Movie of the Week – Drive
Drive | Nicolas Winding Refn | 2011 Drive is as near a perfect movie as I can recommend. That said, I’d guess that most passive movie watchers will not like it for the reasons I do: Near perfect soundtrack (Cliff Martinez is amazing.) Gut Wrenching Violence (This is what an R Rating is for.) Ryan Gosling’s Idiot Savant Performance (The bliss he demonstrates while driving/flirting/killing is unnerving and remarkable. The look on his... Read More
Movie of the Week – Red
Three Colors: Red | Krzysztof Kieslowski | 1994 Kieslowski shot the all of the Three Colors Trilogy simultaneously. He was Peter Jackson the decade before, and he didn’t have source material from which to draw. So in picking one to recommend, I’ll start at the end; as in Kieslowski’s last film. Red is a remarkable film. The core of the film is how everyone is interconnected. (Again, the film was made in 1994, when the Babel was... Read More
Movie of the Week – Through a Glass Darkly
Through a Glass Darkly | Ingmar Bergman | 1961 Ingmar Bergman wanted to work with his friends on films he made. His friends happened to be some of the most talented actors of their generation, and for the most part the legacy of these actors is not known in America, which would be a travesty if not for the fact that we can find them in films like Through a Glass Darkly. Actors Harriet Andersson and Gunnar Bjornstrand are not remembered the way I’d... Read More
Movie of the Week – Carlos
Carlos | Olivier Assayas | 2010 Audacious. There’s really no other way to describe Carlos. How else would you attempt to describe a film that humanizes a terrorist like Ilich Ramírez Sánchez. And let me be clear – this is not a film about how Carlos was correct or righteous. This is a film that aims to tell the story of one of the most prolific terrorists of the late 20th Century. The film tells the story of a man who is sometimes a... Read More
Movie of the Week – L’Atalante
L’Atalante | Jean Vigo | 1934 Classic films are hard to talk about, since you’re usually walking over well-worn ground. In fact, they become so talked about we sometimes neglect to see them as we feel we already have. Jean Vigo’s L’Atalante is a classic. It’s imaginative, boisterous and has inspired countless filmmakers. (Notably Michel Gondry.) The story follows a newly married couple as they begin life on a barge. This... Read More
Movie of the Week – The Chaser
The Chaser | Hong-jin Na | 2008 The Chaser is an uncompromisingly violent and tragic thriller from South Korea. The story is revolves around the kidnapping of a prostitute, a serial killer and the lengths an ex-cop/her pimp goes to find her. It’s a masterpiece of emotion. Characters make bad decisions, they lie, and they fail. They do so because of the tension of the situation, something often neglected by films. We watch character barrel toward... Read More
Movie of the Week – Cure
Cure | dir. Kiyoshi Kurosawa | 1997 What if viruses caused us to kill? What if a person could pass this contagion for murder? Is that really a condition, or is condition always present in us? Are we the cause or the cure? Cure is a film I’d stand next to Seven. I’d place it there because it unnerves you. It’s unsettling. The idea is horrific, even as the execution taunts us with its simplicity and directness. Here is a film that... Read More
Movie of the Week – Naked
Resolve is never stronger than in the morning after the night it was never weaker. Johnny, Naked (1993) I remember seeing Naked back when I was in High School. I remember thinking that Johnny was the epitome of cool. I neglected to think of his faults, which are present, mostly because of his (percieved) coolness. In my teenage angst, Johnny seemed like an ideal conduit for my burgeoning disillusionments – intelligent, moody, and the dualing... Read More
Movie of the Week – Mother
There is a fantastic artistic outpouring coming from South Korea. The most famous of these films is Old Boy, though it is a barely recognized film outside of cinephiles. The Chaser, the best of Korean films that I’ve seen, hasn’t even been released on DVD in America yet. (Though, you can find it on Netflix Streaming.) What I find intriguing about this cinematic wave, is that they feel like American films that have been produced abroad.... Read More
Movie of the Week – White Material
Claire Denis had a birthday last week, and if you’ve never come across her films before, White Material is a good place to start. White Material tells the story of a white coffee grower in an unnamed African Country on the verge of revolution. Denis, who spend much of her childhood in Africa, brings an unflinching clarity to the story of people out of place and at odds with themselves. Read More
