Friday, January 31, 2020

Dialogic Cinephilia - January 31, 2020

Benton, Michael. Recommended Films of 2019. Letterboxd (Ongoing Archive)

Berg, Kirsten and Moiz Syed. "Under Trump, LGBTQ Progress Is Being Reversed in Plain Sight." Pro Publica (November 22, 2019) ["Donald Trump promised he would fight for LGBTQ people. Instead, his administration has systematically undone recent gains in their rights and protections. Here are 31 examples."]

Do Not Resist (USA: Craig Atkinson, 2017: 71 mins) ["Do Not Resist documents, from the perspective of the police, their view of the social unrest following the shooting and killing of Michael Brown by police in Ferguson, 2014, against a backdrop of the routine and escalating use of military tactics and high-powered weaponry by local police forces throughout the United States in the past two decades. Military equipment deployed throughout the Middle East returns home to be used against the citizenry. Local police recruitment and training is awash in military commandments backed by views of escalating ‘righteous’ violence and sadism. Meanwhile curfews are imposed, along with frivolous drug raids and incessant racial profiling. The voices of concerned citizens ignored. What is the cultural and technological trajectory here?"]





Moskowitz, P.E. and Carolyn Rouse.  "The Mythical Bygone Glory Days of 'Free Speech.'" Citations Needed #88 (September 25, 2019) ["We are often warned by conservatives, liberals and even some on the Left that we live in a time where “free speech” is under threat from far-left forces. “Political correctness” and “snowflakes” have shut down free inquiry, specifically on college campuses, and led to a crisis threatening the very foundation of our democracy. But the origins of the label “free speech” — as it’s currently practiced — paint a much messier picture. Rather than appealing to the Vietnam-era Berkeley protest glory days, what one sees when examining the history of the concept is a temporary tactic used by the Left in the mid-to-late 1960s that has, since that late 1980s, become a far-right wedge designed to open up space for racism, eugenics, genocide denial, trans and homophobia and anti-feminist backlash. Defense of the right to keep open this space as an appeal to a universal value hides a well-funded, coordinated far-right attempt to maintain a conservative, largely male and cishet version of political correctness. On this episode, we discuss where the contemporary concept of “free speech” comes from, what its uses and misuses have been and how a rose-tinted time of pristine, perfectly free" speech never really existed. We are joined by journalist and author P.E. Moskowitz and Chair of Princeton University's Department of Anthropology Carolyn Rouse."]

Otto, Florian, et al. "The Cassandra Curse: Why We Heed Some Warnings, And Ignore Others." Hidden Brain (September 17, 2018) ["After a disaster happens, we want to know, could something have been done to avoid it? Did anyone see this coming? Many times, the answer is yes. There was a person — or many people — who spotted a looming crisis and tried to warn those in power. So why didn't the warnings lead to action? This week on Hidden Brain, we look into the psychology of warnings. We'll turn to an unusual source — an ancient myth about the cursed prophet Cassandra — to understand why some warnings fail. We'll travel 40 feet below the ground to talk to a modern-day Cassandra, and we'll speak with a government official who managed to get his warnings heard. There's also a gory (and fictional) murder plot, and even some ABBA."]




Weiwei, Ai. "Chinese Artist & Filmmaker Ai Weiwei on State Violence from Mexico to Hong Kong to Xinjiang." Democracy Now (January 28, 2020) ["In 2014, 43 students from Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers’ College disappeared after they were abducted in Iguala, Mexico. More than five years after their disappearance, the families of the students are still fighting for justice. The story is the subject of a stunning new documentary by the world-renowned Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei. The film, “Vivos,” follows the families of the disappeared students in their daily lives as they grapple with the absence of their loved ones and attempt to hold the Mexican government accountable for their disappearance. We sat down with Ai Weiwei earlier this week at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, to speak with him about “Vivos,” why his next project will focus on Hong Kong, and more."]


Jonas Staal, ‘PROPAGANDA ART FROM THE 20TH TO THE 21ST CENTURY’, PhDArts 2018 from Lectorate KTP & PhDArts on Vimeo.


Arcade Fire - The Suburbs [Full Album] from ElEcosound on Vimeo.




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ENG 281/282: 2020s

2020:

 Ammonite (UK/Australia/USA: Francis Lee, 2020: 120 mins)

 Hudson, David. "Francis Lee's Ammonite." The Current (September 15, 2020)

Another Round (Denmark/Sweden/Netherlands: Thomas Vinterberg, 2020: 117 mins)

Burris, Greg. "Another Round: Drinking (and Dancing) in the Age of Apocalypse." Film International (January 16, 2021)

Heeney, Alex, et al. "Are Men Ok? Masculinity, Mental Health, & Addiction in Another Round and Oslo, August 31st." Seventh Row (December 15, 2020) 

Antebellum (Delayed Release)

 Breznican, Anthony. "Black Storytellers Are Using Horror to Battle Hate." Vanity Fair (August 3, 2020) ["After Get Out, movies such as Antebellum, the upcoming Candyman retelling, and other tales of terror and the macabre are part of a cultural exorcism centuries in the making."]

Beans (Canada: Tracey Deer, 2020: 92 mins)

Benchetrit, Jenna. "Inspired by the Oka Crisis, Tracey Deer hopes her new film Beans will change perspectives." CBC (July 27, 2021) 

Candyman (Canada/USA: Nia DaCosta, 2020: )

Bastién, Angelica Jade. "Candyman is a Soulless, Didactic Reimagining." Vulture (August 25, 2021)
Breznican, Anthony. "Black Storytellers Are Using Horror to Battle Hate." Vanity Fair (August 3, 2020) ["After Get Out, movies such as Antebellum, the upcoming Candyman retelling, and other tales of terror and the macabre are part of a cultural exorcism centuries in the making."]

City Hall (USA: Frederick Wiseman, 2020: 292 mins)

Edwards, Lydia and Fred Wiseman. "Documenting Democracy: Fred Wiseman’s City Hall." Open Source (November 19, 2020) ["What Fred Wiseman found in Boston City Hall is not what he was looking for. The master of documentary film is famous for his almost innocent camera eye that unlocks visual drama in big institutions — the New York Public Library, the Paris Opera, or in his early days: Bridgewater State Mental Hospital in 1960s Massachusetts. So why not finally get inside the modern brick and concrete fortress of official life in his hometown, and see what’s going on in the faces, the meeting rooms, the tone of voice in local affairs. What he found was simpler than all that. It was the un-Trump in the un-Washington. An almost astonishing civility, good humor, what looks like good faith in the hundreds of negotiations every day that keep a community going, and growing."]

