Merry freakin' Christmas.
The critic to audience disparity for this on Rotten Tomatoes is hilariously huge (I must be a filthy snob, as I nearly always find myself on the critic's side when this happens). I'll add my vote to the praise column on this one. It's thematically dense and thought provoking, has great performances, an engaging visual aesthetic and feel, and I really enjoy the way Lowery continues to treat time as a strange, non linear space (though A…
"Don't ya see Bill, you're always one punch away."
Robert Wise's The Set-Up is the story of Stoker, a boxer widely considered to have left his best years behind him at the age of 35. He has a shot at a 23 year old kid who he truly believes that he can beat, and that when he does he will finally get his chance at the title. There's just one problem - no one else believes he can win. His wife…
"Where I am, there's nothing but words and faces"
Varda's Documenteur follows the day to day life of Emilie (Sabine Mamou), a newly single mother as she tries to make ends meet and struggles to take care of her young son Martin (Mathieu Demy) while working as a typist, dealing with endless repetitive chores and attempting to secure a stable place to live.
Though the fusion of documentary elements and fiction film isn't 'entirely' successful, Documenteur is valuable as a…
"The world sucks"
Gregg Araki's teen road trip turned love story captures a very particular strain of nihilistic 90s cynicism young people were experiencing at the time. Grunge and industrial music were thrashing against convention and there was a mood like the end of everything wasn't too far away and that the system was going to make sure everything sucked until up until the idiots running things got is all killed. May as well play some Mortal Kombat, inhale death…
"I promise you you'll be in perfect health before you die"
(Thanks to theironcupcake for bringing this one to my attention with their excellent and glowing review, which you can read here)
Josh Baker (Eric Roberts) is in the middle of trying to pick up Cheryl (Janine Turner) on the street when she collapses. A strangely antiquated ambulance arrives on the scene and takes her away, but Josh can't get her out of his head. He sets out to track…
(Spoiler ahead)
On the outskirts of a small town it's said there lived an aging woman who loved her two dogs more than anything in the world. Striving to achieve oneness with nature, her aching heart brimmed with the sorrows of the creatures so callously treated by her fellow man. Drop by drop it filled with anguish until finally it overflowed, spilling wrath and ruin. A corrosive, unavoidable splash that dissolved their apathy. No longer could those who brought such…
