It is evident that Tarkovsky drew much of this film's inspiration from his own life. This is his contemplation on the profundity and transience of life.
Read More
Bamako is necessary and consequential. It beautifully conveys the type of conversations we ought to have about Africa; pragmatic, unabated and free of hyperbole.
Read More
This film was part of the movement that led to the genre's acceptance in the mainstream, and rightfully so. Otomo made an audacious anime, the most expensive and technically taxing at the time.
Read More
Villeneuve has an almost divine dexterity at creating tension; letting it build over dozens of on-screen minutes. Nothing seems contrived, and the payoffs are surprising and satisfying.
Read More
This film takes place in a time when communities were smaller and simpler, and social ties were more tangible. The spaces between people were bigger, but there didn't yet exist the pervasive technology or persuasion to present oneself as distinctly different from who one was. This is its chief intrigue.
Read More
What was most profound about this film--and I say this from that seen-but-not-heard Moi era generation--was the honesty of the depiction of these characters. They're allowed to just be.
Read More