Coronation (Ai Weiwei, 2020: 113 mins)

Johnson, Ian. "From Ai Weiwei, a Portrait of Wuhan’s Draconian Covid Lockdown." The New York Times (August 21, 2020)

Crip Camp (USA: James LeBrecht and Nicole Newnham, 2020: 106 mins)

LeBrecht, Jim and Nicole Newnham. "Crip Camp Directors on the Overlooked Disability Rights Movement." At Liberty (July 30, 2020) ["July 26th marked the 30th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, or the ADA. The ADA is a federal law that requires businesses, employers, public facilities, schools, and transportation agencies to make accommodations for disabled people, and helps weed out basic discrimination. When President George HW Bush signed the ADA into law in 1990, it was one of the most comprehensive pieces of civil rights legislation in American history.  But the disability rights movement didn’t begin or end with the ADA. In spite of the law’s existence, Americans with disabilities still face discrimination and other barriers to equal rights and opportunities.
Today, even though nearly 50 percent of Americans live with at least one disability, few know the history of the fight for disability rights. With Crip Camp, a new documentary on Netflix, filmmakers Jim LeBrecht and Nicole Newnham fill in some of that history through the personal and political stories that started the rise of a movement."]






The Devil All the Time (USA: Antonio Campos, 2020: 138 mins)

Hudson, David. "Borderline Week." The Current (September 17, 2020)

Dinner in America (USA: Adam Rehmeier, 2020: 106 mins)


Disclosure (USA: Sam Feder, 2020: 108 mins)

Gardner, Caden Mark. "Disclosure and Pursuing the Trans Film Image." Reverse Shot (June 19, 2020)

The Empty Man (USA/South Africa: David Prior, 2020: 137 mins)

Tafoya, Scout. "The Unloved, Pt. 93: The Empty Man." Roger Ebert (September 1, 2021) ["Whatever else is true of David Prior, "The Empty Man" is one of the most promising debuts in the last several years of American cinema. I greatly look forward to what he concocts next, whether I agree with its thesis or not. I enjoyed that while watching "The Empty Man" I was guessing the entire time what would happen next, and in every case I was proven wrong. That is rare enough without factoring in his considerable formal abilities. I like this movie a lot, and I’m ready for Halloween to get here so we can all kvetch about our shared need to be scared by the unreal instead of the very real."]

High Ground (Australia: Stephen Maxwell Johnson, 2020: 104 mins)

Johnson, Stephen Maxwell. "High Ground – Director Stephen Maxwell Johnson." Film School Radio (May 12, 2021) ["In Stephen Maxwell Johnson’s powerful new film, High Ground, a young indigenous man, Gutjuk, teams up with a World War I soldier / ex-sniper, Travis, to track down the dangerous Bayawara, a fierce warrior in the Territory, who is also his uncle. As Travis and Gutjuk journey through the outback they begin to earn each other’s trust, but when the truths of Travis’ past actions are suddenly revealed, it is he who becomes the hunted. High Ground was conceived as a story that would challenge accepted notions of the colonial settlement of Australia. High Ground is a powerful human drama, instilled with a strong sense of hope and fear, a story of treachery, heroism, sacrifice, freedom and love, misguided beliefs, an unequal struggle for power, and grief. But above all it is a story about the finding of one’s roots. Director Stephen Maxwell Johnson joins us for a conversation on the shameful treatment the indigenous peoples of Australia have suffered under, the denial of that history and why it was so important that High Ground reflect the human drama, instilled with a strong sense of hope and fear, but above all a story about the finding of one’s roots."]

Holler (USA: Nicole Riegel, 2020: 90 mins)




Hunters (Amazon Prime: David Weil, 2020)

 Jerri, Alexander. "Moment of Truth: Gently, Gently Hunters." This is Hell! (February 27, 2020) [On the Amazon TV show]

I Care a Lot (USA/UK: J. Blakeson, 2020: 118 mins)


I'm Thinking of Ending Things Soon (USA: Charlie Kaufman, 2020: 134 mins)

 Hudson, David. "Charlie Kaufman's Antkind." Current (July 13, 2020)


Invisible Man (Australia/USA/Canada/UK: Leigh Whannell, 2020: 124 mins)

 McMillan, Candice. "How Trump and #metoo Have Scared Us Into the New Decade." Chaz's Journal (March 10, 2020)

Jumbo (France/Belgium/Luxembourg: Zoé Wittock, 2020: 93 mins)

Complex, Valerie. "Stanning the Ancients." Letterboxd (June 20, 2020) ["Valerie Complex probes the intersection of Greco-Roman mythology and queer experience in Portrait of a Lady on Fire, The Neon Demon, Jumbo and Midsommar."]

Kingdom of Silence (USA: Rick Rowley, 2020: 101 mins)

Rowley, Rick and Lawrence Wright. "Kingdom of Silence: 2 Years After Khashoggi Murder, New Film Explores Deadly U.S.-Saudi Alliance." Democracy Now (October 1, 2020) ["Two years ago, in a story that shocked the world, Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi entered the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul for marriage documents and was never seen again. It was later revealed that Khashoggi — a Saudi insider turned critic and Washington Post columnist — was murdered and dismembered by a team of Saudi agents at the direct order of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. We speak with a friend of Khashoggi and with the director of a new documentary, “Kingdom of Silence,” that tracks not only Khashoggi’s brutal murder and the rise of MBS, but also the decades-long alliance between the United States and Saudi Arabia. “What drew me into this story is Jamal was one of our own,” says director Rick Rowley. “When one of our colleagues is killed, it falls on all of us as journalists to try to do what we can to rescue their story from the forces that would impose silence on it.”"]

Los Conductos (France/Colombia/Brazil: Camilo Restrepo, 2020: 70 mins)

Romney, Jonathan. "Los conductos is a swirling, cryptic journey into a hellish Medellín night." Sight and Sound (April 14, 2021) [" Camilo Restrepo’s stunning debut mixes up myth, fantasy and contemporary Colombian social reality to potent effect."]

Lovers Rock (UK: Steve McQueen, 2020: 70 mins)

López, Cristina Álvarez & Adrian Martin. "The Thinking Machine #45: Roll and Rock." de Film Krant (December 16, 2020) 

Mama Weed (France/Belgium: Jean-Paul Salomé, 2020: 104 mins)

Bozdech, Betsy, et al. "Movie of the Week July 16, 2021: Mama Weed." Alliance of Women Film Journalists July 11, 2020) 

Mank (USA: David Fincher, 2020: 132 mins)

Connor, J.D. "Put Some 'Mank' on It." Los Angeles Review of Books (May 29, 2021)

Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (USA: George C. Wolfe, 2020: 94 mins)

Grier, Miles P. "Why (and How) August Wilson Marginalized White Antagonism: A Note for Hollywood Producers." Los Angeles Review of Books (April 12, 2021)

My Octopus Teacher (South Africa: Philippa Ehrlich and James Reed, 2020: 84 mins)

Like Stories of Old. "The Problem of Other Minds – How Cinema Explores Consciousness." (Posted on Youtube: May 31, 2018) ["How have films engaged the problem of other minds? In this video essay, I discuss cinematic explorations into consciousness in the context of the cognitive revolution that has challenged many of the basic assumptions about what was for a long time believed to be a uniquely human trait." Uses Frans de Waal's book Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are?: "Hailed as a classic, Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? explores the oddities and complexities of animal cognition--in crows, dolphins, parrots, sheep, wasps, bats, chimpanzees, and bonobos--to reveal how smart animals really are, and how we've underestimated their abilities for too long. Did you know that octopuses use coconut shells as tools, that elephants classify humans by gender and language, and that there is a young male chimpanzee at Kyoto University whose flash memory puts that of humans to shame? Fascinating, entertaining, and deeply informed, de Waal's landmark work will convince you to rethink everything you thought you knew about animal--and human--intelligence."]

