Jonathan Kieran

Jonathan Kieran Pro

Programming Director at ATLFS.
Favorites = recent discoveries + revisits.

Favorite films

  • The Naked Kiss
  • Heavenly Creatures
  • Pig Film
  • Chocolat

Recent activity

All
  • What Time Is It There?

  • Mickey 17

  • Imitation of Life

  • Badlands

Pinned reviews

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  • Fish & Cat

    Fish & Cat

    "Does this festival have a champion? I mean will there be a winner?"

    Here's one of the vanishingly small number of films I've seen that engages seriously with the idea (out of Tarr thru Van Sant) of long-take cinema as an unplayable video game. The iconic back-of-head walking simulator shots are here (often accompanied by attention-grabbing Michael Nyman-esque score), but more importantly there's a structural permeation of game grammar that's unmistakable.

    In place of a setting, scenes are set on…

  • The Spitfire Grill

    The Spitfire Grill

    Look, I'm sure the three (3) credited dialogue coaches on this film worked hard, but there's nothing quite like a passel of working actors force-feeding spoken English through the cracked prism that is the Maine accent. Over here there's Will Patton giving his a healthy splash of Southern Comfort, and over there we have Marcia Gay Harden who's Katherine Hepburn from the chest and then sort of a Down East Moaning Myrtle when she goes up high. And in the…

Recent reviews

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  • Imitation of Life

    Imitation of Life

    Forgot that Lana Turner gets the part of a lifetime in a film by legendary Italian director "Amarico Felucci"

  • Badlands

    Badlands

    Looked up a badland on Wikipedia and oh brother they look nothing like any landscape in this entire motion picture and you certainly could never drive a Cadillac through one even if you were Martin Sheen himself. The cinema of Terrence Malick transcends geological categories.

Popular reviews

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  • All Too Well: The Short Film

    All Too Well: The Short Film

    ½

    I watched short films for a living for 8 years so I'm professionally qualified to tell you that this blows.

  • Asteroid City

    Asteroid City

    This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.