This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.
This Asian Cult Cinema classic of the Japanese New Wave is now on archive.org with English subtitles. An avant garde study of a group of anarchists in pre war Japan and how their lives are caught up in the web of time, group psychology and historical forces. Reminiscent of the films of Koji Wakamatsu, Godard, Alain Resnais and Jacques Rivette, this film is a visual feast for the adventurous viewer.
Yoshida's film focuses on an anarchist and his lover in…
An alcoholic, grieving, guilt ridden priest in a small Upstate New York town is driven to desperation after the suicide of a man he was counseling. Ethan Hawke completely immerses himself in this difficult role and writer-director Paul Schrader immerses the viewer in the downward spiral of a man tormented by personal demons in an environmentally and spiritually disintegrating, contemporary world. A film which subtly, artfully allows us to penetrate the soul of a man existing on the very edge…
Martin Scorsese's brutal, obsessive, and finally transcendent historical epic is a tragedy transformed into a silent victory. It's as contemplative and rigorous as Ozu or Bresson, and challenges the viewer to become caught up in an internal struggle within a closed system.
this project for decades and managing to turn the external and internal trek into a personal journey. The first Scorsese films I saw were BOXCAR BERTHA (1972) and MEAN STREETS (1973), both of which conclude with a literal…
This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.
Phantom Thread floats on a wave of ambiguity. It presents itself as a series of high fashion tableaux,, inhabited by the celebrated designer Reynolds Woodcock (Daniel Day Lewis), whose very existence is made up of and defined by the creation of haute couture. It's a character study which gradually takes on the form and tone of a classic Hitchcock thriller (cf REBECCA, SUSPICION, VERTIGO) in which a seeming innocent enters into a matrix of mystery and danger. The difference is…