The Nest (UK/Canada: Sean Durkin, 2020: 107 mins)

Hudson, David. "Borderline Week." The Current (September 17, 2020)

Night of the Kings (France/Côte d'Ivoire/Canada/Senegal: Philippe Lacôte, 2020: 93 mins)

Carpenter, Max. "Whatever Gets You Through the Night: Night of the Kings." Reverse Shot (December 29, 2020)

On the Rocks (USA: Sofia Coppola, 2020: 96 mins)

Heath, Roderick. "On the Rocks (2020)." Film Freedonia (December 1, 2020)

Our Own (Les Notres) (Canada: Jeanne LeBlanc, 2020: 103 mins)

Bozdech, Betsy, et al. "MOVIE OF THE WEEK June 18, 2021- LES NOTRES." Alliance of Women Film Journalists (June 13, 2021)

The Plot Against America (HBO: Ed Burns and David Simon, 2020: 360 mins)

Tallerico, Brian. "The Plot Against America." Roger Ebert (March 13, 2020)

Quo Vadis, Aida? (Bosnia and Herzegovina, et al: Jasmila Zbanic, 2020: 101 mins)

"Quo Vadis, Aida?" Seventh Row (Archive of Resources)

Queen's Gambit (Netflix: Scott Frank and Allen Scott, 2020: 393 mins)

Oladipo, Gloria. "The Missed 'Magical Negro' Trope in The Queen’s Gambit." Bitch Media (November 25, 2020)

Rebuilding Paradise (USA: Ron Howard, 2020: 90 mins)

Else, Lincoln and Ron Howard. "On the Documentary Rebuilding Paradise." The Cinematography Podcast (August 10, 2020) ["Oscar-winning director Ron Howard talks about directing his first documentary, Rebuilding Paradise, about the devastating Camp fire that completely wiped out the town of Paradise, California on November 8, 2018. The film follows the people in community over time as they deal with the tragedy and begin rebuilding. Directing a documentary was a new experience for Ron, and he felt a personal connection to the town- his mother-in-law had lived in Paradise. Ron Howard and Brian Grazer’s production company, Imagine, had wanted to start producing documentaries and they sent out a crew to begin shooting just one week after the fire. Ron picked up some new skills while working on the unscripted project. He had to learn how to let the cameras follow the flow of the conversation, and to be minimalist in covering every possible angle. The experience has led him to make directorial choices in his scripted work that are more verité. Director of photography Lincoln Else worked closely with Ron and the Imagine production team, and developed a unified visual language for Rebuilding Paradise that he communicated with the other shooters. Lincoln learned documentary filmmaking at an early age, loading 16mm mags and assisting his father, documentarian and professor Jon Else. He likes a very simple hand-held style, opting to just put a camera on his shoulder in order to be as reactive as possible. Though footage from many different news sources and people’s personal videos was used, the bulk of the interview content in Rebuilding Paradise was “fly on the wall” style."]

Residue (USA: Merawi Gerima, 2020: 90 mins)

Wanzo, Rebecca. "Black Obliteration around the Corner: The Gentrification Film." Film Quarterly 75.1 (Fall 2021)

Shirley (USA: Josephine Decker, 2020: 107 mins)

 Brody, Richard. "Shirley: Josephine Decker’s Furious Melodrama of Shirley Jackson’s Life and Art." The New Yorker (June 4, 2020)

Hudson, David. "Josephine Decker's Shirley." Current (January 30, 2020)

Small Axe (UK: Steve McQueen, 2020: 5 sixty minute episodes)

Heeney, Alex, et al. "Steve McQueen's Small Axe." The Seventh Row #72 (December 30, 2020) ["To cover Steve McQueen’s ambitious Small Axe series, we have assembled one of our most ambitious episodes of the year. We discuss each film (or episode?) of McQueen’s series and how they work together to form a cohesive whole."]

The Social Dilemma (USA: Jeff Orlowski, 2020: 94 mins)

Harris, Tristan. "Social Dilemma Star on Fighting the Disinformation Machine." Berkeley Talks (February 26, 2021) ["In this episode of Berkeley Talks, Tristan Harris, co-founder of the Center for Humane Technology, former Google design ethicist and star of the 2020 Netflix documentary The Social Dilemma, discusses how fake news spreads faster than factual news — a result of citizens sharing emotionally resonant misinformation or disinformation, often weaponized for profit and propaganda purposes, while tech algorithms amplify the viral spread."]

Sophie Jones (USA: Jessie Barr, 2020: 85 mins)

Chen, Yun-Hua. "Embodying Coming of Age: An Interview with Jessie Barr on Sophie Jones." Film International (April 8, 2021)

Sugar Daddy (Canada: Wendy Morgan, 2020: 99 mins) 

Merin, Jennifer, et al. "Movie of the Week: Sugar Daddy." AWFJ (March 28, 2021) 


Tenet (USA/UK: Christopher Nolan, 2020: 150 mins)

Beyl, Cameron. "Christopher Nolan: Tenet." The Directors Series (August 22, 2022)

Tesla (USA: Michael Almereyda, 2020: 102 mins)

Dorian, M.J. "Nikola Tesla & the Paradox of Genius." Creative Codex #5 (May 9, 2019) ["Nikola Tesla's unique genius is the stuff of fantasy; he electrified the world, feuded with Thomas Edison, invented a death ray, and caused an earthquake in Manhattan. In this episode we try to untangle the paradox of Nikola Tesla's life: how can a man of unrivaled genius change the world but die a hermit with no money to his name?"]

 Tafoya, Scout. "Limits Don't Exist: Michael Almereyda on Tesla." Roger Ebert (August 18, 2020)

Time (USA: Garrett Bradley, 2020: 81 mins)

Hudson, David. "Garrett Bradley's Time." The Current (October 8, 2020)

Tove (Finland/Sweden: Zaida Bergroth, 2020: 116 mins)

Bozdech, Betsy, et al. "Movie of the Week: Tove." Alliance of Women Journalists (June 4, 2021) ["It’s no surprise by now to discover that the private lives of the authors and artists behind some of the world’s most beloved children’s books were anything but calm (or G-rated). But it’s always fascinating to get a glimpse into the events, people, and places that shaped them and led to their iconic creations, and Zaida Bergroth’s Tove — which stars the excellent Alma Pöysti as Finnish Moomin mastermind Tove Jansson — is no exception."]

Tragic Jungle (Mexico/France/Colombia: Yulene Olaizola, 2020)

Hudson, David. "Yulene Olaizola’s Tragic Jungle." The Current (October 6, 2020)

Uppercase Print (Romania: Radu Jude, 2020: 128 mins)

 Emmerzael, Hugo. "Reaching Into History: Radu Jude on Uppercase Print and The Exit of the Trains." Senses of Cinema #94 (April 2020)

Violation (Canada: Dusty Mancinelli and Madeleine Sims-Fewer, 2020: 107 mins)

Cleaver, Sarah Kathryn and Mary Wild. "Promising Young Woman & Violation." Projections (May 12, 2021) ["Mary and Sarah review two recently released rape revenge films; Emerald Fennell's highly anticipated Promising Young Woman (2020) and Madeleine Sims-Fewer's Violation (2020) which several listeners recommended to us."]

