Is "Images" Worth Repeating?
I decided to ask Lou and John. Their answer was unequivocal.
2020-06-12 22:41:11 +0000 UTC View Post
msicism posts
Images (Robert Altman, 1972)
Wow, it's easy to forget what a long shadow Ingmar Bergman cast over the arthouse directors of the 70s. From its focus on fractured female subjectivity r...
2020-06-12 22:21:26 +0000 UTC View PostSubmitted for Your Approval, #4: oh my homeland (Stephanie Barber, 2019)
Currently featured at the online Screening Room at the Baltimore Museum of Art, along with several other Barber films and numerous other artists' works, ...
2020-06-12 21:59:35 +0000 UTC View PostSubmitted for Your Approval, #3: Alfred (Esther Urlus, 2020)
Upon having a look at Esther Urlus' latest film, my friend Darren Hughes asked me why her work isn't programmed more regularly in North American experimental film showcases. I'm not exactly sure. I first discovered her work while reviewing a group...
2020-06-12 19:01:32 +0000 UTC View PostSubmitted for Your Approval, #2: Movie That Invites Pausing (Ken Jacobs, 2020)
On the one hand, Movie That Invites Pausing covers familiar territory for Ken Jacobs. His work with pulsating forms, and in particular the compl...
2020-06-12 06:30:42 +0000 UTC View PostSubmitted for Your Approval, #1: Patrick (Luke Fowler, 2020)
Scottish filmmaker Luke Fowler is an unusual figure in experimental film: not exactly a documentarian, not precisely a maker of essay films, and yet someone whose complex works certainly partake of those genres. He explores a very particular mien,...
2020-06-12 05:51:25 +0000 UTC View PostAir Conditioner (Fradique, 2020)
To my knowledge, this is the first film I have ever seen from the nation of Angola. 34-year-old Fradique (real name: Mário Bastos) studied in the U.S. a...
2020-06-11 21:58:49 +0000 UTC View PostThe Final Word [on / from] Twitter
So yeah, just for the record, Twitter did not receive any complaints about my most recent account. I did not do anything offensive, or violate any rules ...
2020-06-11 21:34:07 +0000 UTC View PostEeb Allay Ooo! (Prateek Vats, 2019)
I wanted to jot down a few quick words about this film before it completely evaporated from my memory, because it's actually not bad, and will be the onl...
2020-06-02 07:16:49 +0000 UTC View PostA Word About the Month of June
I try to keep this space generally restricted to film, with the occasional whiny excuse for why I have failed to write about film for a particular span o...
2020-06-01 05:04:02 +0000 UTC View PostThe Infiltrators (Alex Rivera and Cristina Ibarra, 2019)
I have mixed feelings about this documentary, partly because the film is about such a crucial, timely subject without itself being particularly timely. <...
2020-05-30 21:31:18 +0000 UTC View PostBlood and Fire
The best films give us flawed, complicated protagonists, people whose responses to problems are knotty and unpredictable. Like those of us existing in th...
2020-05-29 22:31:01 +0000 UTC View PostWhat Should I Watch Next?
I just finished getting my Summer course online and ready to go, and I need something to wash the taste of Ema out of my mouth. (Review forthcoming.) What would you go with, if you were a paunchy bespectacled Houstonian under quarantine?<...
2020-05-29 21:00:59 +0000 UTC View PostOne 'Medium,' One Underdone
Medium (Edgardo Cozarinsky, 2020)
So many documentaries about the arts tend to feel like medicine. They are so intent on telling y...
2020-05-25 21:16:13 +0000 UTC View PostDAU. Natasha (Ilya Khrzhanovskiy and Jekaterina Oertel, 2020)
The first film to be released from the gargantuan DAU project (five others are now available), Natasha resembles what we typically thin...
2020-05-25 20:56:30 +0000 UTC View PostOberhausen (Part III)
ABOVE: Uber housing, Pittsburgh, PA
So this is the last batch of short films I watched as part of Oberhausen 66. This may be a tedious exercise for...
2020-05-22 19:36:45 +0000 UTC View PostOberhaus-Party (Part Two)
TV's Ken Ober (1957-2009)
Here is a second heaping helping of my reviews from Oberhausen 66. Overall, I wasn't quite as taken with these films. But...
2020-05-19 06:00:43 +0000 UTC View PostOberhausin' (Part One)
The latest big-name event to drop its payload online is the 66th edition of the Oberhausen Short Film Festival, an annual mixed bag of experimental debuts, distributor showcases, international calling cards, and undefinable whatsits. Even with the...
2020-05-18 22:47:05 +0000 UTC View PostCircumstantial Pleasures (Lewis Klahr, 2020)
For years now, Lewis Klahr has mastered a particular kind of cinema. Using cut-out and object animation in stop-motion, he has used the copy-stand as a s...
2020-05-17 01:35:37 +0000 UTC View PostSwimming Out Till the Sea Turns Blue (Jia Zhangke, 2020)
Even in a year where there's no Cannes, and new films of any kind are few and far between, there's been relatively little fanfare for this sparkling new ...
2020-05-16 23:01:20 +0000 UTC View PostSorry to say...
Pardon the extended silence here. Not exactly what you're paying for. Apologies.
In addition to the usual COVID-19 related "life is terrible," "hop...
2020-05-15 21:58:10 +0000 UTC View PostWhere Has My Mind Been?
Several weeks ago, at the kind request of filmmaker / cinephile Maximilien Luc Proctor, I curated a program for the Ultra Dogme Virtual Film Festival. Th...
2020-05-06 06:54:39 +0000 UTC View PostVisions du Réel 2020: Quick Notes, Part Two
So this is a quick second installment of my report on films I watched for the at-home version of the Swiss documentary festival. Most of the stuff I viewed will be addressed in an upcoming festival report for Cinema Scope. Below, I am jotting down...
2020-05-03 06:34:56 +0000 UTC View PostTechnoboss (João Nicolau, 2019)
Cinema and obsolescence: two great tastes that go great together. Although we are in the midst of "exceptional circumstances" that may hasten the decline...
2020-05-01 18:19:01 +0000 UTC View PostVisions du Réel 2020: Quick Notes
I have been doing what I can to dip into this year's online edition of the Swiss documentary festival, and I may end up doing a longer write-up. At least I am hopeful that I will be able to. But for now, I wanted to share some thoughts about the f...
2020-04-28 02:35:50 +0000 UTC View Post(puzzle answers)
As you can see, there was a theme running throughout my planned crossword. In short, failure and futility.
USWNT without goalkeeper Solo (6 letters) - NOHOPE
wow, this sucks (6 letters) - VACUUM
...
2020-04-23 18:50:06 +0000 UTC View PostThe Pettifogger (Lewis Klahr, 2011)
In one of those odd confluences of ill-timing and bad circumstance, I never got around to seeing Lewis Klahr's debut feature until now. There's no real e...
2020-04-23 07:34:30 +0000 UTC View PostImages 2020: Seen and Not Seen
Today (in between watching episodes of the perfectly passable Netflix series "Ozark"), I have been dipping into the live stream of this year's Images Fes...
2020-04-19 23:25:55 +0000 UTC View PostGood Trash, Bad Rubbish
Les Coquillettes (Sophie Letourneau, 2013)
Light as a souffle and a pitch right down the middle to a bored cinephile audience need...
2020-04-18 03:40:24 +0000 UTC View PostKrabi, 2562 (Anocha Suwichakornpong and Ben Rivers, 2019)
To everything there is usually a season, and the spring is typically when the films from the previous fall festival season slowly make their way...
2020-04-15 03:03:05 +0000 UTC View Post