David Cronenberg’s first feature since 2014’s Maps to the Stars is, depending on your outlook, a return to his roots, a return to his classic period, a return to form, or a step backward. Either way, you would not say it implies a bold new direction: if you’re a Cronenberg fan, this is very, very familiar territory. Indeed, it felt to me like a retread of his own Crash (1996) combined with eXistenZ (1999); those two films followed each other,…
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Nope 2022
My biggest disappointment of 2022 so far, which is not to say it’s bad; perhaps my expectations were far too high. The best part - the sitcom ape - is far more interesting than the rest. There’s obviously a lot of ideas going on, references, all that jazz, but it’s a frustrating experience, a film of diminishing interest as it plods along.
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Tell Me Who I Am 2019
The story is deeply involving and the two subjects are likable and compelling. But the filmmaking is so deliberately drawn out to create suspense and tension that it feels exploitative, and the horror movie tropes used in the “atmosphere” footage are forced and on-the-nose. Too much “directing” and not enough reliance on the strength of the subject. Maybe an hour would have been better.
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Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness 2020
Among the series’ endless qualities, it is the astonishing vivacity of the characters that towers above all. Every one of these insanely idiosyncratic individuals feels like they’re being played by the world’s greatest character actor giving their career-best performance.
