Amelia is having a nightmare, and first time director Jennifer Kent begins her psychological horror film, The Babadook, by placing the viewer in the middle of it. The film’s first shot is a close-up of Amelia breathing in a distressed rhythm, as if in labor. A few seconds later, a shrill scream accompanies breaking glass […]
1. The Past (Asghar Farhadi, France) Not only does Asghar Farhadi’s followup to the critically acclaimed A Separation firmly establish the Iranian director as one of our master storytellers, it also, more specifically, establishes him as one of contemporary cinema’s great investigators of domestic drama. The way Farhadi controls narrative structure by gradually unveiling withheld […]
Many images and scenes in This is Martin Bonner are about either vision or payment. Or both: investment. Chad Hartigan’s film begins with a long shot of a prison; partly obstructing the view of Nevada’s mountainous landscape is a watchtower, an image that establishes what might be considered essential to the film’s visual theme: fortified […]
The Filmwell landscape is well populated with Certified Copy posts (like the wonderful meditations found here and here). And it seems appropriate that this film is considered and reconsidered at this site. As a new contributing writer, I almost feel as if offering a post on this Kiarostami is like a rite of passage into […]
“We still want what we want,” says 28 year old billionaire Eric Packer (Robert Pattinson). “We want a haircut.” The initial phrase doesn’t come off as a tautology, but a comically nightmarish declaration from an individual referring to himself in the first person plural. “We” don’t want anything in particular for itself, but all things […]