Quickies: Random Short Reviews from Angel Blue to Ruan Lingyu to The Toilers and the Wayfarers
“Here’s to lost beauty. May it always be nearby with the potential to keep you warm.”
Category: Movies
Maybe Next Year: Slim Pickings at Berlinale 2005
When good ideas go wrong
Distribute This! Blast of Silence (Allen Baron, 1961, U.S.A.)
This missing noir masterpiece enters the canon in first place
Train to Somewhere: Hou Hsiao-hsien Pays Sweet Homage to Ozu in Café Lumière
Hou honors the master while remaining true to his own vision
Comedy · DVD & Blu-ray · Pre-Code
Dinner Is Served: The Return of MGM’s Witty ’30s Romp
Cukor’s all-star gala remains a tasty dish
Documentaries · Festivals & Awards
In the Realm of the Real: The 3rd Chicago International Documentary Film Festival
“The governments will be forgotten but the masterpieces will remain.”
Compliments to the Chef: Three . . . Extremes: Dumplings Expertly Mixes Social Critique and Questionable Cuisine
Bring some dramamine to Fruit Chan’s best film to date
Theda Bara’s Eyes: The 40th Chicago International Film Festival, Part 2
Angelopoulos to Zhu: “This is an artistic film. You wouldn’t like it.”
No Cellos, Please, I’m American: Mike Nichols’ Closer Is Haute Merde
All glitz and no guts
Drama · Historical & Epic · Reviews
Plumbing the Depths: Renoir and Kurosawa Do Gorky
Criterion’s double-feature DVD features two minor works by two major auteurs
In the Realm of Natural Transcendence: Emir Kusturica’s Life Is a Miracle
Out of the pastoral
Sideways: Sideways to Hell, Maybe!
Alexander Payne’s new indie is headed in the wrong direction
Mike Leigh’s 20th Century Snaps: Vera Drake and Naked
Two sides of the same desperate coin
Unhappy Together: Wong Kar-Wai’s 2046
“Why can’t it be like before?”
Body and Soul: Bresson’s A Man Escaped and Lancelot of the Lake on DVD
Death, destruction, and … hope
DVD & Blu-ray · Music & Musicals
Shocking Times: Miles Electric: A Different Kind of Blue on DVD
While the counterculture turns on, Miles plugs in with startling results
Baby, Take a Bow: That’s Million Dollar Baby
Clint Eastwood continues to surprise and thrill
Quickies: Random Short Reviews from Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean to The Witch Who Came from the Sea
“God made us all perfect, truly he did!”
The Aviator: Marty and Leo Do Howard
It all started when his mother washed his balls
Directors · Drama · DVD & Blu-ray · Experimental & Underground · Reviews
Doing What Moves Them at the Moment: Five of Cassavetes’ Best on DVD
The master of improv gets his due courtesy of Criterion’s extras-laden box set
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