A Note About Beyoncé's "Black Is King"
I'm of two minds about this. Overall I think it's great how Ms. Knowles-Carter has essentially taken millions from the Disney Corporation under the auspi...
2020-08-02 21:31:17 +0000 UTC View Post
msicism posts
Two Shorts by Matthew Rankin
Although I quite enjoyed Matthew Rankin's feature debut The Twentieth Century, there was a nagging voice in the back of my head that I couldn't ...
2020-08-01 23:19:36 +0000 UTC View PostFireworks Wednesday (Asghar Farhadi, 2006)
Objectively "good," just not for me. The thing that has impressed me so much about both A Separation and The Past, and to a lesser exte...
2020-07-30 05:00:09 +0000 UTC View PostKlute (Alan J. Pakula, 1971)
This is one of those classics that I feel a bit sheepish about writing up. Is there really any more to be said about Klute? Not only is it one o...
2020-07-29 16:47:00 +0000 UTC View PostUna película en color (Bruno Delgado Ramo, 2019)
First off, thanks to Jordan Cronk for alerting me to the existence of this experimental gem, a new work from a Spanish filmmaker of whom I was only dimly...
2020-07-27 18:00:32 +0000 UTC View PostShirley (Josephine Decker, 2020)
By far my favorite film by @josephinejambox, although that admission makes me feel a bit guilty, I suppose, as if I am not properly standing up for Auteu...
2020-07-25 23:36:15 +0000 UTC View PostRest in Peace, Regis.
A TV legend, a man of great talent and integrity who never took himself too seriously. For non-American readers unfamiliar with Regis Philbin, his closest international peer would be Bruce Forsyth -- an axiomatic presence on the tube who undersold...
2020-07-25 22:56:07 +0000 UTC View PostMartha (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1974)
One of the handful of Fassbinders I had not seen, Martha is striking for a number of reasons. Even now, I find myself struggling as to whether t...
2020-07-22 06:28:09 +0000 UTC View PostPost-Twitter Waste of Time
I should really know better.
Lately I've been wasting time at a site called 2020-07-20 21:02:08 +0000 UTC View Post
I Am Somebody (Madeline Anderson, 1970) + two others
A truly stunning document, Madeline Anderson's I Am Somebody is a complicated film to watch right now, but also absolutely necessary. A close-up...
2020-07-20 20:00:48 +0000 UTC View PostGlen or Glenda (Edward D. Wood, Jr., 1953)
I've always been a fan of Wood's Plan 9 From Outer Space, despite the protestations of tastemakers that it is "the worst film ever made." Yes, i...
2020-07-20 19:30:46 +0000 UTC View PostFamily Romance, LLC (Werner Herzog, 2019)
Herzog's latest -- a fiction film that often resembles a documentary -- is a frustrating film that I often wanted to exist in a form much different than ...
2020-07-14 20:31:54 +0000 UTC View PostThe Long Haul
Watching an eight-hour film on F******l S***e, with its shoddy-ass streaming, is going to take some time. So be aware that I am watching it intermittentl...
2020-07-13 20:27:11 +0000 UTC View PostOh Mercy [Roubaux, un lumière] (Arnaud Desplechin, 2019)
[CONTAINS SPOILERS]
To say that Desplechin's latest film is "odd" would be accurate, but misleading. Odd is a word that can imply some sort of quir...
2020-07-11 02:51:35 +0000 UTC View PostIdiotboxing
Okay, so when you're under quarantine with your partner, you do things you might not otherwise do, to insure domestic tranquility. As some of you know, J...
2020-07-09 01:24:14 +0000 UTC View PostMaggie's Farm (James Benning, 2020)
Well, I wake up in the morning
Fold my hands and pray for rain
I got a head full of ideas
That are drivin' me insane
It's a shame
The ...
It's That Time Again, Friends!
Having exhausted many of my options, yet wanting to remain semi-relevant to the critical conversations that are happening somewhere, without my social-me...
2020-07-05 23:48:59 +0000 UTC View PostNever Rarely Sometimes Always (Eliza Hittman, 2020)
Eliza Hittman's third feature film is difficult to evaluate. In some ways it's tempting to simply give it a pass, because there are certain things it obv...
2020-07-04 12:40:03 +0000 UTC View PostOne Day in the Life of Noah Piugattuk (Zacharias Kunuk, 2019)
Zacharias Kunuk is the world's leading director in the Inuktitut language. Why doesn't that translate to more interest outside of Canada?
Kunuk mad...
2020-07-02 04:52:09 +0000 UTC View PostOne Way Boogie Woogie (James Benning, 1977) and 27 Years Later (James Benning, 2005)
Some of my readers may be surprised that I had not already seen One Way Boogie Woogie, which may be James Benning's absolute masterpiece. I had ...
2020-07-02 02:14:17 +0000 UTC View PostA Couple of Quick Thoughts
NOTE: Now that I am summarily banned from Twitter, I will occasionally be dropping quickie posts like this, just to comment on various things that I woul...
2020-06-26 19:48:02 +0000 UTC View PostCrime Wave (John Paizs, 1985)
One of those films I always meant to catch up with just based on its reputation, Crime Wave, the debut feature by Winnipeg's John Paizs, turned ...
2020-06-26 03:23:10 +0000 UTC View PostColor Out of Space (Richard Stanley, 2019)
The Fuschia is Now....
One of the most interesting things about Color Out of Space, for me, is reading what others have to say ab...
2020-06-23 15:45:06 +0000 UTC View PostDays of Cannibalism (Teboho Edkins, 2020)
While watching films for the Visions du Réel festival, I caught Teboho Edkins' medium-length documentary Shepherds, which, like Days of Can...
2020-06-23 03:53:38 +0000 UTC View PostMartin Eden (Pietro Marcello, 2019)
Pietro Marcello is a director who, for me, has been hovering in the "interesting" zone for quite some time. The work I have seen from him up to this poin...
2020-06-23 01:18:06 +0000 UTC View PostMiss Juneteenth (Channing Godfrey Peoples, 2020)
A reasonably promising debut film, Miss Juneteenth speaks to the difficulty of funding and producing a truly independent African-American cinema...
2020-06-22 23:03:54 +0000 UTC View PostHyperNormalisation (Adam Curtis, 2016)
By popular demand, here is the brief review I wrote about Curtis's 2016 iteration of his usual libertarian, Chapo-approved cant. I am not going to pretend that he does not make a few good points here and there. But my main problem with the guy is ...
2020-06-22 17:19:17 +0000 UTC View PostSay Their Names.
Tete Gulley (Portland, OR -- May 27)
Malcolm Harsch (Victorville, CA -- May 31)
Dominique Alexander (New York, NY -- June 9)
Robert Fuller (Palmdale, CA -- June 10) 2020-06-17 17:10:25 +0000 UTC View Post
The King of Staten Island (Judd Apatow, 2020)
I'll get over you, I know I will / though you messed me up by dyin'
I'll get over you, I know I I will / I'm the king of Staten Island...
2020-06-15 22:13:26 +0000 UTC View PostInventing the Future (Isiah Medina, 2020)
Isiah Medina's follow-up to the exhilarating 88:88 goes in a considerably different direction, related but no less radical. Where the previous f...
2020-06-15 19:28:26 +0000 UTC View Post