Les Enfants Terribles is a fascinating collaboration two of the most talented figures in French cinema at the time of release: Jean-Pierre Melville and Jean Cocteau. Melville is known for hard-boiled gangsters, war, cold nihilism.
Andy Samberg has been making everybody laugh for ten to fifteen years- but 2020’s Palm Springs, a take on 1993’s masterful Groundhog Day, is the best thing he’s been a part of It isn’t just
Guru Dutt’s final film as director. He would pass away in 1964 at the age of 39. This is his follow-up to the astonishing 1957 film Pyaasa. These two films make for a sublime pair—fluid
Much is made of Woody Allen’s admiration for Ingmar Bergman—and rightly so—but Federico Fellini seems like just as strong an influence. If you think about it at this point in 1987 Allen has already made
What an opening-- Rosamund Pike’s voice-over with a great “predators and prey”, “lions and lambs” speech. This is her best vehicle since 2014’s Gone Girl- she clearly excels at playing these icy, psychotic characters Slow-motion
Guru Dutt has a dogmatic, stylistic and formal approach to Pyaasa. Dutt’s camera is rarely sedentary—like Renoir or Ophuls—the default setting here seems to be movement. Yet unlike Renoir, who most often moved side to
Dutt’s fifth film and it is undoubtedly the work of the creative mind behind 1954’s Aar-Paar It is another romantic comedy musical (in the Hindi tradition). This is a situation comedy that almost plays like
Al Pacino is the main reason to watch and study Donnie Brasco. Pacino has been playing variations on the gangster (The Godfather trilogy, Scarface, Carlito’s Way) amassing a remarkable resume in this genre alone. Here
The fourth film (first in my study, first available) for director/actor Guru Dutt. Dutt directed a total of eight films – all in the 1950’s. Dutt died young- age 39 Here he plays Kalu- and
Nolan’s Tenet starts in medias res like a Bond film with the vast crowd in the opera house (Nolan has declared his love for the 1977 Roger Moore Bond The Spy Who Loved Me)
Proof that even minor-Gilliam is fascinating, and also that even in his most native genre (the retro future sci-fi dystopia, Orwellian nightmare) by 2013 Gilliam no longer has his fastball. James Verniere from the
Add Rose Glass to the very short list of gifted auteurs whose film I look forward to next. Saint Maud is Glass’s debut, and I’ve praised A24 many times here- and yes- they should get
