“All barks have been rendered into English,” states the first on-screen note in Wes Anderson’s ninth feature film Isle of Dogs, an animated treasure featuring the minutely detailed, symmetrically shot and visually stunning elements that make a Wes Anderson film. While his second stop-motion foray is a compelling fable about political hysteria, deportation and greed,… Read More Wes Anderson’s Isle of Dogs
At times Alex Garland’s Annihilation is visually stunning and cosmically surreal, but his follow up to Ex Machina, based on the first novel of Jeff VanderMeer’s Southern Reach trilogy, is so utterly confounding and vague that we have no idea what the film is trying to say – and so hard to follow that we… Read More Alex Garland’s Annihilation
Italian director Luca Guadagnino’s triumphant yet emotionally devastating adaptation of Andre Aciman’s novel Call me by Your Name presents a stunning portrayal of the teenage, sexual coming-of-age experience – an unprecedented gift of realism for 17 year-olds – through both tasteful eroticism and profound tragedy. Set in the summer of 1983 in the northern Italian… Read More Luca Guadagnino’s Call Me by Your Name
In The Florida Project, director Sean Baker presents an authentic coming-of-age film set in a welfare motel on the outskirts of Orlando, Florida – a destitute and forgotten region in the shadows of Disney World. Moonee (Brooklynn Prince) is a precocious six years old. She and her two friends Jancey (Valleria Cotto) and Scooty (Cristopher… Read More Sean Baker’s The Florida Project
“We cannot be lovers/Long as I am the other” croons Moses Sumney in his transcendental, soulful debut album Aromanticism. Sumney presents an alternative perspective on intimacy and aloneness in the modern age. Since his emergence in 2014 as a multi-instrumentalist with an impressive vocal range, Sumney has performed alongside accomplished singer-songwriters like Sufjan Stevens, James… Read More Moses Sumney’s Aromanticism questions our perception of love in the modern age
Concealed within a terrifying and provocative horror flick, writer-director Darren Aronofsky’s Mother! projects divisive, relevant allegory unlike any other thriller released by a major studio in years. Closely following the release of Warner Brother’s highly anticipated “It,” audiences may have expected Mother! to include typical, uncomplicated jump-scares, the usual loathsome villain and a predictable plotline.… Read More Review: the powerful symbolism in Darren Aronofsky’s Mother!
You’re wrong if you think that film is solely a visual experience. Let’s talk about the importance of a good soundtrack. Sure, movie-music sets the mood of a scene, introduces a character’s personality, and evokes emotion from audience members. Duh! You knew that, but you didn’t go out to the movies with the intention of… Read More What Makes A Great Soundtrack?
For those unfamiliar with Harmony Korine’s eccentricity and his surrealist, provocative, and unforeseen portfolio of films, you’d consider both the music that “made him” and his grindcore, thrash metal soundtracks to be unsettling, in the least. My parents presented me with my first laptop, the modern day symbol of teenage freedom, on my 13th birthday.… Read More Director Harmony Korine’s Freakishly Cool Lifetime Mixtape
My dear friend and fellow film geek, Rachel, recently enlightened me in both the film and feminist departments. “Have you heard of the Bechdel Test?” She inquired. I hadn’t, and if you’re reading this, the odds are that neither have you. The test, popularized by Alison Bechdel’s 1985 comic strip, “The Rule,” assesses films based… Read More Have you heard of the Bechdel Test?
future shock film 