Les deux amis Written by Louis Garrel and Christophe Honoré Directed by Louis Garrel France, 2015 There’s a lot of hand-wringing these days over a topic du jour I’m sure you’ve come across. It’s bandied about in op-ed scribblings, and now filmmakers are waking up to it too, and at its core is the snake person role-switch …
‘Crimson Peak’ is an ambitious miscalculation that should have waited for the script to catch up with the visuals.
Perverse, hilarious, and poignant, ‘Liza, the Fox-Fairy’ is an absurdist fairy tale that still features one of 2015’s most touching love stories.
Director Christian Petzold’s shattering portrait of a woman adrift in post-WWII Berlin forgoes wishful sentimentality in favor of painful re-discovery. The result is a quietly-devastating film that will haunt you for weeks to come.
It’s easy to see why Ninotchka works as well as it does, and why it’s one of the best films from Hollywood’s golden age and of arguably Hollywood’s greatest year. Just look at the talent involved.
At 34, Nancy (Londoner-accented Lake Bell) is a flakey journalist on the reluctant look for love at the pestering of friends and family. Through a case of mistaken identity hinging on a self-help book, she winds up on a date turned epic day with Jack (Simon Pegg), an online marketing manager. Charming, right? It’s this on-the-nose “charm” which will divide audiences into lovers and haters (with this viewer falling more towards the latter). In spite of a stellar cast, Man Up falls flat on its promising premise of being a rom-com for nonbelievers.
The less you know about Spring before its arrival, the more enthralling its subtle charms. This is a delicate little gem that reveals its mysteries grudgingly; a seamless blend of moods and genres that never stops surprising you. Darkly comic and unflinchingly romantic, Spring steeps its horror mythology in realism to create a genuine sense of uneasiness. Director Justin Benson’s exquisite story of painful transformation is one of 2015’s best films.
There is a wonderful scene in Ira Sachs’ new film, Love Is Strange, in which Ben (John Lithgow) and George (Alfred Molina) share a drink at a venerable gay bar in New York City. Ben relates a powerful story to the bartender, in which he and several gay friends marched into that very same bar …
The Montagues and the Capulets got nothing on Abby Arcane and Swamp Thing. Few romances in the big two have been so thoroughly explored and fleshed out. Abby and the dream of Alex Holland are two crazy kids caught on the wrong side of an insane monster, or on opposing sides of two of …
Few romances hit harder than the first crush: powerful, inarticulate, star-crossed, lighthearted, tragic and melodramatic. Fone Bone’s puppy love for Thorn feels authentic, one of the many triumphs of Jeff Smith’s Bone. In a medium jammed with women in refrigerators, Fone’s crush is refreshingly innocent, whimsical, charming and doomed. She’s a tough but sweet human …
The Lady Eve is all about the game of romance. Jean has a great monologue at the beginning of the film that really shows this game in action. While sitting at a dinner table, she narrates as various women approach Charles, in an attempt to gain his attention (“Every Jane in the room is giving him the thermometer and he feels they’re just a waste of time”). She studies Charles. What makes him tick? Is he self-conscious? What kind of woman would he like? All of this is for the purpose of conning him, which she does rather well. It also shows how love (and ultimately marriage) can be a façade.
John Krokidas’ film debut Kill Your Darlings follows the turbulent University years of famed American beat writers Allen Ginsberg (Daniel Radcliffe), Jack Kerouac (Jack Huston), Lucien Carr (Dane DeHann) and William Burroughs (Ben Foster). Set in the early 1940s at Columbia University and on the streets of New York City, the film centers around the murder of David Kammerer (Michael C. Hall) and the months that led up to it.
Strangler of the Swamp Written by Frank Wisbar and Harold Erickson Directed by Frank Wisbar USA, 1946 “Old legends – strange tales – never die in the lonely swampland. Villages and hamlets lie remote and almost forgotten. Small ferryboats glide between the shores, and the ferryman is a very important person. Day and night he …
Romance and harmless conflict run amuck in Irving Cummings’s That Night In Rio. The film follows American entertainer, Larry Martin (Don Ameche), as he impersonates his doppelganger, Baron Manuel Duarte. Once Manuel’s wife, Baroness Cecilia Duarte (Alice Faye) discovers the impersonation, she begins to want her husband to be as loving as the one portrayed by Larry. That Night In Rio also features several song and dance numbers from Carmen Miranda, at the time deemed “The Brazilian Bombshell.”
Letter From An Unknown Woman Directed by Max Ophüls Starring Louis Jordan and Joan Fontaine USA, 86 min – 1948. “Have you ever shuffled faces like cards, hoping to find one that lies somewhere, just over the edge of your memory?” In 1900s Vienna, a former concert pianist and notorious womanizer, Stefan Brand (Louis Jourdan) …
Sightseers Directed by Ben Wheatley Written by Steve Oram, Alice Lowe & Ben Wheatley (with additional material from Amy Jump) 2012, UK Either Ben Wheatley is a boiling pot of pent-up rage, or he is the complete opposite and thus finds perverse pleasure in humouring the rage fantasies and violent tendencies of the frustrated working-class …
Dead End Directed by Chang Cheh Written by Chiu Kang Chien Hong Kong, 1969 The name Chang Cheh should be recognizable to any self ascribed Shaw Brothers fan. The man was a true legend within the studio system, directing movies at such a rapid rate that even Woody Allen would blush. With a whopping total …
The Thundering Sword Directed by Chiang Hung Hsu Written by Chiang Shen Hong Kong, 1967 Heroes behaving virtuously and villains relishing in evildoing are the archetypical behaviours of characters which make up action adventure films. This is the easiest route to take for a filmmaker, but with said ease comes the potential for great effectiveness …
The twentieth year of Catherine Breillat’s directorial career marked a shift. While her thematic focus and bold vision remained true, her skills as a filmmaker and storyteller began showing strong signs of improvement beginning with 1996’s Perfect Love. It opens with a man explaining to the police how and why he killed his lover as …
Annoyed by the ubiquity of the Apatow brand? Understandable – but imagine for a moment that the hands-on producer and director’s previous hits (from 40-Year Old Virgin to Pineapple Express) were all handled by the anonymous hacks that usually pilfer out studio comedies. One might reasonably reply that it wouldn’t make a difference if the …