Spoiler Scale (How spoilery is this article on a scale of 1 to 10?): 4 As an initial matter, I must disclose that I was not as enraptured as others with South Korean director Park Chan-wook’s Oldboy (2005), which has been remade for the mainstream U.S. audience by Spike Lee for release later this year. But in the psychodrama Stoker, his first English-language film, Chan-wook’s ... Read More »
Spoiler Scale (How spoilery is this article on a scale of 1 to 10?): 4 Spring Breakers, the most recent film by writer/director Harmony Korine, announces loud and proud that the 1990s are back. The Decade of Irony happens to be my favorite in film, so you don’t have to sell me. Irony can be useful and fun! The problem with Spring Breakers is an utter and complete lack of subtlety. And ... Read More »
Spoiler Scale (How spoilery is this article on a scale of 1 to 10?): 4 A call girl, her john, and her boyfriend get into a car … No, there’s no punchline. Rather, this scenario happens to be one of the unlikely human intersections in Like Someone in Love – the most recent film by writer/director Abbas Kiarostami. In only his second feature film set outside his native Iran, Kiarostami takes us on ... Read More »
Spoiler Scale (How spoilery is this article on a scale of 1 to 10?): 4 For her second feature film (Australia’s submission to the 85th Annual Academy Awards in the Best Foreign-Language Picture category), co-writer/director Cate Shortland (Somersault (2004)) adapts Rachel Seiffert’s critically-acclaimed novel, The Dark Room (2001), which contemplates the effect of the fall if the Nazis upon individual Germans. In extracting only one of Seiffert’s three narratives, Shortland opts for a vantage point that ... Read More »
Spoiler Scale (How spoilery is this article on a scale of 1 to 10)? 3 Why would aliens want to play Jenga with the contents of your kitchen cabinets? If the answers to these sorts of questions are not necessary for you to suspend your disbelief, then Dark Skies may be right up your alley. On the other hand, if ... Read More »
Spoiler Scale (How spoilery is this article on a scale of 1 to 10?): 9 (NOTE: The essay also includes discussions of the films, The Red Shoes (1948), All About Eve (1950), and The Tenant (1976).) Black Swan opens within a dream. Nina (Natalie Portman) is performing a solitary sequence from Tchaikovsky’s ballet Swan Lake (1876) where the evil sorcerer, Von Rothbart, has cast ... Read More »
Spoiler Scale (How spoilery is this article on a scale of 1 to 10?): 5 In recognition of the holiday, this article is the last installment of four published in February 2013 highlighting my favorite love stories put to celluloid in the 21st century. The title of director Michel Gondry’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is derived from a line in the Alexander Pope poem ... Read More »
Spoiler Scale (How spoilery is this article on a scale of 1 to 10?): 4 In recognition of the holiday, this article is the third installment of four published in February 2013 highlighting my favorite love stories put to celluloid in the 21st century. Top 5 Reasons I Love High Fidelity: 1. John Cusack’s Narration “One moment they weren’t there – not in any ... Read More »
Spoiler Scale (How spoilery is this article on a scale of 1 to 10?): 3 Currently, the Oscar-nominated live action and animated short films are appearing for a short time in certain theaters throughout the U.S. They will be available online and streaming through a number of outlets (including iTunes) beginning on February 19, 2013. Despite all of the opportunities offered by the new ... Read More »
Spoiler Scale (How spoilerly is this article on a scale of 1 to 10?): 4 In recognition of the holiday, this article is the second installment of four published in February 2013 highlighting my favorite love stories put to celluloid in the 21st century. Like a secret, In the Mood for Love is the type of film that is perhaps best shared with just ... Read More »
