msicism

Little Murders (Alan Arkin, 1971)

BY REQUEST: Michelle Berman

After watching Little Murders, I read a bit about it and learned that Elliott Gould, who star...

The Killer (David Fincher, 2023)

My lovely wife Jen is a much bigger fan of David Fincher than I am. She's liked most of his films but is especially taken with Zodiac, because f...

Mechanisms Common to Disparate Phenomena: #59 (Joost Rekveld, 2023)

Time has been kind to the pure abstraction sometimes called "visual music." In the world of experimental cinema, this is work that seemed to receive grud...

Passages (Ira Sachs, 2023)

BY REQUEST: Jorge (because I could not find his first choice)

Despite recognizing that Ira Sachs is indeed a major filmmaker -- on...

We Are So-So Back

I've been getting back into movies a bit over the past few days. Tomorrow, Jen heads to London for a long weekend, and I expect I'll take the opportunity to hit the Killer Moon-Priscilla-Holdovers trifecta, and maybe I'l...

The Human Surge 3 (Eduardo Williams, 2023)

It's patently obvious that Eduardo Williams' The Human Surge 3 is unlike pretty much any film that's ever been made. That's because Williams is ...

Boonmee in Action

This is the last dead cat related post. I just think the video gives a really good sense of who he was.

Boonmee, and a Brief Pause

I am going to take a few days off from posting any writing. Yesterday my dear cat Boonmee died very suddenly. I'm still in shock. And although I know that I wil...

Samsara (Lois Patiño, 2023)

Although I've always found Armond White's "Better Than" list to be needlessly petulant, I do occasionally understand the impulse. While I certainly admir...

Light That Matters

The Light Matter film festival, programmed by my comrade James Hansen, i...

Losing Steam

This is always a difficult time of year, even without the added stress of having my reviews sharing server space with bizarre fetish porn. How is this se...

Brief Update on WTAF-Gate

The offending website, Kemono, has an email address marked "Legal," and I sent them a firm request to delete my work from the site. Does the address go s...

WHAT (and I cannot emphasize this enough) THE FUCK

So today I got an email from a festival publicist, telling me that a filmmaker had complained to them that my review of their film used "unauthorized" sc...

The Royal Hotel (Kitty Green, 2023)

Two travelers from Canada, Hanna (Julia Garner) and Liv (Jessica Henwick) run out of money in Australia and go to a work-travel agency, where they secure...

Marathon (Amir Naderi, 2022)

BY REQUEST: Michael Ewins

I watched Marathon a full eighteen years ago. That's a pretty brutal factoid to face, and in a ...

Anatomy of a Fall (Justine Triet, 2023)

Now, as November approaches, we find ourselves careening into the period where prestige pictures assert themselves, demanding our attention. As is often ...

Here (Bas Devos, 2023)

I knew next to nothing about Here when I watched it, aside from the fact that it's Belgian, and that it's one of the year's most acclaimed films...

The Leopard (Luchino Visconti, 1963)

Alas, my very first Visconti film. Like a handful of other major directors, he is someone I just never got around to, and for some reason the rep screeni...

Tótem (Lila Avilés, 2023)

Lila Avilés' second film is as claustrophobic and enveloping as her debut, The Chambermaid, was standoffishly austere. Someone coming into the ...

Assorted Odds and Ends from InRO

The Shadowless Tower (Zhang Lu, 2023) 2023-10-20 01:49:10 +0000 UTC View Post

Selection Time Again!

Since I saw my last lingering Subscriber Request film tonight, it's time to select three more choosers. And here they are!

#105 - MICHAEL E...