"Eventually, the documentary becomes about home, or the idea of it, with the declining industrial city of Rockford serving as a manifestation of the forces exerted by a place of origin upon a person. The past has its own gravity, pulling at us, keeping us in the same circular orbits we’ve always known. To break free requires tremendous resolve, not to mention a little outside help."
Read the rest of my review over at Docs/ology.
A shame that such an interesting, complex figure couldn't receive a documentary of equal interest and complexity.
Almost two months after I've seen this movie, I'm still trying to decide what I think of it. It's certainly effective, accomplishing everything it sets out to do. Robert Eggers is scarily self-assured at the helm of his first feature film, creating an atmosphere of uncanniness and spiritual dread that is unwavering and flawlessly oppressive. If The Exorcist is a horror movie for Catholics, then The Witch is a horror movie for Protestants: Because the individual (not the institutional church)…
The plot is the weak link in Midnight Special: try not to think too hard about how and why Alton's special abilities work the way they do, or about why the cult just sort of evaporates as the story proceeds toward its climax. The film is much more concerned with atmosphere (David Wingo's score is the highlight here), character, and emotion. Witness Roy's (Michael Shannon) final moment with Alton, or the halting attempts by Lucas (Joel Edgerton) to explain the…
