Best of Criterion’s New Releases, May 2019

Two French masters, a Montanan master, and an Austrian master all walk into the Criterion Collection and that’s it, that’s the joke. Continue reading →

“Films by Women: Four Movies to Watch from May (2019)”

Knock down that house and let the sunshine in! But mind the souvenirs! And don’t sing if someone else is singing! Continue reading →

“The 25 Best Movies of 2018 (So Far)”

It’s June. “Best Of (So Far)” list time.  About a third of the blurbs on Paste Magazine‘s June ’18 list have my name on them, and of those that don’t, there are a handful I don’t agree with: I think Avengers: Infinity War is an exhausting slog, How to Talk to Girls at Parties is garbage, and Hereditary … Continue reading →

“Films by Women: Seven Movies to Watch in May”

This month, we didn’t report on five movies directed by women currently in theaters or available at home. We reported on seven. Grant that two of them, The Rider and Let the Sunshine In, expanded in May but originally came out in April; we’re sort of cheating on this one. But if they’ve only just expanded, that means you … Continue reading →

Review: Let the Sunshine In, 2018, dir. Claire Denis

For a movie with such a cheery, upbeat title, Let the Sunshine In is determinedly melancholic. Check the director’s name and that makes sense: Claire Denis doesn’t really make straightforwardly upbeat movies, from Trouble Every Day to White Material, so naturally she’d make a romantic comedy dripping in sadness. But it’s a good kind of sadness founded on a real … Continue reading →