Film Reviews
O’Horten: A Quiet Comedy At The DFT
One word that I have seen repeatedly used to describe Bent Hamer’s dramedy on the Golden Years is “quiet.” Yes, this is a quiet film—long, lingering scenes dwelling on protagonist Odd Horten’s deeply-lined expressive face; meandering moments when the camera wanders away from Odd’s adventures and just kind of moseys along streetscapes with a tinkling, [...]
It Came From Detroit and Stayed There
It Came From Detroit is perhaps one of the most culturally relevant documentaries of a particular time and place in music ever made. A documentary film five years in production (and almost mythic in stature—spoken of widely as the pinnacle tome on the Detroit “garage” scene, a claim made fervently by even those who have never seen it), It Came From Detroit chronicles some 20 years of Detroit’s thriving independent rock-and-roll subculture—Detroit “garage,” as it came to be known all over the world.
Film Review: TOKYO!
Considered by producers Masa Sawasa and Michiko Yoshitake to be a “Tokyo rhapsody” (or, “a work composed of several pieces presented one after the other”), TOKYO! is meant to be a multi-part snapshot of the ever-growing, ever-evolving, all-consuming megalopolis that is Tokyo. Tapping international arthouse favorites Michel Gondry, Leos Carax, and Bong Joon-Hong to each [...]
Film Review: Nikita Mikahalkov’s “12″
Jurors ponder a verdict for a Chechen boy accused of murdering his stepfather.
It is no small task to remake one of the greatest films of all time. Sidney Lumet’s 12 Angry Men is a classic on par with the likes of Casablanca and Citizen Kane, absolute perfection and completely untouchable. To remake it would be [...]
Film Review: Shall We Kiss?
Leave it to the French to over-intellectualize everything. In Shall We Kiss?, writer/director/actor Emmanuel Mouret explores the nature of the “kiss without consequences” (and asks if indeed there can be such a thing). The film opens. Gabriel (Michaël Cohen) meets Émilie (Julie Gayet). There is an attraction. Both are otherwise attached. Gabriel tries to kiss [...]
Film Review: Six in Paris
And so we go from one of the first examples of the French New Wave to the last, Six in Paris (1965). Producer Barbet Schroeder was intent on gaining success as a producer and decided that he could take the New Wave to the next wave. After the New Wave movement had a burst of [...]
Film Review: The 400 Blows
Francois Truffaut’s The 400 Blows is considered to be one of the defining films of the French New Wave, and was the movement’s first example of international acclaim. However, unlike Truffaut’s next film Shoot the Piano Player (which we looked at last week), The 400 Blows is a fairly straightforward narrative piece, borrowing pretty heavily [...]
Film Review: Shoot the Piano Player
Ah, those funny, feisty French. Back in the ‘60s (perhaps as early as ’58) they created what has since become known as the “French New Wave” of cinema. The New Wave was born of a number of influences, primarily as a theorist’s rejection of the strict narrative forms of classic French cinema and also as [...]
Film Review: Timecrimes
Below is a theory intro to my review of the film Timecrimes which seeks to contextualize this piece in its proper place as a postmodern sci-fi artifact. Following that is a theoretical deconstruction of the film which reveals key points and twists to the plot. My apologies as well as my thanks for allowing me [...]
Film Review: Harvard Beats Yale 29-29
Imagine this: the year is 1968. America’s top two Ivy League schools both have undefeated football teams. This is the last game for both teams of the regular season. There is one minute of play remaining. Yale is up 29-13. And then…the world itself turns on its side.
Technically, Harvard didn’t beat Yale, but to recover [...]
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