Mobarak, Jared. "Violation Tells a Story with Cross-Cutting Precision." The Film Stage (September 13, 2020)

Vivos (Germany: Ai Weiwei, 2020: 112 mins)

 Weiwei, Ai. "Chinese Artist & Filmmaker Ai Weiwei on State Violence from Mexico to Hong Kong to Xinjiang." Democracy Now (January 28, 2020) ["In 2014, 43 students from Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers’ College disappeared after they were abducted in Iguala, Mexico. More than five years after their disappearance, the families of the students are still fighting for justice. The story is the subject of a stunning new documentary by the world-renowned Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei. The film, “Vivos,” follows the families of the disappeared students in their daily lives as they grapple with the absence of their loved ones and attempt to hold the Mexican government accountable for their disappearance. We sat down with Ai Weiwei earlier this week at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, to speak with him about “Vivos,” why his next project will focus on Hong Kong, and more."]

Who Killed Malcolm X? (USA: Netflix series, 2020: 6 episodes)

Harris, Shayla, Abdur-Rahman Muhammad and Ilyasah Shabazz. "Malcolm X’s Daughter Ilyasah Shabazz on Her Father’s Legacy & the New Series Who Killed Malcolm X?" Democracy Now (February 21, 2020) ["Fifty-five years ago today, Malcolm X was assassinated. The civil rights leader was shot to death on February 21, 1965, at the Audubon Ballroom in New York City. He was only 39 years old. Details of his assassination remain disputed to this day. Earlier this month, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance said he was considering reopening the investigation, just days after a new documentary series about the assassination was released on Netflix called “Who Killed Malcolm X?” It makes the case that two of the three men who were convicted for Malcolm X’s murder are actually innocent and that his uncaught killers were four members of a Nation of Islam mosque in Newark, New Jersey. We are joined by Ilyasah Shabazz, one of six daughters of Malcolm X, who was just 2 years old when her father was assassinated in front of her, her siblings and her mother. We also speak with award-winning author Abdur-Rahman Muhammad, independent scholar, historian, journalist, writer and activist, who is widely regarded as one of the most respected authorities on the life and legacy of Malcolm X and is featured in the new documentary series, and Shayla Harris, a producer for the series and an award-winning filmmaker and journalist."]

Zola (USA: Janicza Bravo, 2020: 86 mins)

Hudson, David. "Janicza Bravo's Zola." The Current (June 30, 2021)

2021:

After Yang (USA: Kogonada, 2021: 96 mins)

Wang, Ian. "He, Robot: After Yang Gets Lost in Its Metaphor." The Baffler (March 31, 2022)

Ahed's Knee (France/Israel/Germany: Nadav Lapid, 2021: 109 mins)

Ehrlich, David. "Filmmaker Searches for Hope in the People of His Irredeemable Homeland." IndieWire (July 7, 2021)

Hudson, David. "Nadav Lapid's Ahed's Knee." Current (July 8, 2021)

Annette (France/Mexico/USA/Switzerland/Belgium/Japan/Germany: Leos Carax, 2021: 139 mins)

Hudson, David. "Leos Carax's Annette." Current (July 7, 2021)

Azor (Switzerland/France/Argentina: Andreas Fontana, 2021: 100 mins)

Anderson, Melissa. "Azor: In Andreas Fontana’s debut feature, Dirty War and dirty business." 4 Columns (September 10, 2021)

Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar (USA: Josh Greenbaum, 2021: 107 mins)

Greenbaum, Josh and Guillermo Del Toro. "Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar." The Director's Cut #299 (2021) ["Director Josh Greenbaum discusses his new film, Barb & Star Go to Vista Del Mar, with fellow director Guillermo del Toro in a spoiler-filled virtual Q&A. The film tells the story of best friends Barb and Star, who leave their small Midwestern town for the first time to vacation in Vista Del Mar, Florida and soon find themselves tangled up in adventure, love, and a villain’s evil plot to murder the entire town."]

Becoming Cousteau (USA: Liz Garbus, 2021: 93 mins)

Garbus, Liz. "Becoming Cousteau." Film School Radio (October 20, 2021)  ["Adventurer, filmmaker, inventor, author, unlikely celebrity and conservationist: For over four decades, Jacques-Yves Cousteau and his explorations under the ocean became synonymous with a love of science and the natural world. As he learned to protect the environment, he brought the whole world with him, sounding alarms more than 50 years ago about the warming seas and our planet’s vulnerability. In BECOMING COUSTEAU, from National Geographic Documentary Films, two-time Academy Award®-nominated filmmaker LIZ GARBUS takes an inside look at Cousteau and his life, his iconic films and inventions, and the experiences that made him the 20th century’s most unique and renowned environmental voice — and the man who inspired generations to protect the Earth. Director Liz Garbus (What Happened, Miss Simone?, All In: The Fight for Democracy, The Farm: Angola, USA) joins us for a look back at one of the 20th centuries most influential and consequential figures and one of the early advocates for preserving and protecting mother ocean."]

Belfast (UK: Kenneth Branagh, 2021: 97 mins)

Hudson, David. "Belfast and Yuni Top Toronto Awards." The Current (September 20, 2021)

Benedetta (France/Belgium/Netherlands: Paul Verhoeven, 2021: 131 mins)

Hudson, David. "Paul Verhoeven and Benedetta."The Current (December 7, 2021)

Benediction (UK/USA: Terence Davies, 2021: 137 mins)

Hudson, David. "Terence Davies and Benediction." The Daily (September 16, 2021)

Bergman Island (France/Belgium/Germany/Sweden/Mexico: Mia Hansen-Løve, 2021: 113 mins)

Merin, Jennifer, et al. "Movie of the Week: Bergman Island." Alliance of Women Film Journalists (October 9, 2021)  

The Beta Test (USA: Jim Cummings and PJ McCabe, 2021: 93 mins)

Bowen, Chuck. "The Beta Test Is a Livewire Thriller-Slash-Parable About Rechanneled Desire." Slant (November 2, 2021) ["The film is a knowing glimpse at how micro tensions affect macro power plays, from pissing contests between men to sexual violations."]

Bloodsuckers - A Marxist Vampire Comedy (Germany: Julian Radlmaier, 2021: 125 mins) 

Can't Get You Out of My Head (BBC: Adam Curtis, 2021: 6 episodes)

Can't Get You Out of My Head ["Can’t Get You Out of My Head: An Emotional History of the Modern World is a six-part series that explores how modern society has arrived to the strange place it is today. The series traverses themes of love, power, money, corruption, the ghosts of empire, the history of China, opium and opioids, the strange roots of modern conspiracy theories, and the history of Artificial Intelligence and surveillance. The series deals with the rise of individualism and populism throughout history, and the failures of a wide range of resistance movements throughout time and various countries, pointing to how revolution has been subsumed in various ways by spectacle and culture, because of the way power has been forgotten or given away."]


