M3GAN (Gerard Johnstone, 2023)
Hi folks, just wanted to drop in and say hello. I haven't been seeing too many films lately, since I've been dealing with a lot of other work: grading fr...
2023-03-06 03:06:42 +0000 UTC View Post
msicism posts
Women Talking (Sarah Polley, 2022)
I should mention right away that I have not read the Miriam Toews novel on which Women Talking is based. (There are only so many hours in the da...
2023-02-24 20:48:42 +0000 UTC View PostPerpetrator (Jennifer Reeder, 2023)
Jennifer Reeder's new film Perpetrator is getting very strong reviews since premiering at the Berlinale, and to be honest it took me a while to ...
2023-02-22 04:22:52 +0000 UTC View PostPlayland (Georden West, 2023)
It's incredibly rare for first-time filmmakers to make great work their first time out. So as a general rule, it's preferable to see a debut film with gr...
2023-02-20 03:45:39 +0000 UTC View PostA New Old Play (Qiu Jiongjiong, 2021)
Before trying to say anything halfway cogent about A New Old Play, I wanted to read 2023-02-17 03:17:34 +0000 UTC View Post
Escalated Horror
or, Notes on Two Prominent Art-Horror Flicks from 2022
Resurrection (Andrew Semans, 2022)
First of all, I was surprised to l...
2023-02-15 05:11:30 +0000 UTC View PostIt's That Time Again
As the deadline for the 2023 Skandies rapidly approaches, I have time to watch a couple more eligible films. So this is a FLASH POLL. Which one(s) s...
2023-02-10 20:33:15 +0000 UTC View PostFull Time (Éric Gravel, 2021)
A quick glance at Letterboxd confirms it: "a Dardennes version of Run Lola Run" is the popular characterization of Full Time, the secon...
2023-02-10 19:23:41 +0000 UTC View PostWalk Up (Hong Sangsoo, 2022)
Walk Up is a slight change-up for Hong, whose structural conceits have generally been somewhat abstract affairs (doubling, mirroring, repetition...
2023-02-07 05:29:53 +0000 UTC View PostMarx Can Wait (Marco Bellocchio, 2021)
Marx Can Wait is perhaps a bit of a detour in Bellocchio's career, since he hasn't made very many documentaries, and his late style is character...
2023-02-05 04:39:18 +0000 UTC View PostAnd the King Said, What a Fantastic Machine (Axel Danielson and Maximilien Van Aertryck, 2023)
The state-of-the-media doc Fantastic Machine left me in deep despair, but probably not for the reasons it's makers intended. Starting off with t...
2023-02-04 03:38:19 +0000 UTC View PostA Common Sequence (Mary Helena Clark and Mike Gibisser, 2023)
More so than in the past (I think -- I'd have to crunch the numbers), notable experimental filmmakers are shooting their shot with feature films that, wh...
2023-01-29 07:06:17 +0000 UTC View PostThe Love of a Woman (Jean Grémillon, 1953)
I watched Grémillon's The Love of a Woman without realizing it was his final film. So quite by chance, I participated in the pastime of hardcor...
2023-01-27 02:43:34 +0000 UTC View PostMaldone (Jean Grémillon, 1928)
So I decided to start (admittedly a bit late) on my Grémillon odyssey with an early silent, one with a someone odd reputation. Maldone is a fil...
2023-01-24 20:18:02 +0000 UTC View PostMy Mind Playing Tricks On Me
So a few weeks ago, I wrote about Through the Olive Trees, and as far as I was concerned it was my first viewing of it. Guess what?
I was ...
2023-01-24 04:01:03 +0000 UTC View PostGush (Fox Maxy, 2023)
Expanding on the layered, accelerated style she has developed in her shorter films, Fox Maxy arrives at Sundance firing on all cylinders. Though Gush...
2023-01-21 21:16:49 +0000 UTC View PostThis House (Miryam Charles, 2022)
There's a strange thing about "realism" that I've never quite understood. In many respects, the world we live in is cruel, ugly, and inhumane. And in the...
2023-01-21 21:03:30 +0000 UTC View PostAlcarràs (Carla Simón, 2022)
An underwhelming Golden Bear winner from a less-than-stellar competition, Alcarràs feels very much like a compromise vote. There is nothing ter...
2023-01-18 03:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostA Sudden Influx of Awesomeness (updated)
I receive email notifications when someone new joins this Patreon. And I was confused today by a sudden uptick (to put it mildly) in subscribers. As it h...
2023-01-14 03:01:10 +0000 UTC View PostHead Scratchers
Everything Everywhere All at Once (Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert, 2022)
I will say this much: it's not boring. Part of the se...
2023-01-13 07:04:28 +0000 UTC View PostFinal Bit of Year-End Cramming
Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood (Richard Linklater, 2022)
I turned this film off after 30 minutes earlier this year, but watc...
2023-01-10 03:39:21 +0000 UTC View PostPlease Stand By...
Well, well, well. In addition to getting a touch of flu, my dad has gone into the hospital. He has pneumonia, and is improving, but there are a lot of th...
2023-01-09 02:40:28 +0000 UTC View PostSong of Retrospection (Ryu Ho-son, 1986)
Okay, so I needed a little break from all the 2022 films I've been mainlining, and this film turned up on a torrent site, and it oc...
2023-01-06 04:44:15 +0000 UTC View PostSafe Place (Juraj Lerotić, 2022)
A brief note on a Croatian film that has flown a bit under the radar during the 2022 festival season. Safe Place is a rare animal indeed: a debu...
2023-01-04 01:37:52 +0000 UTC View PostA Brighter Summer Day (Edward Yang, 1991)
Considered by many to be Yang's masterpiece, A Brighter Summer Day certainly earns its four-hour runtime. For one thing, the film's episodic org...
2023-01-03 23:48:22 +0000 UTC View PostStill More Year-End Cramming
There There (Andrew Bujalski, 2022)
As I said on my now-deleted Letterboxd remarks, this is a film that I admire in theory, becaus...
2023-01-03 06:16:24 +0000 UTC View PostWhite Noise (Noah Baumbach, 2022)
Baumbach's adaptation of the "unadaptable" Don DeLillo novel has at least two direct quotations from Godard. The traffic jam in Weekend is here ...
2023-01-03 05:35:21 +0000 UTC View Post
More Year-End Cramming
The Banshees of Inisherin (Martin McDonagh, 2022)
An essentially literary premise is given rather regal cinematic treatment by vir...
2022-12-30 03:12:04 +0000 UTC View PostI'm Not Asking, I'm Telling
Just so's you know, I got the Eclipse 34 set for Christmas, so January's director of the month will be Jean Grémillon.
Deal with it.
2022-12-28 08:43:43 +0000 UTC View Post