Radha Blank’s black and white The Forty-Year-Old Version is an authentic portrayal of an artist’s struggle. Blank plays herself in this highly autobiographical story about a playwright, a teacher, and poet/rapper. I adore the logo
Super Dark Times is a flawed, but encouraging debut from Ken Phillips. A major strength of the film is the photography—particularly in the early moments of the film. Phillips shoots these gorgeous bare trees of
James Wan’s The Conjuring starts, effectively, in medias res with the Annabelle prologue before the “true story” titles and the magnificently designed “The Conjuring” logo slides down. The strong start continues with Wan’s active camera
Godard’s modern day retelling of the story of the Virgin Mary marvelously weaves in his patented cutaway editing arrangement. The film was quite controversial at the time—and beyond just Godard’s use of nudity (his actresses
Animation, outside of Hayao Miyazaki and Satoshi Kon, often lacks the singular artistic voice. That is not the case with Soul. Soul is clearly the companion of 2015’s Inside Out and the work from the
Tout Va Bien has far too much brilliance in it to ignore, and far too many problems in it to rank amongst the best work of the great French master. Godard throws away fifty (50)
In First Name: Carmen the Godard stew is as easy to decipher as it has been since the 1960’s. It is still scattershot and montage reliant, but you can trace the director (Godard himself), the
Thomas Vinterberg’s Another Round starts with a buzz-inducing, free-for-all montage of youth on the loose, devouring drinks. It is a great little sequence to open the film. Vinterberg cuts abruptly, mid-party, to a slower reality
William Dieterle’s film noir Dark City is probably best known for being the “introduction” of Charlton Heston (the film’s credits tout it being his introduction but in fact he had been in two films prior).
The Canterbury Tales is Pasolini’s second film in his Trilogy of Life—landing between The Decameron (1971) and Arabian Nights (1974) It is an adaptation of Chaucer of course- and Pasolini playfully actually portrays the author
An array of beautiful diamonds and flowers during the opening credits sets the tone- François Ozon’s 8 Women is a welcomed mix of Agatha Christie story and Demy/Sirk aesthetics. Serves as a sort of who’s
