This was an interesting year. Through some quirks of distribution, I was not able to see Petzold’s Barbara, which is the film I was looking forward to the most. I also didn’t get a chance to see Tabu or This is Not a Film. From what I gather, all three of these are challenging films that fit neatly in […]
(Join Jeffrey Overstreet and Michael Leary as they discuss the Top Ten films from the recent Sight & Sound Greatest Films poll. Visit the “Sight & Sounds Greatest Films Conversation” tag for previous installments.) ML: I have watched The Passion of Joan of Arc many times over the years, but since it has been a while I […]
The Loneliest Planet does a great deal with very little. The story of this young engaged couple taking a guided four day tour of the sparse wonders of Georgian geology is playful at first. It is a pleasant evocation of that stage in marriage that recalls the sense of abandon that compelled my wife and […]
I resist the urge to kill my television for several reasons. First, it was really expensive. Second, since I am selective about the time I allot to the television universe, I very often see things worthy of said time. Third, every rationale I have seen for the “kill your television” bluster is some variation on […]
Holy Motors lends itself to conversation about identity and all the slippery little details we cobble together to make sense of ourselves and our relationships. Father, daughter, elder, voyeur, employee, companion, uncle, etc… There is a Confucian arithmetic to the way Lavant’s character travels across so many different relationships in this troubling riot of a film, […]
(ed. note: This is a review from Andrew Welch, please see our updated contributor page for a bio.) I took one note during Cloud Atlas, just one: Tom Hanks babbling like an old fool. And he does, many times over, but especially in the film’s first few seconds, as the camera pans down from a swirling galaxy […]
“Let the sky fall” The Bond title sequence is always a pop culture stunt in the best sense of the term. The selection of musician generally targets those already well-embedded in our aural memory. Then flat, avant-garde images of violence and sex in equal measure are dribbled over these familiar voices and/or orchestrations. Guns, bullets, […]
Daily Beast has a recent piece on FOMO, which translates to the: Fear Of Missing Out. After providing a few case studies on this condition that apparently plagues Millenials, the author claims: “FOMO is our generation’s cross to bear.” A few responses immediately sprung to mind: 1. I can accept the idea that FOMO is a characteristic […]
There is an interesting discussion on Andy Crouch’s recent essay about the “common good” brewing in the comments section of Alan Jacob’s response. I tentatively agree with a few of the points made in the back and forth that can be found at those two links. What I do find fundamentally constructive about Crouch’s overall theological […]