The duality that defines Agnés Varda’s Cléo from 5 to 7 is present from, quite literally, its opening frames: a title sequence in which our protagonist goes for a tarot card reading, and the writer/director both lays out the themes that will consume her interest for the next 90 minutes, and sets a style of […]
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The gloomier the world gets, the more lugubrious the art reflecting it becomes. The world has never witnessed a calamity of the scale of the Holocaust, a disaster purely propelled by hate; eleven million humans never saw the light at end of the tunnel they were physically and figuratively shoved into before boiling down their […]
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In this month’s fringe VOD releases, ghosts and filmmakers find love, bad things happen in escape rooms and wildlife sanctuaries, and a haunted tiki statue causes chaos. Endless (VOD and select theaters August 14): Riley (Alexandra Shipp) is a smart girl from a rich family who plans to go to law school. Chris (Nicholas Hamilton) […]
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Death be not proud, though some have called theeMighty and dreadfull, for, thou art not soe,For, those, whom thou think’st, thou dost overthrow,Die not, poore death, nor yet canst thou kill mee.From rest and sleepe, which but thy pictures bee,Much pleasure, then from thee, much more must flow,And soonest our best men with thee doe […]
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Boys State begins with a famous quote from George Washington’s farewell address about the potential danger of political parties, warning the American people that the system which helped the country get its start could just as easily be its downfall. While watching the film, it’s hard not to consider another infamously ominous warning – this […]
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For a movie about an alien that orally falls out of a human’s mouth every night and feasts on the brains of fear-ridden people, Sputnik left me indifferent as hell. The latest indie thriller from IFC Films’ Midnight wing — striving as always to give you low-budget, genre entertainment now that Dimension Films is basically […]
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“If everybody want to stick together, I stick with ‘em. But if nobody want to stick together, I stick alone, by myself.” -Sven Hansen In 1947, the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals (because of course there was one), a political activism group that Walt Disney co-helmed as First Vice-President (because […]
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It’s one of the most striking openings in cinema history: A burly, shirtless man in a black hood stokes a brazier, heating up a branding tool which will be used to sear the letter “S” into the flesh of accused vampire Princess Asa Vadja, who is being executed for her crimes alongside her lover and […]
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You probably are not giving much thought to either The Expendables, an Avengers-style roundup of action stars with AARP cards, or Eat Pray Love, a travelogue of white feminism, as they approach their tenth anniversaries on August 13. (As you shouldn’t.) The movies have deservedly faded from memory and, even worse for their makers, cable […]
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In recent weeks and months, Hollywood’s legacy of cultural appropriation and racism has come under increased scrutiny, with the latest controversy erupting over the lack of Emmy nominations for Latinx television actors (a dialog which then morphed into a heated debate over charges of “anti-Blackness” within said community). Special ire, meanwhile, has been directed towards […]
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Simon Rich is an extremely gifted satirist. The former SNL writer is also the mastermind behind the FX cult comedy Man Seeking Woman and the TBS show Miracle Workers, as well as many short stories and a few novels – all of which contain some element of absurdity and metaphor. Rich’s stories are imaginative, often […]
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With a skill that would impress even its writer protagonist, I Used to Go Here excels in its efforts to show, not tell. In just its first five minutes, Kris Rey’s comedy slyly reveals key elements that define who Kate Conklin (Gillian Jacobs) is, doing a better job of building a character over just a […]
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