked by a significant portion of the critical establishment. Even I took a little too lo...
2021-01-21 05:20:51 +0000 UTC View Post
msicism posts
The Novel of Werther (Max Ophüls, 1938)
Hard to evaluate, largely because of the deterioration of the copy I had to watch, Werther is nevertheless instructive. While it's certainly eas...
2021-01-19 00:02:00 +0000 UTC View PostHerself (Phyllida Lloyd, 2020)
While I wouldn't make any great claims for Herself, it boasts a few significant elements that raise it above the standard tearjerker. There are ...
2021-01-18 01:48:22 +0000 UTC View PostLetter From an Unknown Woman (Max Ophüls, 1948)
This is a tricky one, partly because Ophüls is negotiating a number of different registers here. I'm tempted to call this a stealth melodrama. That's in...
2021-01-15 03:47:26 +0000 UTC View PostThe Salt of Tears (Philippe Garrel, 2020)
You know, the sorts of things people say about Hong Sangsoo would apply just as well to Philippe Garrel. From film to film, there is great continuity of ...
2021-01-13 21:11:45 +0000 UTC View PostLes Misérables (Ladj Ly, 2019)
I don't have a great deal to say about this one. I mostly watched it to bring my 2019 Cannes bingo card one spot closer to blackout. (Will we ever 2021-01-12 22:04:58 +0000 UTC View Post
Soul (Pete Docter, 2020)
For the most part, Soul is a genial riff on the sorts of themes that Pixar has been working with for the better part of fifteen years. They love...
2021-01-11 19:11:36 +0000 UTC View PostPatreon Extra: The Ballad of Liv and Laurie
When Matt was a kid, around the ages of 4 and 5, he had his favorite YouTube channels. Most kids are like this today, and Matt had a few common interest points with others of his generation. He loved watching videos of toy "experts" opening blind ...
2021-01-10 21:17:33 +0000 UTC View PostA Girl Missing (Kôji Fukada, 2019)
For a film so concerned with formal control, A Girl Missing is really very undisciplined. For awhile now I've been intending to dip into the wor...
2021-01-10 20:44:57 +0000 UTC View PostIf the Republic is crumbling....
... I humbly suggest the above for the new National Anthem. Four seconds, then play ball!
2021-01-09 06:22:45 +0000 UTC View PostNo really, PLEASE don't tread on me.
I'm starting to think we are in a Wag the Dog scenario, masterminded by Ryan Murphy. This shit is way too on-the-nose.
La Ronde (Max Ophüls, 1950)
"Sophistication" and "urbanity" are threatening to become overused watchwords in my discussion of Max Ophüls' cinema, but how else to characterize this ...
2021-01-09 05:16:16 +0000 UTC View PostThe Earrings of Madame de... (Max Ophüls, 1953)
The first thing I noticed about The Eaarings is that Ophüls displays a moral sophistication and urbanity that far outstrips most of the America...
2021-01-08 23:00:31 +0000 UTC View PostWaffle House Special: Fried Eggs
Reportedly his last words were "I conquered Thebes."
UPDATE: Sadly, it appears that this story is apocryphal. The man's...
2021-01-08 19:13:55 +0000 UTC View PostThis is fucked up.
Sorry, I'm a bit distracted from movies and such. Never been in an attempted coup. I'm sure our friends from Turkey, Argentina, Portugal, Thailand, and o...
2021-01-07 00:24:22 +0000 UTC View PostGetting to Know You #1: Max Ophüls
Sorry for the delay in posting. Like many of you, I had Georgia on my mind.
So the winner is the great Max Ophüls, about whose films I am wo...
2021-01-06 17:41:00 +0000 UTC View PostShithouse (Cooper Raiff, 2020)
Sometimes films try something bold and it doesn't quite work. You can admire the ambition while still reckoning with the fact that the object in question...
2021-01-04 19:43:30 +0000 UTC View PostGetting To Know You #1: a Georgia Runoff
Luckily, there are only winners here.
Below are the top three choices for January's Filmatist of the Month. (I know the poll is still open, but I a...
2021-01-02 19:48:53 +0000 UTC View PostThe Disciple (Chaitanya Tamhane, 2020)
One of the enduring portraits of failure, in both the theater and the cinema, is Peter Shaffer's hypothetical rendering of Antonio Salieri. This very rea...
2021-01-02 06:17:04 +0000 UTC View PostDa 5 Bloods (Spike Lee, 2020)
Obviously I'm a bit late to this one, since I made the choice to hold off watching it until 12/31/20. So there's not too much I can say about Da 5 Bl...
2021-01-01 21:37:26 +0000 UTC View PostLos conductos (Camilo Restrepo, 2020)
Two films I've seen discussed a lot in recent months are also two films I've been pretty ambivalent about since seeing them upon release. Ngozi Onwurah's...
2021-01-01 19:43:10 +0000 UTC View PostGetting to Know You... (Happy 2021)
We made it! 2021. In these deeply unsettled times, I want to offer my gratitude for all of you who have continued to set money aside to support my writin...
2021-01-01 17:47:09 +0000 UTC View PostThe Kid Detective (Evan Morgan, 2020)
The Kid Detective is the sort of movie I wouldn't ordinarily think twice about. It played at TIFF 2020 (such as it was) without garnering much a...
2021-01-01 03:13:57 +0000 UTC View PostClosing Out 2020: Bang or Whimper?
Tomorrow I am going to finally watch Da 5 Bloods, so it will "count" as a 2020 viewing. But I may have...
2020-12-31 05:41:49 +0000 UTC View PostAnother Round (Thomas Vinterberg, 2020)
A film that would've been in Competition if Cannes 2020 had happened, Another Round would surely have nabbed a prize or two -- perhaps the Scena...
2020-12-30 02:20:46 +0000 UTC View Posts01e03 (Kurt Walker, 2020)
Occasionally, a film manages to go right to the heart of one of the defining cultural crises of the era. Films like this pull into focus a great many sus...
2020-12-30 01:56:09 +0000 UTC View PostThe Trouble With Being Born (Sandra Wollner, 2020)
The Trouble With Being Born is very reminiscent of Markus Schleinzer's 2011 film Michael, and I'm afraid that the comparison is not com...
2020-12-28 20:12:03 +0000 UTC View PostGuest of Honour (Atom Egoyan, 2019)
I realize it's unfashionable to appreciate Atom Egoyan these days. The official line is that he is "washed up," and this judgment doesn't exactly come fr...
2020-12-28 05:03:59 +0000 UTC View PostMa Rainey's Black Bottom (George C. Wolfe, 2020)
It must be said, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom is more of a filmed play than a movie. Denzel Washington did a much better job adapting Fences 2020-12-24 21:16:39 +0000 UTC View Post
The Cloud in Her Room (Zheng Lu Xinyuan, 2020)
Zheng Lu Xinyuan's The Cloud in Her Room is a forbidding film at first. Although it quite clearly centers on the life and relationships of Muza ...
2020-12-22 02:38:08 +0000 UTC View Post