Francois Truffaut came into my world in the most brilliant way with not a hint of warning. I had started the second year of my undergrad a week late and barely had enough time to pick up a syllabus before I found myself in a screening room for Jules and Jim. The film left absolutely no impression on me after my initial viewing, or so I thought. As the months passed, however, I found myself reminiscing upon the story that…

****Warning, this is less a review of Mulholland Dr. and more a thank you letter to David Lynch for changing my life*****

No piece of art has ever had as profound an impact on my life than Mulholland Dr. I say, in a very literal way, that Mulholland Dr. changed my life.I had never looked at cinema as an art form before, I actually had hardly looked at cinema before. I grew up in a single parent home with a…

The precipice separating dreams from nightmares punctuates the human experience. So often when we find ourselves embarking on something we have been hoping for or near something we’ve been waiting for, we enter an anxiety-ridden and stressful state, mulling over every decision that led us to the point we are about to experience. This counterintuitive wave of emotions illustrates the complexities of human desire and our fears of achieving that which we think we want. A filmmaker who is no…

Does anyone open a film better than Woody Allen? Whether it be a brilliant opening scene giving the viewer an idea of what is to follow or a fantastic opening monolog, Woody Allen has the ability to bring me into his films in their opening seconds like no other filmmaker can. Manhattan opens with that signature perfect voice-over narration that I am starting to associate with Woody Allen. Manhattan was my 6th outing with the auteur and one that I…

I rarely rewatch films I don't care for, largely because I rarely rewatch films in general. A movie has to be special or captivating to reel me in for multiple viewings. I usually have the mindset that there are so many films I want to see, I have to constantly tread new ground in order to hopefully see them all. On occasion, however, especially if a film is well-loved, I'll give it another try and attempt to see anything I…