msicism

Afterwater (Dane Komljen, 2022)

A way-homer if ever there was one, Dane Komljen's second feature, commissioned by the Jeonju Cinema Project, is a bold film, a three-part tone poem about the natural world and human beings' place in it. I respect this film a great deal, even if I ultimately don't think Komljen really pulls it off. There is obviously a great deal of thought and theory behind Afterwater, which makes it all the...

Casino (Martin Scorsese, 1995)

BY REQUEST: Daniel Waller

Second viewing, last seen on HBO probably in '96. It's a film I haven't thought all that much about since then, and although I have a different perspective on it now, I can't say my overall opinion has improved. Where before I just found it kind of empty and self-important, I now see exactly what that means cinematically. This is Scorsese's Brian De Pa...

In Our Day (Hong Sang-soo, 2023)

Challenging one, this. In several respects it is one of Hong's most original films. Granted, it isn't shot almost entirely out of focus, like in water from earlier this year. But it's fairly obvious that Hong is trying to shake things up, finding new ways to explore his usual preoccupations. In this case, he has broken his film into chapters, and at first we expect that the differ...

Queens of the Qing Dynasty (Ashley McKenzie, 2022)

One of last year's more acclaimed films, Ashley McKenzie's Queens of the Qing Dynasty is difficult, raw, and at times repellent. Tonally, and in terms of rhythm and pacing, it's very nearly the opposite of McKenzie's 2016 debut Werewolf. Set in Nova Scotia like Queens, Werewolf was an all-too-close examination of two methadone addicts, their lives always on the ver...

BlackBerry (Matt Johnson, 2023)

I always try to give my subscriber base their (your) money's worth. But every so often a film comes along that just makes next to no impression on me. I would be hard-pressed to say anything especially insightful about BlackBerry, and that's mostly because Matt Johnson's script and direction are so aggressively mediocre that there's very little to discuss. An analysis would probab...

Subscriber Lotto: Double Yahtzee!

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#95: LUKE FOWLER

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Yes, we have two Daniels but I tell ya what. If someone tries to make me watch EEAAO again, I'm pulling the plug on this entire enterprise.

Monica (Andrea Pallaoro, 2022)

There's a remarkable awkwardness running through Monica, the third feature film by Andrea Pallaoro. It's the sort of awkwardness more typical of debut films, when a director is still learning how to modulate tone, as well as just how much pressure they can apply to the narrative's subtext before it becomes distractingly blatant. This somewhat unstable atmosphere is strongest in the film's be...

A Little More Cannes (InRO reviews)

Kidnapped (Marco Bellocchio, 2023)

In many critics’ wrap-ups from Cannes, there was a dismissive attitude toward Ken Loach’s film The Old Oak. As is often the case with late Loach, the consensus has been that the director’s heart (and politics) may be in the right place, but he sacrifices nuance in the name of agit-prop. The same can be said for Marco Bellocchio,...

Possession (Andrzej Żuławski, 1981)

BY REQUEST: Beatriz Rivas

Well, where to begin? For about half the running time of Possession, I thought I might be watching one of the greatest films of all time. And while my opinion remained quite high in the end, I think Possession's ultimate trajectory shows just how difficult it is to make a totally clean break from realism. As one finds with a lot of to...

A Word on [W/O]

I had a few minutes of downtime today, and I began thinking about [W/O]s. Now, this refers to a "walkout," a film that I watched at least a third of, but stopped (or if I'm in the theater, physically walked out of). As you might expect, the more films I see in a year, the more [W/O]s I have, although one year, 2007, I had only one [W/O] despite seeing as many films that year as usual.

I crunche...

Cannes of Worms -- InRO Reviews

Légua (João Miller Guerra and Filipa Reis, 2023)

It’s been five years since Djon Africa, the last feature from the directorial duo of João Miller Guerra and Filipa Reis. That film was about a Cape Verdean man in Portugal who decides to return to his birthplace in search of the father who left him years ago. In certain respects, Légua is a reversal of tha...

Two Recent Experimental Films From South Korea

This Isn't What It Appears (Heehyun Choi, 2022)

BY REQUEST: David Dinnell

In these Patreon "pages" I have expressed my ambivalence regarding the new crop of essay films that, within some sectors, have come to define contemporary experimental film. Words and images, illustrated lectures, real-time image analysis... Sometimes it feels as if artists are too ...

We Are So Back

As we head into another IP Tentpole Summer, it's worth noting that Houston has quite a few things to see this weekend. In addition to catching up with BlackBerry, we've got Master Gardener, Monica, and L'Immensitá opening tomorrow. I know the reviews for the Crialese have mostly been tepid, but I recall admiring Respiro, and besides, I have a personal int...

Mix-Up or Méli-Mélo (Françoise Romand, 1986)

BY REQUEST: T.J. Larson

Romand's French subtitle, méli-mélo, translates as hodgepodge or jumble, and that gives a slight hint about the film to come. Mix-Up is an experimental documentary about two women, Margaret and Blanche, who both went into labor at about the same time, went to the same maternity ward (or "nursing home," as these Brits confusingly call ...

WVLNT (Wavelength For Those Who Don't Have the Time) (Michael Snow, 2003)

I only just now got around to watching this. I think I'd unconsciously avoided it because I suspected it was little more than a conceptual jape, a dig at the viewer who found Wavelength "too long." And although WVLNT does generate some interesting effects, especially with respect to sound, I'm not convinced that this was something that really needed to be made. Then again, who am I ...

So Is This (Michael Snow, 1982)

Last seen June 2011. I had forgotten how enjoyable So Is This is, and not just because of Snow's clever self-reflexivity and goofy humor. A large part of the pleasure of This is the fact that, in reading, we treat the word as if it were the primary unit of meaning, but in fact it is the phrase, if not the entire sentence. So as we watch This, we are mentally anticipating th...

Which Colour? (Shahrukhkhan Chavada, 2023)

Which Colour? premiered earlier this year in Rotterdam, and I watched it because of the high praise it received from Srikanth Srinivasan, a.k.a. Just Another Film Buff. I take all of Srikanth's opinions seriously, but especially when it comes to Indian cinema, his area of expertise. He compared it to Pather Panchali...

Where (Tsai Ming-liang, 2022)

I mentioned Where in my Prismatic Ground wrap for Film Comment 2.0, but it seemed like it warranted a bit more discussion. Just barely eking in as a 2022 release (world premiered on December 22), Where strikes me as the most accomplished of the Walker pieces, for a couple of reasons. First, the fact that it was commissioned by the Centre Pompidou gives it a bounded, specifi...

Beau Is Afraid (Ari Aster, 2023)

I will admit right off the bat, I am glad this film exists, despite my deep ambivalence towards it. In an industry, to say nothing of a broader culture, that is so seduced by risk-averse financial strategy and pixel-level administration and squeezing creative people out of the creative process so as to add another five bucks to the bottom line, I want more films like Beau Is Afraid 2023-05-14 03:04:21 +0000 UTC View Post