Sam Shepard

Jeff Nichols’s new sci-fi thriller, ‘Midnight Special,’ is like a masterclass in mood and style.

Bloodline is all about deception. What’s beneath the surface, what we hide from the world and the lies we tell to protect ourselves and our families. The problem is, and the one that is explored in Bloodline, that it’s usually our families who know our deepest secrets anyways. And if you have a family like the Rayburns’ they are likely to use them against you at some point. What becomes clear in these first six episodes is that these are people who don’t let things go.

Cold In July Written by Jim Mickle and Nick Damici Directed by Jim Mickle U.S.A., 2014 Set in a small Texas town, Cold in July opens with a bang in more ways than one. Family man Richard Dane (Michael C. Hall) awakens one night in bed, convinced that an intruder has infiltrated his home. After …

Cold in July Written by Nick Damici and Jim Mickle Directed by Jim Mickle USA, 2013 In his last film, the horror remake We Are What We Are, co-writer and director Jim Mickle succeeded primarily because he took as long as possible to make explicit what was really going on with the central family unit. …

Indie auteur Jim Mickle has said that his newest effort ‘Cold in July’ is a combination of Bong Joon-Ho’s serial-murder thriller ‘Memories of Murder’ and the Patrick Swayze action film ‘Road House.’ That’s an eye-catching pairing, for certain…

Paris, Texas (1984), a collaboration by writer Sam Shepard and director Wim Wenders, is a film of dichotomies: dichotomy of location, of ideals, of personalities, of gender roles. Even the words in its title are at odds with each other. The film follows Travis Henderson, played by a worn Harry Dean Stanton, who is always …

Out of the Furnace Written by Brad Inglesby and Scott Cooper Directed by Scott Cooper USA, 2013 In the last few years, American filmmakers have turned to the bleak parts of the country, both to explore the sharp, darkened corners of our current psyche, and to depict a world stuck in the past. Films like …

In keeping with the acting style of the subject of its focus, Sophie Huber’s Harry Dean Stanton: Partly Fiction stays away from extremes in its portrait of one of America’s greatest actors. There is affection, but it is understated and not glowing, while any melancholy elements are not over-stressed.

In keeping with the acting style of the object of its focus, Sophie Huber’s Harry Dean Stanton: Partly Fiction stays away from extremes in its portrait of one of America’s greatest actors. There is affection, but it is understated and not glowing, while any melancholy elements are not over-stressed. The facts and opinions expressed, through Stanton and various collaborators, are simply allowed to be – free of added manipulation – in what amounts as a rather quiet documentary, excluding film clips with their own soundtracks and instances in which we get to see Stanton express his passion for performing music. Like the documentary’s most discussed film, Paris, Texas (1984), Partly Fiction is serene but also apt at emotional devastation, though as in Wim Wenders’ masterpiece, sorrow and optimism are intertwined.

Killing Them Softly Written for the screen and directed by Andrew Dominik USA, 2012 Set against the backdrop of the 2008 US election, chunks of both major parties’ campaign rhetoric, as well as that of former President Bush, permeate select scenes of Killing Them Softly via background radios and televisions, entering like tumbleweeds rolling across …