Category: Reviews
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…
Red Army: Film Review
We’ve all heard of Herb Brooks and the 1980 “miracle” at the Lake Placid Olympic games but if you are like me you probably never considered the other side of the story, the Soviet side. Red Army is on a macro-level a story about the Soviet Union but specifically its the story of the “most…
Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne’s ‘Two Days One Night’
The insanely versatile Marion Cotillard gives a near career best performance as Sandra in Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne’s Two Days One Night. This is a perfect example of minimalist storytelling allowing for performance and emotion to take centre stage. Sandra (Cotillard) has come out of the hospital to some very unwelcome news; during her…
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…
Witchfinder General: How Vincent Price Resurrected a Monster
In 1967, Vincent Price traveled to Britain to make the low-budget horror film, Witchfinder General. Price wasn’t the first choice for the role, and this was a fact which 24-year-old director Michael Reeves mercilessly used to his advantage. Set in 1645, during a period of extreme turbulence and lawlessness exacerbated by the English Civil War,…