msicism

Negative Space (Chris Petit, 2000)

This is one of a number of Channel 4-sponsored essay films by Petit, perhaps best known for his Wendersesque anti-road movie Radio On (1979). I'd been meaning to catch up with it for awhile, and wasn't disappointed by it in terms of content. I ...

Family Plot (Alfred Hitchcock, 1976)

Is this a controversial film among auteurists? I would assume that diehard Hitchcock fans would argue that Family Plot is appropriately valedictory, showing the old master in a much looser, playful mood, manipulating the tropes of the genre he ...

September Poll: Single Serving Films

In accordance with the wishes of the ruly mob, I am asking you to select FOUR films below. (You could choose more, but we are on the honor system.) I will then view those four during the month of September (which should be a nice respite from Festival F...

Films of the Month (Not Directors)

Hey, so the poll was nearly 3-to-1 in favor of choosing select films every month, instead of a single director. Cool.

Watch this space (or one very much like it) for a new film-laden poll. 😊

Annette (Leos Carax, 2021)

It's difficult to fairly evaluate Annette, because there's something glorious about the fact that it even exists. It's not just that brothers Ron and Russell Mael have tried and failed to bend cinema to their will. (Although it shoul...

Jerzy Skolimowski: Two Early Films

Through the courtesy of the revived cinephobe.tv website, I recently saw these two early Skolimowski films, his second and third features. What was most instructive to me is just how much more sophisticated a filmmaker Skolimowski became betw...

Before I Go (Eric Schaeffer, 2021)

So this item randomly came up on a torrent site I frequent, and it occurred to me that I had never actually seen an Eric Schaeffer film. While this didn't exactly strike me as a major lack in my viewing history, it did make me feel as though I'd missed ...

Preliminary Poll for September: Format Change?

Should I continue selecting a Filmmaker of the Month? Or should I conduct a more MD'A-esque poll involving specific major films I've never seen? (In this case, I'd have you select four choices from a broad slate, and the four winners are the ones I'd se...

When a Woman Ascends the Stairs (Mikio Naruse, 1960)

In his invaluable e-book A Mikio Naruse Companion, Dan Sallitt mentions that he does not consider When a Woman Ascends the Stairs to be a major work, and evinces a bit of confusion at the fact that this the Naruse film that made the st...

Orphea (Alexander Kluge and Khavn, 2020)

Last year I tried to watch Orphea and bailed after a scant 20 minutes. But recently, the Houston Cinema Arts Society selected the film for a one-week virtual run, which put it back on my radar. How did this happen, exactly? As far as I know, 2021-08-07 21:10:54 +0000 UTC View Post

Întregalde (Radu Muntean, 2021)

The first fifteen minutes of Întregalde, the latest from Radu Muntean, are so stuffed with activity that it's difficult to even guess what the rest of the film might hold. We open in what looks like a crowded food market, but in the course of ...

Oh Bondage, Up Yours!

I've just watched episodes one through three, and I detest this. Any reason I should continue? I mean, it's just going to be the same thing over and over and over and [APHEX TWIN] over and over and [MEKONS] over again, right?

I'm open to ...

Catch-Up Poll: Max Ophüls

Catch-Up Poll: Mikio Naruse

Catch-Up Poll: Alfred Hitchcock

Catch-Up Poll: Satyajit Ray

Catch-Up Poll: Powell & Pressburger

(This one is mostly procedural. I know the outcome.)

Catch-Up Poll: Vincente Minnelli

August: Voting Body

Hey everyone, I have decided to use Our Beloved Month of August as a catch-up period. More specifically, I am going to watch one more film by each of the previous months' directors, rather than tackle a brand new OOV-ruh. So I will let you guys decide w...

Some Came Running (Vincente Minnelli, 1958)

I am beginning to think that Minnelli just isn't my guy. He's certainly a competent technician, and knows how to structurally organize a film with a lot of moving parts. His adaptation of James Jones' novel is rather admirable in the way it keeps a numb...

Il Buco (The Hole) (Michelangelo Frammartino, 2021)

[Embargoed. You are not reading this right now. It is an illusion.]

It was eleven years ago that Michelangelo Frammartino became a signficant new name on the festival scene with his second feature Le Quattro Volte. That h...

Zeros and Ones (Abel Ferrara, 2021)

[This is EMBARGOED, just so's you know.]

Are you by chance one of those long-time Ferrara fans out there who hasn't really appreciated the director's recent turn toward classical high-art modernism? If so, rejoice! The half-assed,...

Cutlets (Bertrand Blier, 2003)

In deciding to catch up with some old Cannes titles, I've initially gone with some films that were severely lambasted at the time of their world premiere. It can often be instructive to see what sorts of films cause this particular subset -- the Cannes ...

Please Evict My Dumb-Ass Senator

As you all know, I am not on Twitter. But I check in with the site now and then, just to see if there are any under-the-radar news stories I might otherwise miss.

Right now, there's another "debate" raging about PEMDAS, aka the order of mathematic...

Taurus (Aleksandr Sokurov, 2001)

As a secret contrarian, nothing would delight me more than to say that Taurus slaps. Alas, slap it does not, although I also think that the harsh rejection it received in Cannes may have been just a little off-base. Flawed as it is, Taurus<...