What is it about science fiction that tempts great directors into making mediocrity? Perhaps in a generation, this burnt on the outside, raw in the middle film will find its fans as a prescient satire. Filmed presumably before our worse than fiction descent into tech bro fascism, the movie all but prophesies the ketamine-fueled, sociopathic neocolonialism happening now in D.C. But the more this empty array of characters scream the F-word at each other, the less is actually at stake…
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The Brutalist 2024
A gorgeous, uneven opera of a film that has the assurance of visual mastery to hold the reins of its strange and plodding plot. Its clichés of the immigrant experience and the arc of the stubborn visionary are made forgivable by the exquisitely wrought performances by Brody and company. It’s perhaps one of the more beautifully shot films in recent memory; its sex scenes a kind of painful prayer; and its many arguments and conflicts come off better when they are…
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Sebastian 2024
A “serious” and “brave” film where every line of dialogue serves to move the plot. The care with which it gives dignity to sex work and beauty to intergenerational love, and the earnest attempts by the actors to live up to the “power” of the story, can’t save a sophomoric film that already feels dated by shopworn cliches of literary milieus and urban, queer life.
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