C'mon C'mon (USA: Mike Mills, 2021: 108 mins)

Hudson, David. "Mike Mills C'mon C'mon." The Daily (October 4, 2021)

Jake. "C'mon C'mon." Letterboxd (December 6, 2021)

Drive My Car (Japan: Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, 2021: 179 mins)

Hudson, David. "Ryusuke Hamaguchi: 'This Is How We Live Our Lives.'" Current (November 17, 2021)

Earwig (UK/France/Belgium: Lucile Hadžihalilović, 2021: 104 mins)


Taylor, Alison and John Edmond. "This Is Not A Ritual: An Introduction to Lucile Hadžihalilović." Senses of Cinema #102 (August 2022) ["Lucile Hadžihalilović’s films have the structure of allegories. Time after time they are described in terms of surrealism and symbolism, fairy tales, and the shaping of childhood; all rich frameworks for the provision and searching of meaning. Whether with her debut medium-length La bouche de Jean-Pierre (1996), her breakthrough Innocence (2004), its midnight mirror Evolution (2015) or her latest Earwig (2021), Hadžihalilović creates models of nature that appear as simultaneously potential models of society and as cloistered worlds, beholden to their own mysterious logic. These films, when summarised read as fantasy, horror or science fiction, which they are, but when experienced, are slow sensuous works attentive to colour and texture and whose minimalist approach avoids guiding the viewer to specific interpretations and instead allows them to find their own path."]

El Planeta (USA: Amalia Ulman, 2021: 79 mins)

Hudson, David. "Amalia Ulman's El Planeta." The Current (April 28, 2021)

Eternals (USA/UK: Chloé Zhao, 2021: 157 mins)

Jenkins, David. "Eternals." Little White Lies (November 1, 2021)

Fabian: Going to the Dogs (Germany: Dominik Graf, 2021: 176 mins)

Kasman, Daniel. "Close to the Abyss: Dominik Graf Discusses Fabian: Going to the Dogs." Notebook (February 11, 2022)

France (France/Germany/Italy/Belgium: Bruno Dumont, 2021: 133 mins)

Loayza, Beatrice. "Star Power: Bruno Dumont Discusses France." Notebook (December 14, 2021)

The French Dispatch (USA: Wes Anderson, 2021: 108 mins)

Brody, Richard. "The French Dispatch: Wes Anderson’s Most Freewheeling Film." The New Yorker (October 25, 2021)

Meehan, Ryan. "The Death of the Editor: Wes Anderson's The French Dispatch." The Notebook (October 22, 2021)

The Green Knight (USA: David Lowery, 2021: 130 mins)

Acolytes of Horror. "The Green Knight: The Uncanny Horror of Masculinity." (Posted on Youtube: October 29, 2021) [Movie description: "WHEN HONOR WAS EVERYTHING. An epic fantasy adventure based on the timeless Arthurian legend, The Green Knight tells the story of Sir Gawain, King Arthur’s reckless and headstrong nephew, who embarks on a daring quest to confront the eponymous Green Knight, a gigantic emerald-skinned stranger and tester of men."]

The Hand of God (Italy: Paolo Sorrentino, 2021: 129 mins)


Hit the Road (Iran: Panah Panahi, 2021: 93 mins)

Hudson, David. "Hit the Road Tops the London Awards." The Daily (October 18, 2021)

Hold Me Tight (France: Mathieu Almaric, 2021: 95 mins)

Almaric, Mathieu and Vicky Kreps. "Hold Me Tight." Film At Lincoln Center Podcast (September 8, 2022) ["Vicky Krieps (Phantom Thread, Bergman Island) gives another riveting performance as Clarisse, a woman on the run from her family for reasons that aren’t immediately clear. Widely renowned as an actor but less well-known here for his equally impressive work behind the camera, Mathieu Amalric’s sixth feature directorial outing—his most ambitious to date—is a virtuosic, daringly fluid portrait of one woman’s fractured psyche. Alternating between Clarisse’s adventures on the road and her abandoned husband Marc (Arieh Worthalter) as he struggles to take care of their children at home, Amalric’s film keeps viewers uncertain as to the reality of what they’re seeing until the final moments of this richly rewarding, moving, and unpredictable portrait of grief."]

The Last Duel (UK/USA: Ridley Scott, 2021: 153 mins)

Flight, Thomas and Tom van der Linden. "The Last Duel." Cinema of Meaning #3 (March 17, 2022) ["Thomas Flight and Tom van der Linden discuss subjectivism, self-delusion, and the struggle for justice in a world of inequal power dynamics, in Ridley Scott’s The Last Duel."]

Last Night in Soho  (UK: Edgar Wright, 2021: 117 mins)

Hudson, David. "Edgar Wright's Last Night in Soho." The Current (October 26, 2021)

The Mauritanian (UK/USA: Kevin McDonald, 2021: 129 mins)

Hollander, Nancy, et al. "The Mauritanian: Film Tells Story of Innocent Man Held at Guantánamo for 14 Years Without Charge." Democracy Now (March 8, 2021) ["A new feature film, “The Mauritanian,” tells the story of Mohamedou Ould Slahi, a Mauritanian man who was held without charge for 14 years at the U.S. military prison at Guantánamo and repeatedly tortured. We speak with Mohamedou Ould Slahi, who says the film is not just about his struggle. “This is not my movie. This is the movie of so many people,” he says. “Some of the people who were kidnapped after 9/11 were tortured to death. They did not have a chance to tell their story.” We also speak with Kevin Macdonald, director of “The Mauritanian”; Nancy Hollander, the lead lawyer for Mohamedou Ould Slahi; and actor Tahar Rahim, whose portrayal of Slahi earned him a Golden Globe nomination."]

Medusa (Brazil: Anita Rocha da Silveira, 2021: 127 mins)

Veneto, Nicole. "Medusa - She's Beautiful and She's Screaming." The Arts Fuse (July 25, 2022) ["Brazilian director Anita Rocha Da Silveira’s latest film is a genre-spliced howl of feminine fury in the face of right-wing Christian conservatism."]

Memoria (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2021: 136 mins)

Hudson, David. "Memoria Goes on Tour." The Daily (October 8, 2021)

Moxie (USA: Amy Pohler, 2021: 111 mins)

Merrin, Jennifer, et al. "Movie of the Week: Moxie." Alliance of Women Film Journalists (March 7, 2021)

Night Raiders (Canada/New Zealand: Danis Goulet, 2021: 97 mins)

Mobarak, Jared. "TIFF Review: Night Raiders Draws on Canadian History to Tell a Grounded Sci-Fi Tale." The Film Stage (September 12, 2021)

Nobody (USA: Ilya Naishuller, 2021: 92 mins)

Adejuyigbe, Demi. "Nobody." Letterboxd (April 2, 2021) [Coins the genre classification "impotence thriller."]

She Will (UK: Charlotte Colbert, 2021: 95 mins)

Borden, Carol. "She Will (UK, 2022)." Monstrous Industry (October 10, 2022) ["Director Charlotte Colbert’s She Will begins as an angry film, but does not end as one. Veronica Ghent (Alice Krige) travels with her private nurse, Desi Hatoum (Kota Eberhardt), to a remote estate in the Scottish highlands to recover from a double mastectomy. They travel in a lavishly appointed train with polished wood panel compartments and a private sleeping car. Veronica is a grand dame of the film world, but she is brittle and remote. Her anger is barely restrained behind incarnadine lipstick and a tightly braided and twisted coif. Veronica is curt and rude with Desi, who takes Veronica’s lashing out in stride, familiar with wealthy white people and women grieving the cost of survival. But a deeper anger is revealed over the course of She Will–an anger not just carried for decades, but for centuries."]

