What Hides in Plain Sight? Against the Backdrop of Tár
In Tár, Field fashions an improbable representation of power (Hernández, “Top Orchestras”) to advance the idea that power is faceless. But the idea is only to be believed if the[…]
Category: Genres
Drama · Restorations · Satire
Darling, John Schlesinger’s Ever Relevant Relic: The British New Wave Classic Turns Sixty
Who is this minx with the thirty-kilowatt smile? Christie is phenomenal here, creating an archetype of the modern neurotic. The extraordinary geometry of her face, depending on angle and lights,[…]
Activist & Political · Directors · Italian Cinema · LGBT & Queer
From Gospel to Grotesque: The Cinema of Pier Paolo Pasolini
Pasolini is in the canon – but only as a statue, not a voice. His name appears in film textbooks, his films screen at retrospectives, and Salò gets trotted out[…]
Absurdism · Body Horror · Disease and Epidemics · Family · Horror · Politics
“The Saw Is Family”: The Haunted America of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2
When taken as a whole, it’s apparent that Hooper was just as politically minded in the creation of this film as he was with the first, his sights set firmly[…]
Class System · Drama · Exile and Displacement · French Cinema · Road Movies · Women in Film
Jeunes Mères (Young Mothers): Little Women – and Their Babies
For the Dardenne brothers, “social conditions” come down to the common denominator of cold cash – having it, lacking it, getting it, some disposing of it more than others. It’s[…]
Drama · Essays · Feminism · French Cinema · Men & Masculinity · Sex & Relationships · Women in Film
Tango Redux: Complicity
Last Tango in Paris is a case study in how a culture processes shame – who bears it, who survives it, who escapes it entirely. Maria Schneider, long ignored, is[…]
A Poetics of Grief: Relation Through the Lens of Relationship in Celine Song’s Past Lives
In the screenplay for Past Lives, Song’s scene descriptions are acutely sensitive to the way in which identity lives in the distance between self and Other, between knowing and mystery.[…]
Books · Drama · Indies · Women in Film
Book Review: Ida Lupino, Forgotten Auteur: From Film Noir to the Director’s Chair
Alexandra Seros, Ida Lupino, Forgotten Auteur: From Film Noir to the Director’s Chair. Texas University Press, 2024. 227 pages. $45.00. * * * Most readers of this journal recognize Ida[…]
Censorship · Feminism · Gender · Iranian Cinema · Middle East · Muslims · Politics · Revolution · Women in Film
A History and a Film: On My Favorite Cake (Iran, 2024)
The woman without a hijab in her private space, something consistently denied visual existence, is no longer hidden or censored. Instead, her presence is centered and made ordinary. In this[…]
Drama · Interior Monologue · LGBT & Queer · Men & Masculinity
Giving up the Ghost: A Meditation on All of Us Strangers
The song continues to play as the camera moves farther and farther away from the spooning lovers and higher and higher into the night sky that cradles them. Having proceeded[…]
Essays · LGBT & Queer · Politics · Romance · Russia
Collective Subjects and Soviet Subjectivities: The Counterplan, A Severe Young Man, and the Paradoxes of Socialist Realism
“The history of ideas is the history of the spite of certain solitaries.” – E. M. Cioran, All Gall Is Divided * * * It was at the 1934 First[…]
Directors · Drama · French Cinema · Nouvelle Vague
Games of Logic and Longing: The Quiet Radicalism of Éric Rohmer
In an age of clickbait politics and algorithmic attention spans, there’s something quietly revolutionary about refusing to manufacture drama. Rohmer’s refusal to manipulate emotion – to cue violins or insert[…]
Brat Facts: Why St. Elmo’s Fire (1985) Still Attracts an Audience After 40 Years of Bad Reviews
For anyone who was coming of age during the eighties, St. Elmo’s represented the height of hubris. It represented the height of yuppiedom and suburban sprawl. It represented the height[…]
The Birds, the Birds, and the Beatles
One of the delights of running a film review website is being able to repost an article just because we feel like it. Admittedly, we have many to choose from[…]
Drama · Essays · Film Crews · Hollywood · News · Production · Production History · Stuntwork
The Silver Screen Is Rusting: Why Rust Can’t Happen Again
Even if Rust is defined as professional by its crew, the danger that allows a crew member to die cannot coexist with the description of professional. If that is professional,[…]
The Body Embarrassed: “Cringing” as Empathetic Response to American Beauty and The Talented Mr. Ripley
As American Beauty deals with visualized and thematic pleasure by giving us “beauty” in both sexualized and desexualized forms, and Ripley makes us feel like a voyeur alongside its protagonist[…]
Drama · Historical & Epic · War · Women in Film
The Feminist Undercurrents of The Brutalist: Women as the Backbone of Power and Legacy
In contrast to the patriarchal norms that dominate “American” family values, The Brutalist quietly insists on the indispensable role of women in guiding not just familial stability but broader legacies[…]
African American · Class System · Colonialism · Exile and Displacement · Historical & Epic · Horror · Race · Religion & Spirituality
The Price of Being Let In: Sinners and the Lie of Liberation
From the erasure of Native knowledge to the internal hierarchies among the oppressed, from religion’s double edge to the seduction of assimilation, Coogler’s film maps the mechanisms of survival within[…]
Covid-19 · Disease and Epidemics · Men & Masculinity · Military and Paramilitary · Pandemic · SF & Fantasy
Life Is Wonderful: Double Apocalypse and Redemption in Virus: Day of Resurrection (1980)
As a single-minded seismologist posted in Antarctica who predicts the disastrous DC quake, Yoshizumi embodies the willful blindness and debasement of humans in the Cold War era: like those who[…]
Comedy · Directors · Indies · Interviews · Thrillers & Action
Joel Potrykus talks Vulcanizadora, Being “Really Immature,” and What He Thinks Hell Is Like
I love it when someone just absolutely shoves the vision down your throat. * * * Vulcanizadora, Joel Potrykus’ fifth feature film, hit the festival circuit last spring with a[…]
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