The Dissolve: Essential Reviews

Valerie And Her Week Of Wonders

Judy Berman — Mon, 06 Jul 2015 00:00:00 -0500

Jaromil Jires’ 1970 Czech New Wave classic delves into the subconscious of a 13-year-old girl, which takes her through a fantasy realm, but reflects the adolescent experience as well as any coming-of-age film ever made.

Amy

Keith Phipps — Wed, 01 Jul 2015 00:00:00 -0500

Senna director Asif Kapadia unpacks the mysteries of Amy Winehouse’s tragic life with a heartbreaking documentary that exposes the toxic influences around her, and the mysteries at the core of her music.

Cartel Land

Scott Tobias — Wed, 01 Jul 2015 00:00:00 -0500

A thrilling documentary explores the borderland where those on both sides of the drug war end up with dirty hands.

Five Easy Pieces

Noel Murray — Mon, 29 Jun 2015 00:00:00 -0500

Bob Rafelson’s New Hollywood classic is remembered for its famous diner scene, but there’s much more to cherish about this character study, which explores the surprising roots of Jack Nicholson’s blue-collar oilman.

Gabriel

Tasha Robinson — Thu, 18 Jun 2015 00:00:00 -0500

Rory Culkin’s mesmerizing but not showy performance as a mentally ill young man anchors this stunning debut from writer-director Lou Howe.

Inside Out

Tasha Robinson — Wed, 17 Jun 2015 00:00:00 -0500

The latest from Pixar takes an energetic but ultimately tender and sympathetic trip through the mind of a young girl experiencing traumatic life transitions.

The Tribe

Scott Tobias — Tue, 16 Jun 2015 00:00:00 -0500

Set at a school for the deaf, a Ukrainian film eschews any sort of verbal language as it tells a rough story about non-conformity and its consequences in an isolated community.

Dziga Vertov: The Man With The Movie Camera And Other Restored Works

Noel Murray — Mon, 15 Jun 2015 00:00:00 -0500

Named one of the top 10 movies of all time in the most recent Sight And Sound poll, a restored version of The Man With The Movie Camera joins three lesser-known Dziga Vertov efforts on Blu-ray.

The Wolfpack

Tasha Robinson — Wed, 10 Jun 2015 00:00:00 -0500

While isolated and home-schooled in their Lower East Side apartment, six teenage brothers processed American culture through movies and moviemaking. Crystal Moselle’s raw but intimate documentary explores their obsession.

Spy

Genevieve Koski — Thu, 04 Jun 2015 00:00:00 -0500

After collaborating on Bridesmaids and The Heat, Paul Feig and Melissa McCarthy come together for their funniest comedy to date, a sneakily progressive spy-movie parody about a meek, disrespected CIA analyst who’s called into action.

Tu Dors Nicole

Mike D'Angelo — Thu, 28 May 2015 00:00:00 -0500

It’s hard to build a movie entirely on grace notes, but Stéphane Lafleur’s gorgeous black-and-white reverie about youths in summer comes awfully close.

Heaven Knows What

Scott Tobias — Tue, 26 May 2015 00:00:00 -0500

The directors of Lenny Cooke take on a feature drama, but their New York addiction story sticks close to real life, using largely non-professional actors and working from a memoir by their lead actor.

When Marnie Was There

Tasha Robinson — Thu, 21 May 2015 00:00:00 -0500

The last movie currently on the Studio Ghibli docket, Hiromasa Yonebayashi’s gorgeous feature about an asthmatic girl who meets a strange friend in the country shows the animation house continuing to raise the bar on lavish, detailed imagery.

Mad Max: Fury Road

Keith Phipps — Wed, 13 May 2015 10:38:49 -0500

Director George Miller returns to his post-apocalyptic series for the first time since 1985’s Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, setting a new standard for action while addressing tough philosophical questions.

Goodfellas

Noel Murray — Mon, 11 May 2015 00:00:00 -0500

Martin Scorsese’s gangster classic returns in a Blu-ray edition that just confirms its timelessness.

The Train

Scott Tobias — Mon, 04 May 2015 00:00:00 -0500

John Frankenheimer’s 1964 WWII film sends the black-and-white action film out in style.

Avengers: Age Of Ultron

Keith Phipps — Tue, 28 Apr 2015 15:46:46 -0500

Writer-director Joss Whedon improves on the first Avengers movie with an exciting, fast-paced superhero adventure that serves its many characters while weighing the difficulties of doing the right thing in a complicated world.