Spencer (Germany/Chile/UK/USA: Pablo Larrain, 2021: 111 mins)

Hudson, David. "Pablo Larrain's Spencer." The Daily (September 9, 2021)

The Tragedy of Macbeth (USA: Joel Coen, 2021: 105 mins)

Hudson, David. "Joel Coen’s The Tragedy of Macbeth." Current (September 27, 2021)

Turning Point: 9/11 and the War on Terror (USA: Brian Knappenberger, 2021: 300 mins)

 Knappenberger, Brian and Mohammed Ali Naqvi. "Turning Point: Legacy of the U.S. Response to 9/11 Is Terror, Domestic Surveillance & Drones." Democracy Now (September 9, 2021) ["As this week marks the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., we look at a new five-part documentary series on Netflix about the attacks and the response from the United States, both at home and abroad. “Turning Point: 9/11 and the War on Terror” features a wide range of interviews with survivors of the attacks, U.S. officials, former CIA members and veterans, as well as soldiers in the Afghanistan National Army, Taliban commanders, and Afghan officials, warlords and civilians. “What we really wanted to do was tell the story not just of what happened that day, but how we got there and where our response to those attacks took us as a country,” says director Brian Knappenberger. We also speak with co-executive producer Mohammed Ali Naqvi, an award-winning Pakistani filmmaker, who says the film was an attempt to go “beyond the binary narrative of good versus evil.”"]

The Velvet Underground (USA: Todd Haynes, 2021: 110 mins)

Hudson, David. "Todd Hayne's The Velvet Underground." Current (July 12, 2021) 

Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy (Japan: Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, 2021: 121)

Hudson, David. "Ryusuke Hamaguchi: 'This Is How We Live Our Lives.'" Current (November 17, 2021)




2022:

Aftersun (UK/USA: Charlotte Wells, 2022: 101 mins)

Hudson, David. "Charlotte Wells' Aftersun." Current (October 19, 2022)

Lemercier, Fabien. "Aftersun." Cineuropa (May 5, 2022) ["Charlotte Wells demonstrates her potential as a filmmaker with a subtle, sensitive and highly controlled first feature about the holidays of a divorced father and his 11-year-old daughter."]

After Yang (USA: Kogonada, 2022: 96 mins)

Koski, Genevieve, et al. "Bye, Robot Pt. 1 — A.I. Artificial Intelligence." The Next Picture Show #320 (March 15, 2022) ["Kogonada’s new science-fiction film AFTER YANG wrestles with the humanity of artificial beings, and their relationship to humanity, in a way that feels distinctly reminiscent of Steven Spielberg’s 2001 feature A.I. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE. Both films are highly sympathetic toward the android companions on which they center, but Spielberg’s film, which began life as a Stanley Kubrick endeavor, has a more sour view of humanity… or does it? That’s one of the main questions up for discussion this week as we delve into the complexities and contradictions of A.I., a film with no shortage of discussion points, many of which coalesce around the film’s still-divisive ending."]

---. "Bye, Robot Pt. 2 — After Yang." The Next Picture Show #321 (March 22, 2022) ["Kogonada’s new AFTER YANG plays in many ways like a mirror to Steven Spielberg’s misunderstood android epic A.I. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE as it explores ideas about human nature through the experiences of an artificial being. It’s also an unusually warm, thematically rich science-fiction film that opens up countless avenues of discussion, a few of which we travel down before bringing AFTER YANG into conversation with Spielberg’s earlier model to consider these stories’ shared features: a disrupted family unit, a journey of discovery, adoption ethics, and rumination on what it means to be human."]

All That Breathes (UK/India/USA: Shaunak Sen, 2022: 97 mins)

Hudson, David. "Shaunak Sen’s All That Breathes." Current (October 18, 2022) ["Shaunak Sen’s All That Breathes arrives in theaters from the festival circuit with an unprecedented track record. It’s the only film to have won best documentary awards at both Sundance and Cannes, and this past weekend, it topped the documentary competition in London. On Monday, the Indie Film Site Network, an alliance of five popular online media outlets that came together at the end of the summer, announced that it’s presenting its inaugural IFSN Advocate Award, “established to highlight one theatrically released indie film each year that illuminates a humanitarian or environmental issue with a singular artistic vision,” to All That Breathes. “Layering urban ecology, spiritual philosophy, politics, and distilled character study, All That Breathes is a remarkable, vital work of cinema,” writes Nick Bradshaw in Sight and Sound."]

Ambulance (USA: Michael Bay, 2022: 136 mins)

Tafoya, Scout. "The Unloved, Part 104: Ambulance." Roger Ebert (August 1, 2022) ["Somehow, it happened. Michael Bay earned a place in the Unloved. He made his best movie and no one liked it and it made no money. Well sir, you're welcome around these parts anytime. Enjoy this look at our premiere vulgarian's attempt to go "straight," and shake your head with me in horror at the culture that said no to a film as electrifying as Ambulance."]

Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood (USA: Richard Linklater, 2022: 98 mins)

Hudson, David. "Richard Linklater's Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood." The Current (March 24, 2022)

Armageddon Time (USA/Brazil: James Gray, 2022: 114 mins)

Hudson, David. "A Second Look at Armageddon Time." Current (October 31, 2022)

The Banshees on Inisherin (Ireland/UK/USA: Martin McDonagh, 2022: 114 min)

Balaga, Marta. "The Banshees of Inisherin." Cineuropa (May 9, 2022)

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (USA: Ryan Coogler, 2022: 161 mins)


Flight, Thomas and Tom van der Linden. "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever." Cinema of Meaning #40 (December 1, 2022) ["Thomas Flight and Tom van der Linden discuss the implications of Wakanda entering the world stage and upsetting the global status quo, Marvel’s reluctance to really dig into revolutionary and post-colonial politics, and the struggle to continue the Black Panther story after the tragic passing of Chadwick Boseman, in Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever."]

Bodies Bodies Bodies (USA: Halina Reijn, 2022: 94 mins)

Jones, Eileen. "Bodies Bodies Bodies Is a Bad Class Satire and a Boring Film." Jacobin (August 18, 2022) ["Like so many horror films attempting to be subversive, Bodies Bodies Bodies tries to satirize the upper class. But all it delivers are tired, lazy tropes about Gen Z."]

