The work of Candian filmmaker Guy Maddin falls squarely into love-it or hate-it territory, although “hate-it” might be too strong; “find it humourlessly indulgent” is probably better. Anyway, I love it, and I’m not going to try to mount a defense of the director, because I think so much of what makes his films work […]

Blame it on a lack of sleep or whatever you like, but at around 3:00 AM, when I finished this review, I somehow failed to publish it. I think you will find it not worth the wait. At first, it seems that El Topo will be a fairly standard narrative film, albeit one made by […]

I am here to inform these modern times of the grammatical era’s end and the beginning of flamboyance especially in cinema. -Joseph Balsamo (Daniel Pommereulle) Fin de conte Fin de cinema -Closing title card It feels more than a little bit facile to write about Week End, which like all of Jean-Luc Godard’s films is […]

There is a quality to Crispin Glover’s voice that makes it sound like he is smiling every time he talks; but he never does. There is a constant look of intense seriousness on his face at all times, but I do not think this is because he takes himself seriously. I think it is because […]

The first image he told me about was of three children on a road in Iceland, in 1965. He said that for him, it was the image of happiness, and also that he had tried several times to link it to other images; but it never worked. He wrote me, ‘One day, I’ll have to […]

I think that it is easiest to begin with a statement that is probably objectively true: you will like Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters if you liked the parent series; and the more you like that show, the more you will like the feature. To go any further is the get […]

Part I: A Masterpiece of the Post-Aesthetic I hope you’ll humor me in a bit of indulgence, if I find it necessary to begin with a discussion of an annual bad movie marathon that takes place every January in the suburbs of Chicago. It’s impossible for anyone who has never been to B-Fest to understand […]

William H. Macy is in INLAND EMPIRE for one shot lasting less than twenty seconds, and his single line ends with this phrase: “Hollywood, where stars make dreams and dreams make stars.” That’s probably not true, and it ignores a question near and dear to David Lynch’s heart: what about nightmares? Certainly, the film seems […]

The Zero Years is a fucked-up movie. I recognize that “fucked-up” is not a recognized term in film criticism, so I should probably elaborate on that a little. The opening: black screen. After a moment, there is a deep synthesized bass note. Pause. Another. Pause. The score expands a little without moving out of the […]

There will be those who deride Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Syndromes and a Century as pretentious and overly-artsy. Luckily, I am also pretentious and overly-artsy, and therefore I adored it. Apichatpong’s parents were both doctors, and this film is his tribute to them. It is accordingly divided into a feminine and a masculine half: the first part, […]

Author’s note, February 2017: My God, I used to be a dumb little child. Keeping this one up for posterity, but I’m pleased to say that I’ve had much more sophisticated experiences with this movie since. From time to time, I see a movie that I don’t know what to make out of it. Not […]