Cooley High

Craig J. Clark — Mon, 27 Apr 2015 00:00:00 -0500

A benchmark for black filmmaking in the 1970s, Michael Schultz’s film could be called an inner-city answer to American Graffiti if its memories of growing up in Chicago’s Near North Side weren’t so specific.

Miami Blues

Noel Murray — Mon, 27 Apr 2015 00:00:00 -0500

Adapted from Charles Willeford’s crime novel, George Armitage’s colorful 1990 Florida noir is by turns fizzy and menacing, and a brilliant showcase for Alec Baldwin, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Fred Ward.

Kurt Cobain: Montage Of Heck

Scott Tobias — Thu, 23 Apr 2015 00:00:00 -0500

Enhanced by access to the artist’s archives, Brett Morgen’s look at the life of Kurt Cobain avoids rehashing familiar facts in favor of finding the man beneath them.

The River

Keith Phipps — Mon, 20 Apr 2015 00:00:00 -0500

Director Jean Renoir worked in black-and-white his entire career—and then traveled to India for a sumptuous production that Martin Scorsese ranks as one of the most beautiful films ever made in color.

Odd Man Out

Keith Phipps — Mon, 13 Apr 2015 00:00:00 -0500

Two years before making The Third Man, director Carol Reed ventured into noir-like territory with this thriller starring a great James Mason as a wounded Irish nationalist seeking shelter in Northern Ireland after a botched robbery.

Clouds Of Sils Maria

Scott Tobias — Tue, 07 Apr 2015 00:00:00 -0500

Juliette Binoche and Kristen Stewart anchor a two-hander about intimacy and performance that cannily reflects the maturation of both its director and star.

About Elly

Scott Tobias — Tue, 07 Apr 2015 00:00:00 -0500

Finally making its U.S. theatrical debut, Asghar Farhadi’s devastating 2009 ensemble piece about a woman’s disappearance on vacation anticipates the riveting, prismatic drama of A Separation and The Past.

Manos Sucias

Tasha Robinson — Thu, 02 Apr 2015 00:00:00 -0500

Two estranged brothers venture from Buenaventura, Colombia up the Pacific coast with a cocaine-packed torpedo shell in tow in Josef Kubota Wladyka’s tense, beautifully shot, and socially attuned thriller.

Gates Of Heaven
Vernon, Florida
The Thin Blue Line

Noel Murray — Mon, 23 Mar 2015 00:00:00 -0500

Now available on two Criterion Blu-rays—his first two films in one, the third in the other—Errol Morris’ verité portraits of eccentrics in Gates Of Heaven and Vernon, Florida look different than the stylized true crime of The Thin Blue Line, but they have a lot in common.

Spring

Scott Tobias — Wed, 18 Mar 2015 00:00:00 -0500

A thoughtful second feature from the team behind Resolution uses the supernatural to explore intimate themes.

It Follows

Scott Tobias — Tue, 10 Mar 2015 00:00:00 -0500

The fright runs deep in a symbolically rich new horror film from the director of The Myth Of The American Sleepover.

The Soft Skin

Keith Phipps — Mon, 09 Mar 2015 00:00:00 -0500

François Truffaut’s follow-up to a three-masterpiece run looks like a movie made by someone exploring tone, characterization, and his own skills.

Buzzard

Scott Tobias — Wed, 04 Mar 2015 00:01:00 -0600

A dark comedy considers life on the fringes of the American economy through the eyes of a character with the will, but not the wits, to scam his way to stability.

Approaching The Elephant

Scott Tobias — Tue, 17 Feb 2015 00:00:00 -0600

A documentary observes the chaotic first year at an experimental New Jersey school.

A Day In The Country

Noel Murray — Mon, 16 Feb 2015 00:00:00 -0600

Jean Renoir’s 40-minute masterpiece, based on the Guy de Maupassant short story “A Country Excursion,” still impresses with its lush imagery, sexual candor, and exquisite proportionality.

What We Do In The Shadows

Nathan Rabin — Wed, 11 Feb 2015 00:00:00 -0600

Flight Of The Conchords’ Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement bring the show’s whimsy to a hilarious mockumentary about centuries-old vampires dealing with the mundanity of the real world.

Don’t Look Now

Scott Tobias — Mon, 09 Feb 2015 00:00:00 -0600

Nicolas Roeg’s chilly examination of grief and memory still looks ahead of its time.

The Palm Beach Story

Keith Phipps — Mon, 02 Feb 2015 00:01:00 -0600

One of Preston Sturges’ best, funniest films tries to find out what happens to marriages after “happily every after.”

