Intellectually stimulating, abundantly rewarding and furiously relevant, Todd Field’s Tár is a work of such herculean achievement that I can hardly deign to do it justice. While it remains to be seen if it will top my list of the best films of 2022, it is superior to anything I saw last year, with the possible exception of Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Memoria, of which it … [Read more...]
Far above the world: ‘Moonage Daydream’ an astonishing immersion in Bowie
Jean-Luc Godard, who departed this world last week at 91, once quipped that “a story should have a beginning, a middle and an end, but not necessarily in that order.” This concept, a once-radical rebuke to the logic and coherence of classic Hollywood cinema, can seem quaint by today’s outsider art — who says we need to have these elements at all? Godard himself became more of a … [Read more...]
‘Clerks III’: Tired re-tread shows franchise needs at last to check out
Like the classic horror villain who won’t stay dead, the clerks of Clerks have suited up once more in the blue-and-yellow garb of the Quick Stop in suburban New Jersey. Twenty-eight years have passed since Kevin Smith introduced the characters in his low-budget indie debut, and their station in life is pretty much the same. Dante (Brian O’Halloran) and Randal (Jeff Anderson) … [Read more...]
‘Barbarian’: Scary monsters, super creeps
In a different movie, it could be the beginning of a meet-cute. Thanks to a glitch in the system, two young, attractive, presumably hetero strangers have booked the same Airbnb house for the same night. Left with scant alternatives — there is, conveniently enough, a medical convention in town that’s consuming all of the hotel rooms — they must make it work by sharing the house. … [Read more...]
‘McEnroe’: Doc shows how tennis’s bad boy found his mellow inner man
To watch Showtime’s absorbing new documentary McEnroe is to be reminded of the pervasive sense of unhealthiness that once permeated sports commentary, and that surely still imbues some of it today. Whether spoken by John McEnroe himself or the professionals reporting on his eccentrically triumphant career, we are treated to variations on an aggro theme: “You’ve got to be a bit … [Read more...]
‘Three Thousand Years of Longing’ jinns up everything but fun
If the manic riffing of Robin Williams occupies one end of the spectrum of pop-culture genies, Idris Elba’s glum and mournful jinn in George Miller’s new film Three Thousand Years of Longing sits, or rather stews, on its opposite end. Downplayed and downcast, he is suffused with languor, his occasional pangs of curiosity toward modern life blunted by sullen memories of previous … [Read more...]
‘Apples’: The bearable lightness of non-being
In the world of Greek director Christos Nikou’s debut feature film Apples, it could literally happen to anyone: You go about your day — perhaps to buy a bouquet of flowers — board a bus, nod off in your seat, and wake up at the end of the line with your memory erased. Such is the predicament facing Aris (Aris Servetalis), who finds himself one of countless victims of a … [Read more...]
The View From Home: Catching up with Criterion: Lean, Kwan and Franklin
It’s been years since I’ve perused Blu-rays from the gold standard of art-house cinema, the Criterion Collection. With diverse and exciting titles continuing apace from this vital distributor, it seemed high time to revisit its ever-expanding catalog. These three new summer releases, all loaded with generous bonus features, offer a welcome return. Venice has never received a … [Read more...]
‘Murina’: From Croatia, a luminous coming-of-age story
Director Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović’s extraordinary debut feature Murina starts and ends submerged in water, specifically the Adriatic Sea off the coast of Croatia. The beginning is serene, and the conclusion is fraught. It’s an elegant, circular structure that closes a loop while opening another. Then again, we never really leave the sea, so intrinsic is this vast, … [Read more...]
The View From Home: ‘Offseason’ an atmospheric chiller with an all-too-familiar setting
Writer-director Mickey Keating’s confident and chilling horror feature Offseason ($28.96 Blu-ray, $27.97 DVD, and streaming on Shudder) is set in a community called Lone Palm Beach. Lone Palm Beach is an isolated island off the coast of the Eastern United States, accessible by bridge, that jolts to life only during high tourist season. Its few year-round residents — all of them … [Read more...]