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Limbo (2021) paints refugee status as a lonely place among ignorant people

March 2, 2022

Limbo is the cultural disconnect between a refugee and where he’s taking refuge, as these men are stuck in a seemingly endless purgatory on a small fictional Scottish island. It’s a film that so accurately depicts the sort of assumptions, racism, and utter nonsense these people face on a daily basis, showing the type of privileged stupidity that allows one but disallows the other. Seeing refugees treated as simpletons needing to be elevated to be a part of their “sophisticated” society that, in reality, is a bunch of meatheads with no common sense, shows the domineering attitudes as ignorant. … More Limbo (2021) paints refugee status as a lonely place among ignorant people

Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn not as fun as title suggest

March 1, 2022

enuinely surprised how much I disliked a film titled Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn but here we are. The general idea and structure around COVID restrictions, cancel culture, and the hypocrisy around society’s chaste attitudes and pseudo-purity aren’t novel and underexplored here. … More Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn not as fun as title suggest

Caleb Landry Jones is hauntingly brilliant in Justin Kurzel’s “Nitram”

March 1, 2022

Nitram is devastatingly cruel in the exploration of Australia’s first mass shooter and refreshingly honest in the horrors of this character’s worldview. Caleb Landry Jones as the dejected, irrational, and completely broken soul is on full display and the depiction of this hateful figure where this type of violent outrage feels somehow inevitable, but the direction and the performances hide the sickly underbelly with shades of his humanity and how it gets stripped from him. … More Caleb Landry Jones is hauntingly brilliant in Justin Kurzel’s “Nitram”

The 2022 PGA Nominations rewarding extreme American blandness

February 1, 2022

merica (PGA) has become the end all be all of Oscar prognostication. The preferential ballot changed everything and PGA being the lone awards body operating under that system makes the winner here a valuable commodity to pundits. For reference, 20 of the 29 PGA Golden Laurel (or best picture) winners have gone on to win the Oscar. … More The 2022 PGA Nominations rewarding extreme American blandness

That Obscure Object of Desire (1973) or the last word from Luis Buñuel

February 1, 2022

That Obscure Object of Desire is the last film the great director ever made. The final scene Luie Buñuel ever shot being the bloody, torn dress in the window of a shop, lending his audience one final ambiguous message to interpret or disregard. It’s Buñuel at his most provocative within his most career defining motif: the essence of desire. Seductively reaching the audience through the perverse nature of the concept and the elaborate story device of using two actresses for the beautiful Conchita.  … More That Obscure Object of Desire (1973) or the last word from Luis Buñuel

ASC 2022 Nominees – Nightmare Alley and Tragedy of Macbeth land nominations

January 25, 2022

In the past, the group has awarded the spectacle or artistically driven films, meaning gasping wide-shots and a strong visual component to the overall storytelling, win the award. For instance, Erik Messerschmidt winning for Mank in possibly the weakest year for cinematography ever, was due to Fincher emphasizing the eye-catching compositions. He would go on to win the Oscar… … More ASC 2022 Nominees – Nightmare Alley and Tragedy of Macbeth land nominations

The Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz (1955) is Buñuel brilliantly playing off genre

January 25, 2022

The Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz subverts all expectations of the noir genre. It runs counter to every natural impulse within the genre and all the familiar conventions. It’s funny because only a director with a deep understanding of noir conventions could make something this explicitly sideways. It’s a dark, symbolic narrative that follows a character in Archibaldo (Ernesto Alonzo) who yearns to be a hardwired serial killer he’s envision since he was a boy but unfortunately for him, is confined to his mundane life as an upper class bachelor with sociopathic tendencies. It’s a case of hilarious timed writing with many plot devices that take the quintessential noir intensity and alter it for comedic effect. Buñuel brilliantly plays off the basic moodiness of the genre while keeping his placid style. There’s a sense of truth in all his work and once again here as Archibaldo desperately wants to die a criminal with no morals, but is remembered as an upstanding citizen who helped others. … More The Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz (1955) is Buñuel brilliantly playing off genre

The mythological storytelling of Jean Cocteau’s Orpheus (1950)

January 25, 2022

The mythological storytelling of Jean Coteau’s Orpheus is a wonder. He captures the ethereal in the cinematography, editing, writing, and performance. He presents an all-encompassing look at all the hidden facets of the world, revealing an existence under the surface. … More The mythological storytelling of Jean Cocteau’s Orpheus (1950)

Maborosi is Hirokazu Kore-eda at his most observant

January 18, 2022

Grief is always a powerful emotion and many directors have approached the subject in a variety of ways. For Hirokazu Koreeda, Maborosi introduces the audience to the unexplainable element of grief and the oversevrant stylings of his filmmaking. Built as merely a passenger, rarely an active participant in the devastation of Yumiko’s (Makiko Esumi) simple life. It’s Koreeda’s first narrative feature in his career and his knack for directness shows up in his first scripted film. … More Maborosi is Hirokazu Kore-eda at his most observant

Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy Hamaguchi’s Subversive Anthology Film

January 18, 2022

Ryusuke Hamaguchi stealth released two films in one year. His “other” film being the Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy, a methodical exploration of character that’s so honest with itself, paced so deliberately to invoke connection and a sense of realism. The anthology structure lets Hamaguchi grapple heavily with the themes through a variety of situations … More Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy Hamaguchi’s Subversive Anthology Film