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The Last Man on Earth 1924
Women hunting down Nice Guys and auctioning them off to the highest bidder—this is the future feminist ancaps want. You can stop this. Nationalize all men.
That said, I do wish the film had steered its premise toward a more coherent allegory instead of repeating the same joke about how women be applying makeup.
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LA 92 2017
As much as LA 92 seems to believe that it can reach truths about the LA riots by avoiding intrusive voiceovers and interviews with talking heads, it basically elides some of the more important questions that surround the violence. The film largely limits itself to issues around the parties involved in the riot—ongoing police brutality, hand-wringing about Koreatown as a "merchant class" exploiting black neighborhoods. This ultimately puts the audience's focus on what happened rather than why, turning the story…
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The Flicker 1966
The Flicker continues to be absolutely enthralling. In addition to the subjectivity that each viewer's own senses and mind bring to the experience, there are so many site-specific effects. Both of my earlier viewings of The Flicker were in small gallery areas, where the effect of the flicker pattern bled into the surrounding white walls. This screening was in a properly darkened cinema, which drastically changed the interactions between the screen and the room. The white screen was framed by…
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Rat Film 2016
There's a lot to chew on when it comes to Baltimore's racial and economic history, and Rat Film gives the best illustration of redlining and its ongoing impact. I was already pretty familiar with this part of it already, so I didn't get much out of it.
It seems like past that, Anthony branches out in several directions and it all starts getting away from him a bit. A few scenes don't appear to have much connection at all (the…
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Far from Heaven 2002
Every moment in this film is beautiful, and it's so tightly controlled that it's suffocating. Todd Haynes stylizes every shot within an inch of its life in a flagrant show of bravura, down to the smallest details of the lighting and costuming. When Cathy breaks it off with Raymond, Julianne Moore is wrapped in a coat that perfectly blends in with the stone building, matching its color and texture. When shot from behind, she becomes just a floating pink headscarf.…
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Ex Libris: The New York Public Library 2017
All of my favorite Wiseman films have understood the value of our time and our work, judging our institutions based on how our society has directed it. In our successes, In Jackson Heights shows us engaged with our communities, listening to constituents' issues, counseling each other, and arguing for the rights and freedoms of our neighbors. At our worst, we stumble thoughtlessly through professional routines: the casually choreographed judicial process in Juvenile Court or the petty discipline of High School.…
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Safe 1995
Before this screening, the announcer informed the audience that SFMOMA had opened part of its gallery for free admission to the public. The museum is kindly doing this so that people have another place to be in the recycled air, where they can find refuge from the burnt remnants of drought-plagued Northern California that found their way into the SF air.
I still can't tell if she managed to make the connection.