msicism

Little Murders (Alan Arkin, 1971)

BY REQUEST: Michelle Berman

After watching Little Murders, I read a bit about it and learned that Elliott Gould, who starred and produced, actually had Godard attached to ...

The Killer (David Fincher, 2023)

My lovely wife Jen is a much bigger fan of David Fincher than I am. She's liked most of his films but is especially taken with Zodiac, because for her it is the clearest and most detailed expres...

Mechanisms Common to Disparate Phenomena: #59 (Joost Rekveld, 2023)

Time has been kind to the pure abstraction sometimes called "visual music." In the world of experimental cinema, this is work that seemed to receive grudging respect for its importance, but was quietly r...

Passages (Ira Sachs, 2023)

BY REQUEST: Jorge (because I could not find his first choice)

Despite recognizing that Ira Sachs is indeed a major filmmaker -- one who has made one film I actually really like -- ...

We Are So-So Back

I've been getting back into movies a bit over the past few days. Tomorrow, Jen heads to London for a long weekend, and I expect I'll take the opportunity to hit the Killer Moon-Priscilla-Holdovers trifecta, and maybe I'll even take a peep at Oppenheimer. But I'...

The Human Surge 3 (Eduardo Williams, 2023)

It's patently obvious that Eduardo Williams' The Human Surge 3 is unlike pretty much any film that's ever been made. That's because Williams is employing new technologies that were made for 3D v...

Boonmee in Action

This is the last dead cat related post. I just think the video gives a really good sense of who he was.

Boonmee, and a Brief Pause

I am going to take a few days off from posting any writing. Yesterday my dear cat Boonmee died very suddenly. I'm still in shock. And although I know that I will start to find pleasure in all the things I cheri...

Samsara (Lois Patiño, 2023)

Although I've always found Armond White's "Better Than" list to be needlessly petulant, I do occasionally understand the impulse. While I certainly admire Eduardo Williams' The Human Surge 3 (re...

Light That Matters

The Light Matter film festival, programmed by my comrade James Hansen, is happening right now in Alfred, New York. Check i...

Losing Steam

This is always a difficult time of year, even without the added stress of having my reviews sharing server space with bizarre fetish porn. How is this semester still going. How.

A younger, more ene...

Brief Update on WTAF-Gate

The offending website, Kemono, has an email address marked "Legal," and I sent them a firm request to delete my work from the site. Does the address go straight to the trash? Probably.

I did send a...

WHAT (and I cannot emphasize this enough) THE FUCK

So today I got an email from a festival publicist, telling me that a filmmaker had complained to them that my review of their film used "unauthorized" screenshots, instead of their official promotional i...

The Royal Hotel (Kitty Green, 2023)

Two travelers from Canada, Hanna (Julia Garner) and Liv (Jessica Henwick) run out of money in Australia and go to a work-travel agency, where they secure temporary employment working at a bar in a mining...

Marathon (Amir Naderi, 2022)

BY REQUEST: Michael Ewins

I watched Marathon a full eighteen years ago. That's a pretty brutal factoid to face, and in a way this is the ideal film to revisit from that pe...

Anatomy of a Fall (Justine Triet, 2023)

Now, as November approaches, we find ourselves careening into the period where prestige pictures assert themselves, demanding our attention. As is often the case, we encounter a number of productions wit...

Here (Bas Devos, 2023)

I knew next to nothing about Here when I watched it, aside from the fact that it's Belgian, and that it's one of the year's most acclaimed films. Reading about it afterwards, and seeing the way ...

The Leopard (Luchino Visconti, 1963)

Alas, my very first Visconti film. Like a handful of other major directors, he is someone I just never got around to, and for some reason the rep screenings of his films always seemed to correspond to me...

Tótem (Lila Avilés, 2023)

Lila Avilés' second film is as claustrophobic and enveloping as her debut, The Chambermaid, was standoffishly austere. Someone coming into the theater late would think they've seen something li...

Assorted Odds and Ends from InRO

The Shadowless Tower (Zhang Lu, 2023)

I wouldn't bother with the cross-posting, ...

Selection Time Again!

Since I saw my last lingering Subscriber Request film tonight, it's time to select three more choosers. And here they are!

#105 - MICHAEL EWINS

#110 - MICHELLE BERMAN...