[5]

This is a film that is inspiring more on account of the possibiities it suggests than because of what it is in itself. A frequently lovely, poetic evocation of African-American Alabama, Hale County is organized on the basis of mood, gesture, graphic matches, and thematic implications rather than the usual rhetorical tools of expository documentary. Its closest cousin in recent filmmaking would probably be Kirsten Johnston's Cameraperson, although where Johnston's film combined footage from all over the world, RaMell…

[7]

A film with three interlocking stories, Until the Birds Return takes this hoary format and makes it seem rather effortless. (I had to look closely to even recognize how parts one and two were linked.) There is an organicism to this film that permits everything to hang together and yet allows for the following of narrative and stylistic digressions, such as the sudden break into a nondiegetic musical number.

Director Karim Moussaoui is particularly interested in how his characters…

[6]

I miss the old Kiyoshi. The can't-be-sold Kiyoshi. Back in the fold Kiyoshi. That was the bold Kiyoshi. Remember Cure Kiyoshi? That wasn't your Kiyoshi? 'Cause that was my Kiyoshi. Damn, that was fly, Kiyoshi! You came with Kairo, Kiyoshi. That shit was fire, Kiyoshi! Even Bright Future Kiyoshi, that ill repute Kiyoshi. I dug it all, Kiyoshi. So why'd you stall, Kiyoshi? And then that Journey to the Shore? You got some gall, Kiyoshi!

I miss the real…

[4]

If you happen to follow my Twitter feed, you'll know that I've already gotten a bit hot and bothered about this film. In retrospect, it was probably a good deal of energy wasted, or at least misdirected. I tend to forget that useless dreck like The Imitation Game is pimped on every streetcorner around Oscar season by an industry that considers movies as product, not art. Most of the time, that product is slathered in Adam Sandler, and it…