Eastern Promises
I’m behind the curve on David Cronenberg’s Russian mobster tale of sin and redemption, so I’ll make this short. At any rate, I can’t discuss the narrative slights-of-hand I admired most without...
View ArticleRedacted
More than with any film I’ve seen at the New York Film Festival so far, I’ve been struggling to find a way to talk about Brian De Palma’s Redacted, a movie that attempts to recreate the appalling...
View ArticleLust, Caution
Marcy already reviewed Ang Lee’s latest, so I’ll limit myself to one point: Lust, Caution is continuing evidence that unsimluated sex is making inroads into mainstream films and more traditional...
View ArticleKonsum: Turkey Parade
The Assassination of Jesse James By the Coward Robert Ford Dullsville and then some. Artfully shot, for sure, but ripping off Malick isn’t as easy as it looks. The voice-over narration, always...
View ArticleThere Will Be Blood
There will be puns, there will be awards, there will be awesome. Based on Upton Sinclair’s Oil!, Paul Thomas Anderson (whose movies I often failed to appreciate in the past) has made a magnificent...
View ArticleSweeney Todd — Or Not
Because of a bloody embargo, I can’t yet share my thoughts on Tim Burton’s adaptation of the Sondheim musical, starring Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter. Instead, here are clips from twelve...
View ArticleThe Treasure of the Sierra Madre
Occasioned by There Will Be Blood, this revisit was slightly disappointing. My childhood memories of this film were absolutely devastating — I’d probably never seen a tragic anti-hero before — but...
View ArticleQuantum of Black Speed Flash Gonzo Truth Strain Boogie Racer
Awards screeners are starting to come in hard & fast now, so here’s a hectic (and almost certainly incomplete) roundup of movies I’ve watched these last few weeks. In order of preference! My...
View ArticleA Girl Cut in Two
Chabrol’s latest is a delicious love triangle between a pompous writer (François Berléand), a wealthy fop (Benoît Magimel), and the “divine” TV weather girl (Ludivine Sagnier) who loves them both....
View ArticleMarried Life
“A funny story, in its way, about a man who wanted to poison his wife and found he’d be lost without her.” With these words, Richard (Pierce Brosnan) sums up the events of Ira Sachs’s second film....
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