Bones and All (Italy/USA: Luca Guadagnino, 2022: 131 mins)

Kushner, Rachel. "Flesheater Blues." Harper's (December 2022)  ["Guadagnino is an artist I’ll confess to having possibly underestimated. I liked his previous films—especially I Am Love, for the way that he portrays the stifling elegance of Milan’s Villa Necchi and the heavenward iconography of the Piazza del Duomo—but perhaps it is my own imaginative failing that I did not see in them the possibility of this one, which is a stunning work of art that seeped in deep and stained my sense of the world with its own hallucinatory version of such. Bones and All captures what it’s like to drift, to be excluded, and to be nonetheless full of life-force, but life-force whose expression can only ever be futile and tragic. Guadagnino perfectly handles social class and alienation, the sort of social atomization that is so terribly American—everyone just out there, without a club, a church, a union, a pastime, without support or a safety net of any kind. (The one “nice” home we see in this movie, decorated with ornate wallpaper and fussy knickknacks, contains a person, an old woman, who is dying, perhaps of a stroke or of a heart attack, alone, on the floor.) Bones and All is an extraordinary document of American psychoanalysis. Guadagnino’s main character, an eighteen-year-old girl named Maren, played by Taylor Russell, is abandoned by her father near the beginning of the film. She sets off by bus to try to find her birth mother, whom she’s never met. She encounters a boy named Lee, played by Timothée Chalamet, equally adrift and lonely, but full of rebellious verve. They circle each other and eventually connect. What constitutes home? the film asks. And what about the trauma that people inherit, and vow not to replicate, and do replicate? (Maren’s mother and Lee’s father have both passed on the same genetic affliction to their children.)"]

McKenna, Steph and Mike Muncer. "Bones and All (2022)." The Evolution of Horror (November 23, 2022) 

Both Sides of the Blade (France: Claire Denis, 2022: 117 mins)



Corsage  (Austria/Luxembourg/Germany: Marie Kreutzer, 2022: 112 mins) 

Hudson, David. "Marie Kreutzer's Corsage." Current (September 28, 2022) ["Vicky Krieps and Marie Kreutzer will be in New York this weekend to take questions about Corsage, their irreverent reimagining of a year or so in the life of Empress Elisabeth of Austria. When Krieps, who won a Best Actress award when the film premiered in the Un Certain Regard program in Cannes, first approached Kreutzer with the idea, “I laughed,” the director told the festival, “and said, ‘What for?,’ but the idea grew like a seed inside me.”"]

The Fabelmans (USA: Steven Spielberg, 2022: 151 mins)

Hudson, David. "Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans." The Current (September 15, 2022) ["The trailer for The Fabelmans has put some people off, but there’s an army of critics out there urging you to see it when it opens in a few cities on November 11 before going wide over the Thanksgiving holidays. “Kushner has given his friend’s back story a structure to explore the messy memories and madness that make up most of our childhood and teen years, while also providing him a place to be vulnerable, personal, enraged,” writes Rolling Stone’s David Fear. “You can’t imagine one of them doing this without the other, and not just because it’s inspired by Spielberg’s real-life pain. He finally felt ready, willing, and able to go there.” The Fabelmans “feels like a significant work—maybe the significant work—from an artist who has spent decades as American cinema’s civics professor and great escapist.”"]

Nayman, Adam. "Steven Spielberg Prints the Legend." The Ringer (September 23, 2022) ["The master director’s essayistic, autobiographical film ‘The Fabelmans’ may be little more than a victory lap. Still, no one sees things quite like he can."]

Flux Gourmet (USA/UK/Hungary: Peter Strickland, 2022: 111 mins)

Borden, Carol. "Flux Gourmet (UK 2022)." Monstrous Industry (September 13, 2022) ["Flux Gourmet contains many of Strickland’s pre-occupations: the creation of art; presenting one’s work to an audience; the line between popular art and fine / avant garde art; attempting to access senses that are hard to access through film–here, smell, taste, and a somatic sense of gastric pressure; “Eurosleaze” and “Eurotrash” film, including a nice reference to Danger: Diabolik (1968); almost operatic fashion; and, of course, soundscapes and sound design. It’s all presented in Strickland’s lush, polished visuals; warm, saturated colors; and deep, mesmerizing sound design much of which is created by Strickland’s Sonic Catering Band."]

Ehrlich, David. "Flux Gourmet: Peter Strickland’s Latest Is a Flatulent Satire About the Limits of Good Taste." IndieWire (February 11, 2022)



Glorious (USA: Rebekah McKendry, 2022: 79 mins)

Schnelbach, Leah. "Want a Movie About an Eldritch Glory Hole of Surprising Depth? Try Glorious." Tor (August 24, 2022) ["Mostly I’m glad that Glorious exists. The last few years have seen amazing additions to the horror canon, and the fact that a small movie can be unapologetically gross and splatter-y, but also make a big thematic swing, and mostly work, and find large-scale distribution, makes me very, very happy. Join me in the rest stop bathroom for a non-spoiler review, won’t you?"]

Good Luck to You, Leo Grande (USA: Sophie Hyde, 2022: 97 mins)

Bozdech, Betsy, et al. "Movie of the Week: Good Luck to You, Leo Grande." Alliance of Women Film Journalists (June 12, 2022)

The Gray Man (USA: Anthony Russo and Joe Russo, 2022: 128 mins)

Eggert, Brian. "The Gray Man." Deep Focus Review (July 14, 2022) ["A good action movie is difficult to find. Although dozens are released every year, few have more to offer than some impressive stunts, fast-paced fight choreography, or eye-popping sequences of destruction. They supply the requisite thrills, but once the credits roll, they often fade from memory. The problem isn’t the action; it’s the banal characters. Rarely do action movies give us compelling heroes or villains who make a lasting impression. The Fast and Furious series may provide one over-the-top vehicular extravaganza after another, but its dopey family and one-note baddies couldn’t be less engaging. Sure, the John Wick movies started with a compelling revenge story, but the character’s unwavering composure doesn’t have many dimensions. Invulnerable heroes from the killing machine John Rambo to the infallible Dominic Toretto obliterate their opponents and come away barely dented. By contrast, consider characters such as John McClane in the original Die Hard (1988) or Furiosa in Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) that elevate all the trappings of an entertaining actioner, lending humanity and vulnerability to their heroes. Enduring action movies give their characters a sense of humor or depth of feeling beyond point and shoot. "]

Kimi (USA: Steven Soderbergh, 2022: 89 mins)

Koski, Genevieve, et al. "No Time to Dye, Pt. 1 — Run Lola Run." The Next Picture Show #318 (March 1, 2022) ["Steven Soderbergh’s new straight-to-streaming movie KIMI wears its many influences on its sleeve, but we saw our inspiration for this week’s pairing in its protagonist’s colorful dyed hair, reminiscent of one of the many eye-popping elements of Tom Tykwer’s 1998 international breakout RUN LOLA RUN. But what really links the two films is the breakneck pace they share as they chase after women trying to achieve an urgent goal on a short deadline. This week we home in on RUN LOLA RUN to parse its interplay of style and substance, and debate how and to what extent this fleet film stumbles over its weighty themes of time, choice, and fate."]

---. "No Time to Dye, Pt. 2 — Kimi." The Next Picture Show #319 (March 8, 2022) ["Steven Soderbergh’s new thriller KIMI is as brisk, stylish, and sure-footed in its approach as Tom Tykwer’s 1998 arthouse hit RUN LOLA RUN, but with a much different set of cinematic goals and references in play. Does KIMI’s spare, simple, stylish approach alchemize into what one of our panelists calls “pure entertainment” that’s “easy as breathing,” or does it leave too many unfilled spaces and narrative holes to trip over? We hash it out before bringing LOLA in to compare the two films’ commitment to brevity and adrenalized filmmaking, how that commitment plays out via their respective soundtracks, and the ways in which each tackles conflict and codependency in relationships."]

