love
The Power of the Dog
A heroic female director lobs a polite grenade into the middle of, or maybe a bit after the middle of, a climate of recrimination about sexual misbehaviour. Is the work championing a cause, or is the cause appropriating and filtering
The Power of the Dog
A heroic female director lobs a polite grenade into the middle of, or maybe a bit after the middle of, a climate of recrimination about sexual misbehaviour. Is the work championing a cause, or is the cause appropriating and filtering
The Shape of Water
Some strong elements combine to achieve less than their sum. A fine cast acts out some hot topics and at the helm is the director possibly trying harder than anyone else today to make movies that look good. It does
The Shape of Water
Some strong elements combine to achieve less than their sum. A fine cast acts out some hot topics and at the helm is the director possibly trying harder than anyone else today to make movies that look good. It does
Ex Machina
According to the movies, programming your AI is apparently indistinguishable from a contract with the devil. Inevitably there is a hidden catch in the wording of the contract, or a clause that hubris encourages you to overlook. And the outcome for
Ex Machina
According to the movies, programming your AI is apparently indistinguishable from a contract with the devil. Inevitably there is a hidden catch in the wording of the contract, or a clause that hubris encourages you to overlook. And the outcome for
I Am Not Your Guru
Figure out what you really want. Work out what’s stopping you from getting it. Decide what you are going to do about it. Don’t get distracted. This bit of apparent common sense has been the core of Anthony Robbins’ testament for the
I Am Not Your Guru
Figure out what you really want. Work out what’s stopping you from getting it. Decide what you are going to do about it. Don’t get distracted. This bit of apparent common sense has been the core of Anthony Robbins’ testament for the
What Maisie Knew
Things are poised for the worst when parents divorce, but do not unfold via the expected trajectory – unless of course you’ve read the Thomas Mann novel upon which this tragi-redemption tale is based. Initially appearing to lack the requisite gravity
What Maisie Knew
Things are poised for the worst when parents divorce, but do not unfold via the expected trajectory – unless of course you’ve read the Thomas Mann novel upon which this tragi-redemption tale is based. Initially appearing to lack the requisite gravity
Only Lovers Left Alive
The perenniality of the vampire genre derives from its capacity for reinvention. Its form mimics its content in similar fashion to the zombie genre, each transcending death. In Only Lovers Left Alive, the immortality of Jarmusch’s vampire couple is a perfect foil
Only Lovers Left Alive
The perenniality of the vampire genre derives from its capacity for reinvention. Its form mimics its content in similar fashion to the zombie genre, each transcending death. In Only Lovers Left Alive, the immortality of Jarmusch’s vampire couple is a perfect foil
Maleficent
For this revisionist revisitation, Disney’s 1959 Sleeping Beauty is merely a point of departure. The two relate glancingly enough that they’re almost ships in the night. The formerly mysterious and unmotivated villain Maleficent, self-proclaimed ‘Mistress of all Evil’, is this time
Maleficent
For this revisionist revisitation, Disney’s 1959 Sleeping Beauty is merely a point of departure. The two relate glancingly enough that they’re almost ships in the night. The formerly mysterious and unmotivated villain Maleficent, self-proclaimed ‘Mistress of all Evil’, is this time
Blue Is the Warmest Colour
This could be called An Ordinary Romance if it weren’t about two girls. They meet, they love, things run their unsurprising course. But not only does it work, it works for three hours straight and wins a Palme d’Or.
Blue Is the Warmest Colour
This could be called An Ordinary Romance if it weren’t about two girls. They meet, they love, things run their unsurprising course. But not only does it work, it works for three hours straight and wins a Palme d’Or.
