Since his audacious gangster film debut “City of God” made him an instant art house sensation in 2002, director Fernando Meirelles has tackled one heavy subject after another in what has felt like a desperate attempt to be taken seriously as an artist. In turn, Meirelles’s films have been defined by a troubling self-seriousness that […]
Rashida Jones’ Celeste, the protagonist of “Celeste and Jesse Forever,” publishes a non-fiction book called Shitegeist, which, as you may have inferred, is about how the zeitgeist has been turned to ‘shite’ by entitled rich kids and talentless pop-stars. This could have been the basis for a sharp, funny observation of the fact that the
Review: “Celeste and Jesse Forever” Read More »
Benoît Jacquot’s “Farewell, My Queen” tells a familiar story–the downfall of Marie Antoinette at the beginning of the French Revolution–but it does so from a perspective through which the events are rarely considered: that of a servant within Versailles. Adapted from a novel by the French historian Chantal Thomas, the film would function splendidly on
Review: “Farewell, My Queen” Read More »
Anyone who has ever harbored the aspiration of becoming a film director will have a hard time not being blown away by Benh Zeitlin’s “Beasts of the Southern Wild” as it rolls through the projector gate. Even though the first credit on the movie states that it was made by Court 13, a collective of
Review: “Beasts of the Southern Wild” Read More »
Todd Solondz’s films are trips into abysses of intense misery, seriously disturbing examinations of lower-middle-class suburban despair. Almost irreverently infused with shocking dark humor and achingly unsentimental, his better works are beautifully strange pieces of filmmaking, aggressively painful stories that manage to feel profound even as they resemble rides through an emotional hell. Then there’s
Review: “Dark Horse” Read More »
In promotional interviews, filmmakers frequently talk about making so-called “personal” movies, but rarely do moviegoers feel the tangible presence of this vague, mildly self-important adjective in the films themselves. Mathieu Demy’s “Americano” is another story; while not autobiographical, it could not more clearly be the work of its maker. Demy’s approach is not simply an
Review: “Americano” Read More »
In order for an “intertwining stories”-formatted ensemble film to succeed, it must offer engaging characters and/or a compelling overarching thesis to unite each segment. As if all his creative juices were expended on last year’s masterwork “Midnight in Paris,” which achieved both feats, writer/director Woody Allen accomplishes neither in “To Rome with Love,” a turgid,
Review: “To Rome with Love” Read More »
One of the most valid critiques of the mumblecore movement is that its stories lack universality — that they speak specifically to hipster audiences in their late 20s and early 30s who share a sense of directionless-ness with the characters, as if said characters have nothing in common with any other demographic. The major exception
Review: “Your Sister’s Sister” Read More »
“Safety Not Guaranteed” is the latest entry into the burgeoning genre that I like to call “tangential sci-fi” — that is, a loose collective of films that incorporate certain science-fiction elements to enhance intimate human dramas. It is considerably lighter in tone than its predecessors, which range from the devastating dystopian work “Never Let Me
Review: “Safety Not Guaranteed” Read More »
Few trends have damaged the quality of modern filmmaking more than the growing importance of opening weekend box office numbers. For a movie to be considered a hit, it must perform well on Day One; the industry no longer supports 10-week engagements that allow quality films to grow based on audience word-of-mouth. As a result,
Review: “Peace, Love & Misunderstanding” Read More »
