Author: Jonathan Eig
Ana Lily Amirpour’s “A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night”
This is a little embarrassing. As a self-proclaimed Jim Jarmusch fan, I was very eager to see his latest movie, a refreshingly quirky take on the vampire genre. I even wrote a rather long piece on Only Lovers Left Alive, which you can read here. So did I have egg on my face when I…
The Inherent Vice of Paul Thomas Anderson’s Inherent Vice
Doc Sportello (Joaquin Phoenix in Inherent Vice) occupies the ground halfway between the calm competence of Easy Rawlins (Denzel Washington in Devil in a Blue Dress, 1995) and the affable idiocy of the Dude (Jeff Bridges in The Big Lebowski, 1998). Of course, as L.A.P.I.s go (that’s Los Angeles private detective, for the acronymicly-challenged), you…
10 Great Films Made on a Small Budget in 2014
Warning: What follows has something to do with math. But don’t worry. It’s not very complicated. I can’t read a balance sheet. The only thing I know about sines is that I am a Capricorn. Cosines? My parents cosigned my first car loan. Anything with the word “multivariable” scares me more than Russell Crowe singing.…
Separating the Movies from the Mayhem of 2014
Most movies live lives of quiet desperation. A few win awards, a few make boatloads of money, and a few go down in history as really and truly mattering. But for most, they ply their meager craft for a brief period, hoping to earn a laugh or a cry or a few dollars, and then…
Crime and Punishment in Lav Diaz’s ‘Norte, The End Of History’
Michel Lipkes’ 2011 movie Malaventura runs 66 minutes and can feel like an eternity. Lav Diaz’s Norte, the End of History, runs 250 minutes, and it too, can feel like an eternity. But you know that old saying, not all eternities are created equal. Lipkes’ movie comes out of the “slow cinema” tradition, and its…