Strange Way of Life (Pedro Almodóvar, 2023)
Now this is weird. For the first time that I can remember, a film under 65 minutes is receiving a standard commercial release. And Strange Way of Lif...
2023-10-09 03:44:50 +0000 UTC View Post
msicism posts
Bottoms (Emma Seligman, 2023)
I really did not like Emma Seligman's debut feature Shiva Baby. In addition to simply finding it unfunny (while being aggressive about its own c...
2023-10-09 03:29:12 +0000 UTC View PostThe Secret Knowledge
Also, what the hell. Although it has not been officially announced yet, here's what I'm showing in November for my program in the Houston Cinema Arts Fes...
2023-10-05 01:06:28 +0000 UTC View PostFalling Down on the Job
Yeah, sorry. It's been a minute since I gave you some of that good content.
But in addition to being buried under grading (which I just finis...
2023-10-05 00:45:54 +0000 UTC View PostSleep Has Her House (Scott Barley, 2017)
BY REQUEST: Jake Levens
At the risk of being reductive, Scott Barley is the Philippe Grandrieux who doesn't fuck. Or, putting it l...
2023-09-23 19:42:02 +0000 UTC View PostMangosteen (Tulapop Saenjaroen, 2023)
Although I have consistently found the work of Tulapop Saenjaroen interesting, I have yet to figure out quite what to do with it. The first film of his I...
2023-09-21 04:36:45 +0000 UTC View PostHe Thought He Died (Isiah Medina, 2023)
No one else's films look like Isiah Medina's. He is one of the only contemporary filmmakers who seems not only to have taken stylistic cues from late God...
2023-09-21 03:51:43 +0000 UTC View PostOrlando, My Political Biography (Paul B. Preciado, 2023)
Going into Orlando, I knew only a little about Paul B. Preciado, a queer theorist who completed his dissertation under the tutelage of Jacques D...
2023-09-18 02:21:35 +0000 UTC View PostMirror of Holland (Bert Haanstra, 1950)
BY REQUEST: Brandon
Oh, Inverted World
I'll confess, Bert Haanstra is one of those names that has always been bouncing around in the back of my head, as someone I should really look into. And to be honest, I c...
2023-09-18 01:21:48 +0000 UTC View Post
Festival Season Waves
My piece on Wavelengths is forthcoming at MUBI. I couldn't address every film, but here are some of the ones I did.
2023-09-13 02:52:15 +0000 UTC
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Festival Season Greens (WITH LINKS)
How would you know if there was a festival film lurking in your neighbo(u)rhood? Do you recognize the signs?
2023-09-13 02:40:19 +0000 UTC
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Something to Tide You Over
I'm a bit buried at the moment. There will be new writing up here soon.
But for now, enjoy one frame each from every shot in Godard's "trailer" for Phony Wars.
2023-09-11 19:54:57 +0000 UTC
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Subscriber Sweepstakes: September
First, I want to thank all who have participated up to this point. This has worked out even better than I imagined, since I've gotten to see films I migh...
2023-09-02 20:28:28 +0000 UTC View PostFestival Season Reds
A few more brief remarks on films I'm screening for TIFF, etc.
Spirit of Ecstasy (Héléna Klotz, 2023) [TIFF]
A fairly conv...
2023-09-02 18:26:52 +0000 UTC View PostDouble Suicide (Masahiro Shinoda, 1969)
BY REQUEST: Alex
It's always a pleasure to catch up with an as-yet-unseen classic from the Japanese New Wave. These directors tend...
2023-09-02 17:54:47 +0000 UTC View PostThe Second Journey (To Uluru) (Arthur and Corinne Cantrill, 1981)
BY REQUEST: John Edmond
Few things are more gratifying than discovering a film that's not only major in and of itself, but seems t...
2023-08-28 02:43:26 +0000 UTC View PostFestival Season Blues
Yes, 'tis the season. I am currently previewing TIFF films for Cinema Scope, and Venice Days films for InRO. Below are brief excerpts of the reviews that...
2023-08-27 03:09:48 +0000 UTC View PostLady Killer (Jean Grémillon, 1937)
On first glance, Lady Killer (Gueule d'amour) is not as immediately stylish or fluid as the other Grémillons I've seen. Certain early ...
2023-08-21 00:14:49 +0000 UTC View PostTheater Camp (Molly Gordon and Nick Lieberman, 2023)
Back in the days of the Movie Nerd Discussion Group, someone introduced the initialism YMMV. This of course means "your mileage may vary," taking the car...
2023-08-19 20:04:46 +0000 UTC View PostWoman in the Dunes (Hiroshi Teshigahara, 1964)
BY REQUEST: Mike D'Angelo
This is one of those canonical masterworks I just somehow never got around to, and although my thinking ...
2023-08-19 05:00:52 +0000 UTC View Post
All You Need is Just a Little Patience
Hey folks, I have fallen behind on subscriber requests as well as new releases, so sorry about that. This is That Time of Year, when the flood of writing...
2023-08-16 19:52:37 +0000 UTC View PostSubscriber Lottery: An Interesting Turn of Events
I have one more film to watch and write up from the last tombola. Some dude called Michael Del Angelo has asked me to watch something called Woman in...
2023-08-10 04:55:25 +0000 UTC View PostBack to School (Alan Metter, 1986)
BY REQUEST: Michael Dodson
Okay, so a little context. When I first started making top ten lists going back through the years, I fe...
2023-08-09 02:47:49 +0000 UTC View PostTrouble in Mind (Alan Rudolph, 1985)
BY REQUEST: David Katz
For what strikes me as a minor film, its writer-director clearly wrote and directed the hell out of it. Wha...
2023-08-08 02:12:12 +0000 UTC View PostBarbie (Greta Gerwig, 2023)
While watching Barbie, I was thoroughly enjoying myself. I not only found it clever and self-aware, but also appreciated the large-scale physica...
2023-08-07 21:43:39 +0000 UTC View PostWhat I Do In the Shadows
I've been writing a fair amount for In Review Online, and this means I end up reviewing films that don't necessarily get addressed on this site. So as I'...
2023-08-07 03:45:05 +0000 UTC View PostSound of the Mountain (Mikio Naruse, 1954)
BY REQUEST: Matthew McGee
I'm not sure how I managed to miss Sound of the Mountain back when I was doing my deep dive int...
2023-08-02 11:11:59 +0000 UTC View PostAfire (Christian Petzold, 2023)
As many have remarked already, this is Petzold's most Rohmerian film. A seaside getaway becomes an interpersonal proving ground for a self-important inte...
2023-08-02 01:56:17 +0000 UTC View Post