Timbuktu

Scott Tobias — Tue, 27 Jan 2015 00:00:00 -0600

Bamako’s Abderrahmane Sissako returns with a film about the Islamist takeover of Timbuktu that’s both tragic and effortlessly humane.

My Winnipeg

Noel Murray — Mon, 26 Jan 2015 00:00:00 -0600

Truth and tall tales collide in Guy Maddin’s whimsical reminiscence about his hometown, which mythologizes a place and a people who chose not to make a big deal about themselves.

The Duke Of Burgundy

Scott Tobias — Tue, 20 Jan 2015 00:00:00 -0600

All is not what it seems, in more ways than one, in a Peter Strickland-directed homage to European softcore, which has more than titillation on its mind.

Something, Anything

Matthew Dessem — Wed, 07 Jan 2015 00:01:00 -0600

Writer-director Paul Harrill stakes out new ground in the well-trodden territory of movie protagonists who check out of their lives. In this case, it’s a woman who re-evaluates her career and marriage after a miscarriage.

Selma

Scott Tobias — Tue, 23 Dec 2014 00:00:00 -0600

Immediacy, in all its senses, defines Ava DuVernay’s Martin Luther King, Jr. biopic.

Two Days, One Night

Mike D'Angelo — Mon, 22 Dec 2014 00:00:00 -0600

Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne offer yet another masterwork with this wrenching story about solar-panel-factory employee who asks her co-workers to give up their annual bonus so she can keep her job.

Winter Sleep

Scott Tobias — Wed, 17 Dec 2014 00:00:00 -0600

Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s Palme d’Or-winning follow up to Once Upon A Time In Anatolia takes the form of a study in delusion and arrogance.

Mr. Turner

Keith Phipps — Wed, 17 Dec 2014 00:00:00 -0600

In this sumptuous yet earthy biopic about early-19th-century painter J.M.W. Turner, Mike Leigh profiles an artist whose personal failings are neither forgiven nor allowed to overwhelm his accomplishments.

Tales Of The Grim Sleeper

Nathan Rabin — Wed, 17 Dec 2014 00:00:00 -0600

For two decades, a serial killer nicknamed the “Grim Sleeper” was able to slaughter prostitutes and crack addicts at will in his South Central neighborhood. Nick Broomfield’s damning documentary accounts for how he got away with it for so long.

The Long Goodbye

Noel Murray — Mon, 15 Dec 2014 00:00:00 -0600

Before Inherent Vice, there was Robert Altman’s definitive SoCal noir, which adapts a Raymond Chandler novel into a shaggy private-eye picture that’s full of hazy atmosphere and irreverent attitude.

Inherent Vice

Keith Phipps — Tue, 09 Dec 2014 00:00:00 -0600

Paul Thomas Anderson’s masterful adaptation of Thomas Pynchon’s 2009 mystery novel sends pot-smoking P.I. Doc Sportello (Joaquin Phoenix) on a case that signals the changing Southern California culture of 1970.

Safe

Scott Tobias — Mon, 08 Dec 2014 00:00:00 -0600

Plagued by a mysterious allergy to everything, a woman seeks a cure in Todd Haynes’ 1995 masterpiece.

Les Blank: Always For Pleasure

Noel Murray — Mon, 01 Dec 2014 00:00:00 -0600

Criterion collects nearly 10 hours of Blank’s docs about food, music, and life in this set, showcasing films Werner Herzog say teach more about America than 500 books.

L’Avventura

Scott Tobias — Mon, 01 Dec 2014 00:00:00 -0600

The shock has worn off Michelangelo Antonioni’s 1960 breakthrough, but that hasn’t made it any less powerful.

The Babadook

Scott Tobias — Wed, 26 Nov 2014 00:00:00 -0600

An Australian horror movie summons a terrifying monster out of parental fears.

The Conformist

Keith Phipps — Mon, 24 Nov 2014 00:00:00 -0600

Bernardo Bertolucci’s landmark film about the making of an Italian fascist (Jean-Louis Trintignant) has a gorgeous, Expressionist grandeur, courtesy of cinematographer Vittorio Storaro.

It Happened One Night

Scott Tobias — Mon, 24 Nov 2014 00:00:00 -0600

Frank Capra’s 1934 film captured a spirit of abandon that defined the romantic-comedy genre, and set a model for all the ones that followed.

