It seems to me Benny’s Video purports the opinion that media induces violence only to underline the more forceful biological and sociological conditions. This assertion is evidenced, of course, by the mise en abyme of us watching Benny watching (and later committing) twisted acts through the mirror of multiple screens, as if Haneke means to remind the viewer that they are capable of appreciating suggestive images while also distinguishing them from every day life. Benny no longer can but not…
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Ticket of No Return 1979
A posh aristocrat’s drunken shuffle through the post-modern, post-structuralist wasteland of post-war Berlin signifies a repudiation of modern ethics and expectations… Prost! Language is no longer a viable method of communication. Excess is no longer a privilege of the upper class. Modernity’s failed pledge for unity built on the preservation of logic and truth has resulted in the celebration of resignation and the descent into hedonistic splendor. To act irrationally, to reject rational thought, is the only logical continuation in…
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Wendy and Lucy 2008
Few movies are so apt to achieve what they set out to do. Wendy and Lucy's aims: a) to show the sheer panic of every moment for people adrift within society, clinging to the few things that bring them joy. And b), more importantly, to engage the viewer in realizing their own prejudice to allow for re-formed empathy. It partially achieves these aims by depicting the mundane with such impressive formal artistry. Through its minimalist lens, the facade of a…
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The Fabelmans 2022
It concerns itself with the authenticity of a given moment, and yet it presents every situation in the most artificial and contrived way possible. I’m not sure what I expected, considering it’s Spielberg, but since it's a movie about “animosity” he’s overcome in his “life,” I figured he’d tone down the schmaltz and actually try to work through something real. Otherwise, what’s the point? Instead, we get surface-level suffering and (I’m sure) Oscar nominations all around.
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La Jetée 1962
“Nothing tells memories from ordinary moments; only afterwards do they claim remembrance on account of their scars.”
Chris Marker’s fluid mixture of still photography and voice-over creates a rhythmic pastiche of haunting symbolism. Humanity on the verge of extinction after a 3rd World War begins to subject survivors to sessions of temporal transference in hopes that they can recover recourses from the past and future. The act of stripping individuals of their temporal identity has, thus far, “only led to…
