A Little Something for Everyone: Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan
“I never see you lose yourself.”
Category: Movies
Bright Sights: Recent DVDs: The Black Pirate, Night of the Hunter, Exit Through the Gift Shop, Howl, The Elia Kazan Collection
An ongoing column that looks at some of the most intriguing of recent, under-the-radar releases
Not Us at All: On Des Hommes et des Dieux (Of Gods and Men)
“At the moment of greatest peril, the monks respond by having a little soirée.”
Erich Kuersten’s Top Ten of 2010
2010, the year movies crept off the screen and into the floorboards, the handhelds, the flats and the 3-Ds. Counting down to doomsday 2012, I hope more films like THE BLACK SWAN and ENTER THE VOID come our way.
WINTER’S BONE and the Rural Noir
Although most film noirs take place in an urban setting, the “dark city,” Winter’s Bone (Debra Granik, 2010) shows how the noir vision can thrive almost anywhere – it is[…]
Of Gods and Men
Des Hommes et des Dieux, dir. Xavier Beauvois On the night of March 26, 1996, seven Trappist monks were abducted from the Monastery of Tibhirine in Algeria by members of[…]
DVD REVIEW: The Nightmare Emerges: Guillermo del Toro’s Cronos (Criterion Collection)
by MATTHEW SORRENTO Guillermo del Toro has discussed how his childhood helped mold his imagination – being raised in a stern Roman Catholic family only fueled his dark fantasies. His[…]
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, dir. Apichatpong Weerasethakul Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s latest film, Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, the winner of this year’s Palme d’Or[…]
Revisiting DUNE (1984) with Sean Young
Consider the following plotline: A young man travels to another world where he infiltrates the indigenous people and adopts their ways. He is befriended by a beautiful young woman who[…]
Review: Czech Reparation and Reconciliation in Kawasaki’s Rose
by Matthew Sorrento Films often speculate about how we’d react should a partner we thought dead (or approaching death) suddenly reappear. In Cast Away, Tom Hanks’ character returns home to[…]
That’s My Girl! Well, actually, she’s not. But we love each other anyway.
What do Bellissima (Visconti, 1951) and The Unknown Woman/La Sconsciuta (Zamarion/ Tornatore, 2006) have in common? Apart from being examples of Italian Cinema randomly connected by my recent viewing, the answer is they[…]
John Cassavetes as Machine Gun McCain (1969)
Film scholar David Bordwell describes – dismisses? – crime films as venues for showy roles, opportunities for actors to break away from their comfort zones and find their bad selves.[…]
Cannibals All!
Warsaw Film Festival Highlights (plus a few stray thoughts) 1) We Are What We Are – dir. Jorge Michel Grau, Mexico The set-up could come out of an old neorealist[…]
For Colored Girls: An Experiment in Melodrama
Always eager to present serious issues, Tyler Perry found a batch in Ntozake Shange’s play For colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf. Before entering filmmaking, Perry[…]
Documentaries · Festivals & Awards
Werner Herzog & Errol Morris Headline DOC NYC Fest at IFC Center
DOC NYC, a new documentary festival that runs from November 3-9, features more than 40 films, U.S. premieres, tributes, and appearances, among them both Errol Morris and Werner Herzog. Films[…]
I’m Not There: The 2010 Melbourne International Film Festival
“The Killer Inside Me recalls the novel and film of American Psycho, in which a handsome killer unleashes three-dimensional violence on an otherwise banal society.” Puzzling, singular, and downright whacked, Francis Ford[…]
Activist & Political · Festivals & Awards
Cinema, Virginity, and Swans: The Abu Dhabi International Film Festival 2010
“For a brief week or two, adventurous filmgoers can capture elusive truths found in works of complexity, moral ambiguity, and seriousness of purpose, all uncensored.”
Bright Sights: Recent DVDs: Pandora and the Flying Dutchman, Adelheid, The War Lord, The Exploding Girl, The Law, L’Enfance Nue, Chaplin at Keystone
An ongoing column that looks at some of the most intriguing of recent, under-the-radar releases
Documentaries · Festivals & Awards
Illuminating the Interior: The DOC NYC Festival Debut
Boasting Werner Herzog and Errol Morris, fest sets a high standard
Selling Yourself: Banksy’s Exit Through the Gift Shop
“When Banksy sits in silhouette during his onscreen interviews, we have no proof that it’s really him, nor even that Banksy is a real individual.”
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