The Shooting / Ride In The Whirlwind

Noel Murray — Mon, 17 Nov 2014 00:00:00 -0600

In 1965, Roger Corman gave director Monte Hellman and actor Jack Nicholson $150,000 to shoot back-to-back Westerns in the Utah desert. They returned with two spare, elliptical films that helped redefine the genre.

The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari

Noel Murray — Mon, 17 Nov 2014 00:00:00 -0600

A sharp new Blu-ray brings out the long-lost detail in 1920’s German Expressionist touchstone The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari, in ways that make a nearly century-old film feel modern again.

Foxcatcher

Noel Murray — Wed, 12 Nov 2014 00:00:00 -0600

Capote director Bennett Miller returns to true crime with this chilling story about a Pennsylvania multimillionaire whose relationship with two brothers, both Olympic wrestling champions, ends tragically.

Portrait Of Jason / Ornette: Made In America

Noel Murray — Mon, 10 Nov 2014 00:00:00 -0600

Director Shirley Clarke shocked the squares with her 1962 underground hit The Connection. A pair of reissued Clarke documentaries took a similarly frank approach to profiling radical artists.

Interstellar

Keith Phipps — Tue, 04 Nov 2014 13:27:39 -0600

Set on an Earth doomed to extinction, Christopher Nolan’s beautiful, overreaching, often ineloquent science-fiction epic follows a team of NASA explorers scouting a new habitat for humanity.

Actress

Noel Murray — Tue, 04 Nov 2014 00:00:00 -0600

Robert Greene’s provocative documentary mixes intimate slice-of-life and staged sequences to profile Brandy Burre, an actress approaching 40 while playing many roles at once.

The Complete Jacques Tati

Noel Murray — Mon, 03 Nov 2014 00:00:00 -0600

The six comedies and plethora of bonus features on this new Criterion box set reveal how Jacques Tati told the story of French progress after World War II.

Goodbye To Language

David Ehrlich — Tue, 28 Oct 2014 00:00:00 -0500

Working in 3-D for the first time, Jean-Luc Godard synthesizes his ideas about technology and different ways of seeing with a format that allows for a radical layering of images. In short, it’s “Godard: The Ride.”

The Vanishing

Noel Murray — Mon, 27 Oct 2014 00:00:00 -0500

Rightly considered one of the scariest non-horror films ever made, George Sluizer’s abduction thriller cuts chillingly between the perspectives of a husband searching for his missing wife and the man who kidnapped her.

Citizenfour

Scott Tobias — Wed, 22 Oct 2014 00:00:00 -0500

Laura Poitras’ documentary about Edward Snowden captures history as it happens.

Force Majeure

Scott Tobias — Tue, 21 Oct 2014 00:00:00 -0500

An inciting incident on holiday calls a family’s connection into question in this incisive, pointed drama.

Watchers Of The Sky

Keith Phipps — Thu, 16 Oct 2014 00:05:00 -0500

Edet Belzberg’s profound documentary connects a century of genocides around the world and finds hope in the brave, insistent forces of resistance who try to prevent them.

Listen Up Philip

Scott Tobias — Wed, 15 Oct 2014 00:00:00 -0500

Alex Ross Perry’s third feature examines difficult men of letters and the damage they leave in their wake.

The Tale Of The Princess Kaguya

Noel Murray — Tue, 14 Oct 2014 00:00:00 -0500

Based on a Japanese folktale about a girl born from a bamboo shoot and the elderly, childless couple that raises her, Isao Takahata’s lyrical new Studio Ghibli gem has animation so gorgeous, any given frame could pass for a masterwork.

My Darling Clementine

Scott Tobias — Mon, 13 Oct 2014 00:03:00 -0500

John Ford was at the height of his mythmaking powers when he took on the Wyatt Earp legend, which turns on Henry Fonda’s ambiguous performance as the storied lawman.

Whiplash

Nathan Rabin — Wed, 08 Oct 2014 00:01:00 -0500

Damien Chazelle’s Sundance winner provides a terrific showcase for J.K. Simmons as a music teacher who gets results by terrorizing his students, including a young drumming prodigy played by Miles Teller.

The Overnighters

Scott Tobias — Tue, 07 Oct 2014 00:01:00 -0500

A Lutheran pastor finds his charitable impulse has consequences in a gripping, twisty documentary that unfolds against the North Dakota fracking boom.

Sleeping Beauty

Noel Murray — Mon, 06 Oct 2014 00:01:00 -0500

Following Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs and Cinderella, Walt Disney’s Sleeping Beauty is the weakest of his fairy-tale princess movies narratively, but remains the most beautiful movie the studio ever made.

