Est. 1998
(3 Feb) Moonlight (2016, Barry Jenkins)94 [ Reviewed on Extra Beurre ] (4 Feb) Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World (2016, Werner Herzog) [ First, I can never get enough of Herzog’s voiceover narration. Then this documentary explores a fascinating/scary subject, the endless progress of technology and the Internet, which we depend on more and more… What if it crashes? What if it…
(8 Jun) Finding Dory (2016, Andrew Stanton)85 [ Reviewed on Extra Beurre ] (9 Jun) Jaws (1975, Steven Spielberg)94 [ Watching this again, more than forty years after it exploded as the first modern Hollywood blockbuster, one can appreciate more than ever the way Spielberg keeps the shark unseen for most of the film and how much time and care he puts in developing Roy…
(2 Aug) Suspiria (1977, Dario Argento)96 [ Reviewed on Extra Beurre ] (5 Aug) Dirty Dancing (1987, Emile Ardolino)77 [ This here is a bona fide dancing movie musical, where the story is almost an afterthought, an excuse for all the dance scenes. Those are the moments through which the characters are defined, as they move their bodies, on their own or with each other……
(2 Mar) Clint Eastwood, le franc-tireur (2008, Michael Henry Wilson)65 [ Reviewed for Voir ] (3 Mar) Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (2008, Bharat Nalluri)79 [ Reviewed for Voir ] (5 Mar) Funny Games (2008, Michael Haneke) [ review ] 77 (7 Mar) O Ano em Que Meus Pais Saíram de Férias (2006, Cao Hamburger)62 [ Reviewed for Voir ] (8 Mar) UPA! Una…
(5 Jan) After Earth (2013, M. Night Shyamalan)40 [ How the mighty fall… To me, from 1999 to 2006, M. Night Shyamalan could do no wrong. “The Sixth Sense”, “Unbreakable”, “Signs”, “The Village” and “Lady in the Water” form a film cycle of unparalleled thematic and stylistic consistency. Then came “The Happening”, a rather ridiculous B-movie, and “The Last Airbender”, which I enjoyed when it…
(1 Aug) Guardians of the Galaxy (2014, James Gunn)92 [ I first saw the year’s most popular movie at an early private screening and loved it then, but it was when I saw it again at the big Fantasia International Film Festival premiere in a packed house of enthusiastic geeks that I completely fell in love with it. This is close to being my favorite…
(3 Sept) Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna (2006, Karan Johar)[ review ]90 (4 Sept) La vie secrète des gens heureux (2006, Stéphane Lapointe)56 [ Did I mention that I was doing a FFM blog for Voir? Well, I was, and that’s where I jotted down a few words about this closing film. ] (6 Sept) The Protector (2006, Prachya Pinkaew)23 [ Ok, we get it,…
(25 Nov-4 Dec) Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life (2016, Amy Sherman-Palladino & Daniel Palladino) [ “Gilmore Girls” is one of my favorite series of all time in part because unlike some, I adore Lorelai (Lauren Graham) and Rory (Alexis Bledel), a mother and daughter who are also best friends, sharing a passion for talking fast and eating way too much junk food….
(1 Nov) Strangers on a train (1951, Alfred Hitchcock) 91 [ “Wanna hear one of my ideas for a perfect murder?” Naughty boy Bruno wants to get rid of his father, tennis player Guy needs his wife out of the picture but she won’t give him a divorce. Killing them would help, but they’d be caught right away – they have the motive. But what…
(5 Sep) Speed 2: Cruise Control (1997, Jan de Bont)27 [ “That’s a stupid idea.” Here’s “Speed 2”, or “Digital Readout: The Movie”, in which “computer psycho” Willem Dafoe magically plants bombs or whatnot and takes control of all the systems on a cruise ship, with convenient digital readouts on everything letting us know how much time is left before this or that stupid…