[91]

After being highly receptive of every Tsai film I’ve seen thus far, I figured it was about time I tried to dive more in-depth about the essence of his very style, and why I find his particular brand of stoicism fundamentally more alluring and captivating than many others’. THE RIVER completely knocked my socks off, and not only does it contain some of the most painfully lingering sequences in Tsai’s canon (and I say that as a good thing),…

[100]

Often misnomered as a "boxing movie," unfairly circumventing the poignant core of RAGING BULL that is Jake's severe sexual inferiority complex, the genesis from which his violent persona is manifested. That he happens to box is not a coincidence, but it's also not the point -- this is certainly not ROCKY -- rather it's an outlet for his rage, a once-sufficient ventilation for his brutality, and a place where such barbarity is not only acceptable but necessary and encouraged.…

[44]

Maybe I really just don’t like these angsty, adolescent, wrong-side-of-the-tracks dramas on some disclosed, subconscious level, because I never seem to get much enjoyment from them. Right from the start, I was reminded of LILJA 4-EVER w.r.t. general disposition and environmental kinesis : FISH TANK isn’t quite as irksome on a formal level, but is equally grating with its purported verbal edginess and similarly frustrating in the stagnant narrative. I do find this slightly more stirring, though, with the…

[60]

[Spoilers ahead.]

In love for a really, reaaaaally long time. A visceral psychodrama that characterizes inescapable traits passed on via either genetics or long-term upbringing—with a giant side of slowly losing a grip on reality—is exactly what I wanted, and -- for a while -- what I thought this was gonna be. But HEREDITARY is not that film. At least, it ends up not being that film. Once the occult theorizing starts becoming more and more of a likely…

[84]

Second viewing, no score change. This is the final post and then I’m done babbling about this movie (for a while, anyway).

Heavy spoilers ahead.

Second look confirmed that MOTHER! was every bit as good as my initial reaction signified, and it will surely wind up at the top of my “best of 2017” films. Saw it with my wife, who sometimes likes “different” stuff and as the movie ended, she turned to me and said, ”that might be…

[87]

Absolutely marvelous; a film built from the shambles of two men’s misunderstandings -- Devlin, who mistakes Alicia’s devoutness to him (and subsequently, the mission) for a transgression back into her “old, loose ways,” and Sebastian, who believes her love and faithfulness toward him is genuine. Out of this, Hitchcock realigns our gut against the typical character archetypes : Devlin is decidedly the “good guy,” yet he’s also a self-absorbed ass, exploiting Alicia’s foot-loose past and promiscuity, picking at her…