May December is a favorite type of film for me. One that expands the more you think about it because the film itself is a conversation starter, it has no answers, and it takes a big swing. The swing here is a heightened tone that I could only pithily describe as if Almodóvar made Persona. There is an actress, Elizabeth Berry (Natalie Portman), and a woman (Julianne Moore) whose sexual past with a minor has made her a community pariah. …
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Morvern Callar 2002
Morvern Callar has one of the bleakest cold opens of any film. We see the titular woman (played by Samantha Morton), as she wakes up with her boyfriend dead from suicide on the floor and a computer screen that says "READ ME." The note instructs her to "be brave" and to send his novel to various publishers he's listed. That's the plot portion of the opening, before we even get there we lay with Morvern on the floor, her fingers…
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Tempest 1982
Overlong and could've benefited from being told linearly instead of boucing back and forth from Greece to New York 18 months prior — but the looseness allows for two musical numbers (one with goats) and for Susan Sarandon's eyes to get big whenever John Cassavetes looses his cool. (John also has many a soothing scene with a dog.)
A very interesting film debut from Molly Ringwald, too, whom I can't help but wonder what her 90s career could've been if…
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Radioactive Dreams 1984
Two young men, who survived nuclear fallout in a bunker full of noir books, emerge 15 years later and step outside where it's a land of mutants, gangs, cannibals, and women. This Mad Max mashup with noir isn't as invigorating as it sounds. Indeed the detective novel aspects hinder more than help, but there are lots of folks in front of camera, making costumes, and boil makeup, who are indeed giving it their all.
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Anatomy of a Fall 2023
The best aspect of this courtroom drama is how patiently it reveals its intention to show how a microscopic lens on a relationship can be uglier and more hurtful than existing in the relationship itself. That level of scrutiny over an argument or the cloud of doubt over an unknowable intent. Sandra Hüller is great but I was immensely impressed by the arc and performance of her young son, Milo Machado Graner, who is having to navigate an adult methodology…
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TÁR 2022
To give a hint at what's special about TÁR you needn't look further than the opening credits. The opening credits start backwards with members of the crew that generally are at the very end of the end credits, like catering and production units and assistant editors. This is a movie about how an ego can grow too big and turn to manipulation when one role gets too much credit in a collaborative field. An orchestra is like a film set,…