TOP HAT In a piece for the Independent by Clarisse Loughrey, Damian Chazelle is quoted as saying this about La La Land, his “modern musical” sweeping the nation and poised to sweep the 2017 Oscars with its record-tying fourteen nominations: “I guess it’s a little bit trying to do both,” … [Read More]
Synopsis: A family in 1630s New England is torn apart by the forces of witchcraft, black magic and possession. Robert Egger’s debut feature, The Witch, places us in the 1600s, in New England, with a family so devoted to their religion, it causes them to be kicked out of their … [Read More]
Synopsis: The story of the relationship between Karamakate, an Amazonian shaman and last survivor of his people, and two scientists who work together over the course of 40 years to search the Amazon for a sacred healing plant. Ciro Guerra’s Embrace of the Serpent tells two stories, happening forty years apart, … [Read More]
As I sat in a decent if still terrible pizza place, dejected and awash with defeat after missing yet another of my preplanned film viewings on the trip (this one due to a theater location being much farther away than I had realized), and watching a fellow festivalgoer suck … [Read More]
[springboard type=”video” id=”1598195″ player=”tmbg001″ width=”599″ height=”336″ ] An American Ambassador is killed during an attack at a U.S. compound in Libya as a security team struggles to make sense out of the chaos. Michael Bay is peacefully protesting with his newest action bonanza, 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi. … [Read More]
[springboard type=”video” id=”1595907″ player=”tmbg001″ width=”599″ height=”336″ ] Four men set out in the Wild West to rescue a group of captives from cannibalistic cave dwellers. Bone Tomahawk released on December 10th of last year, and yet I didn’t catch it until a week ago after a friend nagged me to … [Read More]
In the dead of a Wyoming winter, a bounty hunter and his prisoner find shelter in a cabin currently inhabited by a collection of nefarious characters. [springboard type=”video” id=”1593589″ player=”tmbg001″ width=”599″ height=”336″ ] In Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight, it’s all here. The pastiche of b-movies and spaghetti westerns—esoteric finds from … [Read More]
My Top Ten for 2015 is a hodgepodge of styles, cinemas, genres, but all touch on something essential to my taste—unique and/or great storytelling. It is true that there are many reasons to watch cinema that have nothing to do with narrative, though it is still an overriding part to … [Read More]
Joy is the story of a family across four generations and the woman who rises to become founder and matriarch of a powerful family business dynasty. [springboard type=”video” id=”1592603″ player=”tmbg001″ width=”599″ height=”336″ ] David O. Russell’s Joy is surprisingly cynical for such an optimistic movie. Despite the celebratory tone to … [Read More]
In the horror of 1944 Auschwitz, a prisoner forced to burn the corpses of his own people finds moral survival upon trying to salvage from the flames the body of a boy he takes for his son. László Nemes’ debut, Son of Saul, is a Holocaust concentration camp drama … [Read More]
A black as tar comedy charting the dissolution of a commune for sober living in 90’s suburban New Jersey. [springboard type=”video” id=”1590269″ player=”tmbg001″ width=”599″ height=”336″ ] Nathan Silver’s Stinking Heaven is set in a sober living house in New Jersey, 1990. Jim (Keith Poulson) and Lucy (Deragh Campbell) run … [Read More]
[springboard type=”video” id=”1588813″ player=”tmbg001″ width=”599″ height=”336″ ] A boy who has a bad Christmas ends up accidentally summoning a Christmas demon to his family home. If Krampus (directed by Michael Dougherty of 2007’s Trick ‘r Treat fame) is what is out there for the PG-13 crowd, then life at the movie theater for … [Read More]