A fascinating interview with film historian and folklore expert Mikel J. Koven on the impact of Italian Giallo Cinema.
All in Film
A fascinating interview with film historian and folklore expert Mikel J. Koven on the impact of Italian Giallo Cinema.
Gabriel Ricard looks at Marvel, The Rock, and low-rent shlock horror in his latest Captain Canada’s Movie Rodeo column.
What may have begun as an interesting concept has devolved into repetitive ilk. I don’t think anyone who wanted another Purge movie, and yet people flocked out to see it this week. I don’t know which was weaker: the characters, the social commentary, or the thrills. The film explores how the Purge evolved from a social experiment on Staten Island, where participants would receive a monetary stipend for their participation. I feel the cast and crew did the same when Hollywood asked them to make this film. The film’s one redeeming quality is that it emphasizes the importance of community.
Sean woodard on the cult classic The Phantom of the Paradise: “The film features plenty of trademarks that would later define De Palma’s cinematic style—split-screen, intricately choreographed sequences, optical effects—but the standout is its inspired soundtrack, composed by Paul Williams.”
“ … the reality is that Diana, and the Wonder Woman film itself, cannot escape the male gaze.”
Gabriel Ricard celebrates six years of Captain Canada’s Movie Rodeo with reviews of The Incredibles 2 and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, as well as films from Kurosawa and Burt Reynolds.
Paul Rudd is a being composed of charisma and genial good humor, and that’s never more apparent then when he shares the screen with two of the most pissy and uninteresting characters in all of the Marvel Cinematic Universe: Hank Pym, played by Michael Douglas, and Hope van Dyne, played by Evangeline Lilly. But even Rudd’s considerable charm isn’t enough to distract from the fact that the only people worth paying attention to: Hannah John-Kamen’s Ghost and Michelle Pfeiffer’s Janet van Dyne, get the least screen time. I’d rather have spent two hours with Randall Park’s put-upon FBI agent.
Gotti isn’t a good movie, but I urge people to see it. It's rare to see something this incompetent in theaters, starring an actor as well-known as John Travolta. Travolta's credit inexplicably appears over footage of the real Gotti, forcing the audience to think "Well, they don't really look alike", before they've had a chance to get invested. The rest of the film offers scenes that have no connection to those before or after them. Worse, you'd have to be an expert on the infamous mob boss to understand half of what is going on. Travolta tries his best, though.
You've probably heard people talk up Hannah Gadsby's Nanette, and if you're like me you sorta shrugged it off for a bit, but then smartened up and watched it and sobbed into a blanket for like, twenty five minutes. Hannah takes the act of a comedian turning their pain into humor and stomps it into the ground. I can't do this any justice -- it's something everyone should experience.
There have been many on-screen depictions of PTSD over the last few years, but none as well realized as Leave No Trace, because writer/director Debra Granik sees--correctly--the disorder as not just something that changes the perceptions of those afflicted, but completely upends the family dynamic. Ben Foster doesn’t rely on the now-familiar actor’s tropes of PTSD, but instead carries a weight that we see his daughter, newcomer Thomasin McKenzie in a brilliant performance, forced to bear. Their subtle work makes the ending, which you should have tissues on hand for, the only possible route either character can take.
Don’t watch Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. I mean it. There’s nothing snarky or bitter about this advice. Don’t see the movie. Because if you see the movie, they will make more movies just like it. Movies in which not only are characters and plot jettisoned in favor of spectacle but the spectacle itself is flat, meaningless. Hollow. And you, yes YOU reading this review, have the power to stop all of that. Just don’t see it. That’s all. Make tomorrow a better day by making it a day in which you do not watch Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.
100 words can’t contain my own love for Fred Rogers, nor can ninety minutes sum up the most extraordinary, and unlikely, of American lives. Morgan Neville’s documentary is at its best when focusing on footage of Rogers himself, from his stirring address to Congress in 1969 to his post-9/11 PSAs. The film stops just shy of hagiography, and moves too neatly past Rogers’ reticence to address gay rights, but leaves the audience with a grace note that gently confronts each of us with blessings we’d forgotten we’d received—blessings like the life and work of Fred Rogers himself.
If you’re interested in understanding Pope Francis the man you’ll be better served by any of the surprising number of biographical documentaries available on Amazon Prime. Wenders isn’t making a personal history, though he does go to great lengths to link the former Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio to his namesake, Francis of Assisi. The film, really, is a platform for the genial pontiff to call for mercy combined with action, though its scattershot approach leaves little time for nuance, which seems to be what the Pope is suggesting our chaotic times need most.
Hereditary seems to have a huge fan base on twitter, and I'm trying very hard to figure out what movie these people saw. Taking cues from films like Rosemary's Baby and with camera tracking that establishes the hell out of every shot before getting to the story, Hereditary is two hours and six minutes of uneasy dread and creepy vague ideas that, for me, left far more questions than satisfying conclusions. And someone give Ann Dowd a role where she's not involved in some nefarious religious bullshit for God's sake. Can't she play, like, a kindly coworker?
Paul Schrader presents us with a rare gift: a film that is equally serious about its material and its storytelling craft. Grappling with his faith, Rev. Toller’s (Ethan Hawke) existence becomes unhinged when the husband of a parishioner (Amanda Seyfried) commits suicide. Buoyed by strong performances—including Cedric the Entertainer as the head of an evangelical megachurch—First Reformed is Schrader’s strongest treatise on faith in film. Alternately introspective, shocking, and frank, it still retains a glimmer of hope. The film reminds us that doubt plays a certain role in faith and that even in the midst of despair, grace reveals itself.
Can someone love a serial killer? On a sequestered island community, a young woman (Jessie Buckley) with a dark past and a domineering mother (Geraldine James) falls for a mysterious man (Johnny Flynn) suspected of committing a series of child murders. While Beast is cleverly written and directed with gorgeous cinematography, its intricacies weigh it down. But with actors so committed to their craft, you nearly forget these things as the narrative unveils its multitude of lurid surprises. When the film ends, you’ll feel like your body was exhumed from damp earth and is in need of a cold shower.
Sean Woodard explores the religious themes of film in his new series Finding the Sacred Among the Profane. First up: The Strangers franchise.
Gabriel Ricard with reviews of Deadpool 2 and films by Richard Linklater and John G. Avildsen.
On Chesil Beach represents my early pick for Best Picture.
Adapting his own novella, Ian McEwan presents a heartbreakingly honest portrait of a newlywed couple and the qualities that tear them apart. Beautifully conceived by director Dominic Cooke and lensed by cinematographer Sean Bobbitt, its narrative layers naturally coalesce in this meditation on love, cultural mores, and personal sacrifice.
The chemistry between rising star Billy Howle and Saoirse Ronan—who has matured into the finest actress of her generation since she appeared in Joe Wright’s adaptation of McEwan’s Atonement—is palpable. They carry emotional weight capable of moving audiences to tears.
Anton Chekhov's play receives a serviceable, if slight, adaptation from Michael Mayer (A Home at the End of the World). He directs his ensemble cast with poise, allowing his camera to roam about the confined lakeside setting as if it were a fly on the wall. Although the film plays it safe, how the cast embody their roles is particularly captivating. Annette Bening is alternately vivacious and cruel; Saoirse Ronan is radiant; and Corey Stoll gives his best performance since his portrayal of Ernest Hemingway in Midnight in Paris. The rest of the cast add charm to this comedy’s delights.