The Innocents

Tasha Robinson — Mon, 06 Oct 2014 00:00:00 -0500

This 1961 adaptation of Henry James’ gothic ghost story “The Turn Of The Screw” isn’t as ambiguous as some, but it’s plenty creepy, and stunningly beautiful.

Last Hijack

Sheila O’Malley — Thu, 02 Oct 2014 00:06:00 -0500

Femke Wolting and Tommy Pallotta’s beautiful, insightful, innovative documentary uses striking images and animation to illuminate the life of a Somali pirate.

Gone Girl

Genevieve Koski — Wed, 01 Oct 2014 00:00:00 -0500

David Fincher and Gillian Flynn adapt Flynn’s bestselling novel into a chilling, memorable thriller that reads as an optimal meeting between two minds with similar fixations.

Macbeth

Keith Phipps — Mon, 29 Sep 2014 00:02:00 -0500

After Sharon Tate’s murder, director Roman Polanski imbued this Shakespeare adaptation with chilling personal resonance while proving that it’s possible to serve the playwright and cinema at the same time.

Ghost In The Shell

Noel Murray — Mon, 29 Sep 2014 00:01:00 -0500

Mamoru Oshii’s anime science-fiction classic takes place in a future where people can have their consciousnesses projected into a cybernetic body. Get past the tech-speak, and it’s a fascinating, beautiful speculative fiction.

The Boxtrolls

Tasha Robinson — Thu, 25 Sep 2014 00:04:00 -0500

Packed with complicated, charming gimcrackery, the latest stop-motion-animated whimsy from Laika, home of Coraline and ParaNorman, follows the adventures of quirky cavern-dwelling creatures that live in discarded boxes.

To Be And To Have

Noel Murray — Mon, 22 Sep 2014 00:00:00 -0500

Nicolas Philibert’s beautiful observational documentary visits a one-room schoolhouse in rural France, where Georges Lopez, a 35-year teaching veteran set for retirement, patiently leads children of various ages through lessons.

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre

Noel Murray — Mon, 22 Sep 2014 00:00:00 -0500

A mix of the assaultive and the artful, combined with the contributions of Austin-area filmmakers in the cast and crew, made Tobe Hooper’s 1974 horror classic as vibrant and beautiful as it is harrowing and ugly.

The Guest

Scott Tobias — Tue, 16 Sep 2014 00:00:00 -0500

Dan Stevens (Downton Abbey) finds new depths of seduction and menace in a thriller from Adam Wingard (You’re Next).

Out Of The Past

Keith Phipps — Mon, 15 Sep 2014 00:00:00 -0500

Rightly regarded as one of the best film noirs, Jacques Tourneur’s thriller stars Robert Mitchum as a former detective whose old assignment to track down a woman (Jane Greer) in Mexico comes back to haunt him.

Stray Dogs

Scott Tobias — Tue, 09 Sep 2014 00:00:00 -0500

The latest from Tsai Ming-liang (What Time Is It There?, The Hole) might seem off-putting to new viewers. For those who’ve followed his career, however, it reveals new depths.

All That Jazz

Noel Murray — Mon, 08 Sep 2014 00:00:00 -0500

In a groundbreaking musical-à-clef, director Bob Fosse laid his own life bare onscreen, following a director and choreographer (Roy Scheider) as he works on a stage show, edits a movie, and heads toward a nervous breakdown.

Starred Up

Tasha Robinson — Thu, 28 Aug 2014 00:04:00 -0500

Like A Prophet, David Mackenzie and Jonathan Asser’s tremendously powerful Starred Up drops a 19-year-old felon into a complicated, dangerous adult prison system. But in this case, the kid may be the most dangerous thing there.

Queen Margot

Scott Tobias — Mon, 25 Aug 2014 00:00:00 -0500

A restored director’s cut of a 1994 arthouse favorite reveals it as the bloody, complicated historical drama it always was—regardless of how it was advertised.

The Mack Sennett Collection Vol. One / Chaplin’s Mutual Comedies 1916-1917

Noel Murray — Mon, 25 Aug 2014 00:00:00 -0500

Two new box sets cover the overlapping careers of Mack Sennett and Charlie Chaplin, among early cinema’s greatest innovators. One includes a wide range of Sennett productions, the other a transitional period in Chaplin’s work.

