Alright, gang: I’m crying “uncle”. I set out to deliver one installment of the Criterion Files every single week, but I’m tapping out and reestablishing the series as bi-weekly. Apart from the fact that watching two Criterion films every week is something of a tall order on top of my other movie watching and writing … Continue reading
Well, the ceremony’s done, the statues have all been given out, and noses have been browned; the 84th Academy Awards are now in the books. And I have an opinion on them even though I didn’t even watch them. I don’t know that there should be much surprise in regards to what won and why. The … Continue reading
This week, I caught a screener for David Wain’s Wanderlust, his and Ken Marino’s follow-up to 2008’s Role Models. The film has much more in common with the classic, beloved Wet Hot American Summer, though, which both speaks well for the movie and also just creates a lot of unfair comparisons. While it’s nowhere near the level of Wet … Continue reading
Two weeks ago, AMC’s The Walking Dead made its mid-season return to the air after a brief hiatus. I’m not at all worried about spoilers at this point– if you like the show, you saw what happened in the cliffhanger ending of 2.7, and if you haven’t watched the show then you shouldn’t be … Continue reading
To a point, Beginners is somewhat opaque. The film doesn’t boast a complex narrative– even when it’s operating at full non-linear capacity– but the devices used to serve the story are, occasionally, perplexing. Parts of Beginners occur in the thoughts of its protagonist, Oliver (Ewan McGregor), who in his head contrasts the way the world and people … Continue reading
Fox Searchlight premiered the first twelve minutes of upcoming indie release Sound of My Voice online yesterday, which comprise the first of eleven “chapters” in the film. I’m not sure what that really means in terms of the film’s structure– are all of the chapters equal in length?– and I don’t know that everyone will … Continue reading
Valérie Donzelli’s Declaration of War deserves, above all else, praise for its sense of perspective. The film’s central narrative, which examines how a young couple raising a newborn together responds when the child becomes sick, views the unfolding events with an impressive circumference. Up close and in great detail, we see the impact that the … Continue reading
After skipping a week*, it’s time for another dip into the Criterion Files, where I’ll be hand-picking a pair of titles from the much-vaunted Criterion Collection and giving them the (abridged) ACVF treatment. Last time, I looked at two films which share a common thread together in the form of genre. While I’ll endeavor to … Continue reading
It’s amazing that in a single year we saw the release of four alien invasion films, and of that quartet only one turned out to be any good. How do three different directors miss the mark making variations on the same type of movie? Being kind, Super 8 only falls off the rails in its last … Continue reading
In a word, Stéphane Aubier’s and Vincent Patar’s A Town Called Panic can be described as “madcap”. The film– essentially an extended big-screen episode of the French duo’s children’s television program of the same name– has a giddy, uncontrollable energy and a bottomless supply of imagination that defies anything resembling standard narrative conventions in favor … Continue reading
Welcome to the first entry in what I intend to fashion into a weekly series. As the name suggests, the focus here is Criterion Collection films, the classics and masterpieces and unequivocal essentials that hold sway in cinematic canon. My goal? Grab two random entries from off of my shelf, or stream them through Netflix … Continue reading
As documentaries go, Senna may be best characterized as unabashedly partisan. From the moment the film begins, director Asif Kapadia clearly wants us to come to root for Ayrton Senna, the eponymous and deceased Brazilian Formula One racer. Kapadia’s concerned little and less with objectivity. He’s an admirer, and largely his film rides on the hope … Continue reading
A Constant Visual Feast 