Love Dog (USA: Bianca Lucas, 2022: 84 mins)

Vagenas, Maria Giovanna. "Love Dog: Conversation with Bianca Lucas." Senses of Cinema #103 (October 2022)

Other People's Children (France: Rebecca Zlotowski, 2022: September 4, 2022)


Prey (USA: Dan Trachtenberg, 2022: 100 mins)


Queens of the Qing Dynasty (Canada: Ashley McKenzie, 2022: 122 mins)


Saint Omer (France: Alice Diop, 2022: 123 mins)
Lifting the veil on "the story of a ghost woman whom nobody knows" and that of a "gradual disappearance to which a mother also subjects her child", Saint Omer works with delicacy on distance and on the prejudices and preconceptions surrounding a crime which goes beyond all comprehension, all the while releasing diffuse clues on the exact nature of its message (racism is very subtly evoked). Its opacity is the strength of this imperious yet cryptic film, which perfectly reflects its troubling protagonist. (Fabien Lemercier)
Balaga, Martin.  "Alice Diop: Director of Saint Omer." Cineuropa (October 9, 2022) ["The French filmmaker delivers a stunner of a movie and a real punch to the heart with her latest effort."]

Lemercier, Fabian. "Saint Omer." Cineuropa (July 9, 2022) ["Documentary-maker Alice Diop ventures into fiction with a sharp, singular and cryptic film exploring the surface and plunging the deepest depths of an infanticide trial."]

Showing Up (USA: Kelly Reichardt, 2022: 108 mins)

Nayman, Adam. "Take These Broken Wings: Kelly Reichardt on Showing Up." Cinema Scope #92 (September 2022) 

Stars at Noon (France/Panama/USA: Claire Denis, 2022: 138 mins)

Hudson, David. "Claire Denis’s Stars at Noon." Current (October 12, 2022) 

TAR (USA: Todd Fields, 2022: 158 mins)

Brody, Richard. "TAR: Regressive Ideas to Match Regressive Aesthetics." The New Yorker (October 12, 2022)

Kiang, Jessica. "TÁR: a sly, scabrous symphony." (September 2, 2022) ["Cate Blanchett is mesmerising as a monstrous orchestra conductor in Todd Field’s latest masterpiece, one of the most grippingly brilliant films of the year."]

The Territory (Brazil/Denmark/USA: Alex Pritz, 2022: 83 mins)

Pritz, Alex. "The Territory." Film School Radio (August 18, 2022) ["In his debut feature documentary THE TERRITORY Alex Pritz provides an immersive look at the tireless fight of the Amazon’s Indigenous Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau people against the encroaching deforestation brought by farmers and illegal settlers. With awe-inspiring cinematography showcasing the titular landscape and richly textured sound design, the film takes audiences deep into the Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau community and provides unprecedented access to the farmers and settlers illegally burning and clearing the protected Indigenous land. Partially shot by the Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau people, THE TERRITORY relies on vérité footage captured over three years as the community risks their lives to set up their own news media team in the hopes of exposing the truth. Director Alex Pritz joins us for a informative conversation on the importance that he placed an even-handed approach to conveying the disparate strands of a complex story whose outcome will have a profound impact on the indigenous Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau people, the region surrounding the Amazon rainforest and planet Earth."]

Thor: Love and Thunder (Australia/USA: Taika Waititi, 2022: 119 mins)


Triangle of Sadness (Sweden: Ruben Östlund, 2022: 147 mins)

Lazzarini, Sylvie and Jan Lumholdt. "Ruben Östlund • Director of Triangle of Sadness." Cineuropa (2022)

Lumholdt, Jan. "Triangle of Sadness." Cineuropa (May 5, 2022) ["Östlund helms a diabolically mischievous “Rubensonade” among the rich and the filthy."]

Vengeance (USA: B.J. Novak, 2022: 108 mins)

Eggert, Brian. "Vengeance." Deep Focus Review (July 24, 2022) ["In B.J. Novak’s directorial debut, Vengeance, he plays a shallow writer who turns the death of a former hookup into podcast fodder. A critique of the exploitative opportunism of podcast culture, and by extension, an exploration of why people create, and further, how American culture consumes and processes various forms of media, Novak has a lot on his mind with this film. It’s also a murder mystery, a debunking of regional stereotypes, a takedown of how facts have been replaced with collective belief, and a discourse about America’s increasing division on political lines. Add to this a fish-out-of-water comic bent since Novak’s snobbish character travels from New York to Texas, and while there, exposes that he knows less than he thinks he does. Best known from The Office, on which he also wrote and directed episodes, Novak’s first feature shows promise. And while his ambitious sociopolitical assessment outweighs his script’s broad treatment of his characters and plot, the deceptively titled film offers a few choice speeches and tender moments for the curious viewer."]

Watcher (USA: Chloe Okuno, 2022: 91 mins)


X (USA: Ti West, 2022: 106 mins)

Koski, Genevieve, et al. "Tex-Mess, Pt. 1 — The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)." The Next Picture Show (March 29, 2022) ["Ti West’s new horror film X is very openly inspired by THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, carrying through the spirit of Tobe Hooper’s 1974 shocker more capably than most of the subsequent films in what would become a nine-film franchise (in particular this year’s dreadful remake). Before getting into how it does that next week, this week we’re revisiting Hooper’s film with the help of film critic and series expert Katie Rife, to consider what made this film hit the way it did at the time, why it so often gets lumped in with the slasher genre it preceded, and whether it's a film that gets more brutal — or, perhaps, more comforting — with time."]

---. "Tex-Mess, Pt. 2 — X (2022)." The Next Picture Show (April 5, 2022) ["Ti West’s new X is very much inspired by Tobe Hooper’s 1974 shocker THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE (and to an extent, Hooper’s lesser-known EATEN ALIVE), following another bunch of ill-fated van passengers, this one a group filming a low-budget porno, who wind up on the wrong side of the owners of a remote Texas farmhouse. The film’s late-’70s setting invites all sorts of analysis and interpretation about sex, death, and their intersection with cultural and religious conservatism at the dawn of the 1980s, which we dig into, once again with the help of film writer and horror aficionado Katie Rife, before turning our focus to some of the specific echoes between X and TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE."]

You Won't Be Alone (Australia/UK/Serbia: Goran Stolevski, 2022: 109 mins)

Jones, Matthew. "You Won’t Be Alone (2022), A New Perspective On Witch Lore." Philosophy in Film (August 9, 2022) ["Witches make for great villains in horror films. From a creepy ballet instructor to a shadowy hermitess in the woods, there is no shortage of scary sorceresses and baby-snatchers on the silver screen. In Goran Stolevski’s debut feature film, You Won’t Be Alone (2022), the witches lean more toward the latter (baby-snatchers) than the former, as the film is grounded in witchcraft mythology. Stolevski does a brilliant job mixing Eastern European lore surrounding witches with themes of identity, solitude, gender, and fate."]


2023:

Passages (France: Ira Sachs, 2023: 91 mins)


Rye Lane (UK: Raine Allan-Miller, 2023: 82 mins)





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