Arctic, the directorial debut from YouTube personality Joe Penna, is nothing if not an exercise in economy. We don’t need to know what we don’t need to know. We first see the protagonist, played by Mads Mikkelsen, shoveling snow, alone, an infinite abyss of powder sprawling in all directions. When he’s done, an overhead shot reveals the site-specific art he’s just created: … [Read more...]
‘Eternity’s Gate’ takes us to intersection of Van Gogh’s genius, madness
I didn’t think we needed another movie about Vincent Van Gogh, an artist whose life and work have been bewitching auteurs for decades. He’s already received a splashy Hollywood melodrama (Vincente Minnelli’s Lust for Life), its shambolic, de-dramatized opposite (Maurice Pialat’s Van Gogh), and Robert Altman’s meditation on Van Gogh’s relationship with his brother (Vincent & … [Read more...]
‘Doctor Strange’ mesmerizes with digital wizardry, sense of fun
Note to future directors of blockbuster bombast: Gone are the days of watching metropolises simply explode or collapse from such banally familiar tropes as nuclear blasts, alien death rays or picayune fisticuffs of levitating Avengers. Doctor Strange, himself a future Avenger, and the new Marvel movie that dramatizes his origin story, have rewritten the disaster playbook, … [Read more...]