Her
Technologically mediated relationships are the setting but not entirely the point here, because it seems Her is actually the first great movie about the technological Singularity since that term entered common parlance. And the idea being couched as a love story, albeit
Her
Technologically mediated relationships are the setting but not entirely the point here, because it seems Her is actually the first great movie about the technological Singularity since that term entered common parlance. And the idea being couched as a love story, albeit
The Last Temptation of Christ (1988)
This devotional piece from Martin Scorcese (based on the novel by Nikos Kazantzakis) wavers between inspired moments of heresy and long stretches of being just another Jesus movie. While in its way wholly respectful to the prophets, it disrespects sacred
The Last Temptation of Christ (1988)
This devotional piece from Martin Scorcese (based on the novel by Nikos Kazantzakis) wavers between inspired moments of heresy and long stretches of being just another Jesus movie. While in its way wholly respectful to the prophets, it disrespects sacred
Les Miserables
With every line sung rather than spoken and much of it internal monologue rather than dialogue, Les Miserables and musicals like it redraw the rules of what is cinematically permissible. Melodrama flourishes while realism diminishes in value almost entirely. In
Les Miserables
With every line sung rather than spoken and much of it internal monologue rather than dialogue, Les Miserables and musicals like it redraw the rules of what is cinematically permissible. Melodrama flourishes while realism diminishes in value almost entirely. In
Beasts of the Southern Wild
A slight, sometimes imperceptible tale nevertheless remarkable and rewarding for its sheer lack of convention. It’s disorienting enough to leave us wondering whether we are watching an apocalyptic sci-fi, a myth retold, or just a minor extrapolation of events surrounding
Beasts of the Southern Wild
A slight, sometimes imperceptible tale nevertheless remarkable and rewarding for its sheer lack of convention. It’s disorienting enough to leave us wondering whether we are watching an apocalyptic sci-fi, a myth retold, or just a minor extrapolation of events surrounding
Dark Shadows
Another inventive flourish from Depp, maybe a career-best performance from Eva Green, plus noticeably good cameo walk-ons from Pfeiffer, Bonham-Carter and Moretz all sadly fail to make this arch gothic panto add up to the sum of its parts.
Dark Shadows
Another inventive flourish from Depp, maybe a career-best performance from Eva Green, plus noticeably good cameo walk-ons from Pfeiffer, Bonham-Carter and Moretz all sadly fail to make this arch gothic panto add up to the sum of its parts.
This Must Be the Place
It would be nice if every movie was as different from every other movie as this one is, but in a different way. Then… wait a minute… it’s a road movie. It just took a while to get onto the
This Must Be the Place
It would be nice if every movie was as different from every other movie as this one is, but in a different way. Then… wait a minute… it’s a road movie. It just took a while to get onto the
Somewhere
Fuck story. The world’s full of stories. Who needs another one, right? Sofia Coppola decides instead to make a melting still, a not dry nature morte portrait of an LA actor (Stephen Dorff) surprised by success, who gets everything he
Somewhere
Fuck story. The world’s full of stories. Who needs another one, right? Sofia Coppola decides instead to make a melting still, a not dry nature morte portrait of an LA actor (Stephen Dorff) surprised by success, who gets everything he
Blue Valentine
Watch the love die and wonder why. No winners in this study of romantic failure. Unable to recommend this truthful well acted tragedy as its point escaped me. Perhaps what tragedies need to do is establish at the outset that
Blue Valentine
Watch the love die and wonder why. No winners in this study of romantic failure. Unable to recommend this truthful well acted tragedy as its point escaped me. Perhaps what tragedies need to do is establish at the outset that
The Help
Has there been a bad film about the US civil rights movement? The most self critiical nation on earth once again finds its terrible race karma a bottomless wellspring of pungent narrative. Does amply what it sets out to do
Restless
Starts out looking like an age-appropriate revision of Harold and Maude, as emotionally imploded funeral crasher Henry Hopper somehow manages to get stalked by a puckish, gossamer Mia Wasikowska. Fans of Gus Van Sant’s ouevre of slow will find this
Restless
Starts out looking like an age-appropriate revision of Harold and Maude, as emotionally imploded funeral crasher Henry Hopper somehow manages to get stalked by a puckish, gossamer Mia Wasikowska. Fans of Gus Van Sant’s ouevre of slow will find this