The point is, we don't know how we'd react until the calamity happens, whether it's as typical as a fight with your boss, or as profound as the world ending. Melancholia imagines scenarios of both extremes, and lets us in on what they may do to the witnesses and participants.
Read MoreThis 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 MoreVilleneuve 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 MoreThis 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 MoreWhat 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 MoreLegend reminds us of the commitment to excellence that has formed much of Jackie Chan's work ethic. Its final battle, for instance, lasts a little over seven minutes, but was filmed over four months. Count them. Four. Months.
Read MoreA fine documentary is made by the synergy of absorbing source material and a superior filmmaker with honourable intentions. Sembene! wins in both regards. This isn't a film about a filmmaker as much as it is about a freedom fighter.
Read MoreFrances Ha is a modest and heart-warming film about relationships, attitude and the passage of time. It reminds us that we're all changing; moving in varying directions and speeds. That's life.
Read MoreNot a single scene in this film is wasted. Even when the activities are confusing and vague, you can feel things shift and move forward.
Read MoreThis is a classic piece of film noir by way of drama, thriller and comedy. It's a dense and spirited work, and boy has it aged well.
Read MoreIn this story, Earth is the good guy, the villain is you, and there is no happy ending.
Read MoreTo say that Gaspar Noe is indulgent and unrestrained is an understatement. He's the one who filmed memorably upsetting violence in "Irreversible", a film which just like this one, was as disturbing as it was endearing. But there's method to the madness
Read MoreWhat we can learn about characters in film from a brief question-and-answer study.
Read MoreTuko Macho is a timely and necessary piece of work. It’s the mirror this city desperately needs, challenging us to grim self-examination.
Read MoreMeryl Streep's contribution to the lack-of-diversity conversation at the Berlinale was disappointing, pitiful and laughable. Fortunately, the films weren't.
Read MoreIts immense socio-political impact notwithstanding, Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song is a graphic, discordant, low-brow frenzy of noise believing itself to be a landmark, dissenting voice of its time.
Read MoreKiarostami’s triumph does not lie exclusively on simple flourishes, but rather in his ability to keep them relevant to a heartwarming story about a ruse that really did happen.
Read MoreAfter the Academy endured months of tumult over its blatantly monochromatic nomination choices, it delivered what was probably the most compensatory ebony ceremony we've seen. Like ever.
Read More