Love Is Strange

Keith Phipps — Wed, 20 Aug 2014 00:00:00 -0500

After 39 years together, Ben (John Lithgow) and George (Alfred Molina) finally tie the knot. And that’s where the trouble starts in Ira Sachs’ subtle, beautifully observed and acted drama about family and long-term relationships.

Y Tu Mamá También

Noel Murray — Mon, 18 Aug 2014 00:00:00 -0500

After some luckless years in Hollywood, writer-director Alfonso Cuarón retreated to Mexico for a small, personal film that would change the course of his career.

Love Streams

Scott Tobias — Mon, 18 Aug 2014 00:00:00 -0500

Released in 1984, Love Streams wasn’t John Cassavetes’ final film, but it plays like a summation of his career.

We Won't Grow Old Together

Scott Tobias — Mon, 11 Aug 2014 00:00:00 -0500

Maurice Pialat’s self-lacerating portrait of a relationship in decline radically departs from conventional storytelling without ever calling attention to itself.

Rich Hill

Scott Tobias — Tue, 29 Jul 2014 00:00:00 -0500

In an atmospheric study of life on the fringes of a small Missouri town, Tracy Droz Tragos and Andrew Droz Palermo let viewers draw their own conclusions.

The Essential Jacques Demy

Noel Murray — Mon, 28 Jul 2014 00:01:00 -0500

A new box set spans the career of Jacques Demy, director of The Umbrellas Of Cherbourg and other moving flights of fancy.

Witness For The Prosecution / The Private Life Of Sherlock Holmes

Noel Murray — Mon, 21 Jul 2014 00:00:00 -0500

In adapting stories by Agatha Christie and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, director Billy Wilder married the slanginess and gusto of Hollywood films with the sophistication of his European roots.

Scanners

Keith Phipps — Mon, 14 Jul 2014 00:00:00 -0500

David Cronenberg’s breakthrough sold gorehounds on exploding heads, but his story about a confrontation between telepaths packs the brainy, metaphorical punch that defined his career going forward.

Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes

Keith Phipps — Thu, 10 Jul 2014 00:05:00 -0500

After reviving the Planet Of The Apes series with Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes, the franchise offers a strong sequel that puts the now-dominant apes into conflict with a pocket of humanity.

Boyhood

Noel Murray — Thu, 10 Jul 2014 00:03:00 -0500

Twelve years in the making, Richard Linklater’s astonishing experiment in narrative filmmaking follows the emotional development of one boy from age 6 to 18, and reveals Linklater’s artistic development in kind.

Southern Comfort

Noel Murray — Mon, 07 Jul 2014 00:00:00 -0500

A group of Louisiana National Guardsmen fall into conflict with Cajun swamp-dwellers on the bayou in Walter Hill’s superb action-thriller, which is and isn’t “about” Vietnam.

Life Itself

Genevieve Koski — Thu, 03 Jul 2014 00:05:00 -0500

Roger Ebert’s advocacy helped Steve James’ Hoop Dreams become a sensation. Now James returns the favor with a sensitive, inspiring, warts-and-all portrait of the late critic, who offered lessons on life and death.

First Cousin Once Removed

Noel Murray — Mon, 30 Jun 2014 00:00:00 -0500

An unusual, affecting documentary looks at the last days of Edwin Honig, a highly regarded scholar, as he loses his mental faculties to Alzheimer’s. His condition lets his filmmaker cousin consider who he was, and what remains.

Snowpiercer

Keith Phipps — Thu, 26 Jun 2014 00:02:00 -0500

South Korean master Bong Joon-ho (The Host) makes his English-language debut with a sharp, allegorical science-fiction thriller about an ice-covered future where all humanity shares the same perpetually moving train.

Picnic At Hanging Rock

Keith Phipps — Mon, 23 Jun 2014 00:02:37 -0500

Peter Weir’s breakthrough film about the disappearances at a girls’ boarding school in 1900 Victoria signaled the coming of the Australian New Wave, but its origins and conclusions remain clouded in seductive mystery.

Hearts And Minds

Scott Tobias — Mon, 23 Jun 2014 00:00:00 -0500

Peter Davis’ landmark documentary on the Vietnam War—which took a broad view in its examination of America’s role in the conflict—has lost none of its impact over the years, nor any of its relevance.

Coherence

Mike D'Angelo — Tue, 17 Jun 2014 00:00:00 -0500

A cross between the Twilight Zone episode “The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street” and Primer, James Ward Byrkit’s mind-bending science fiction deals with the temporal hiccups caused by a passing comet.

L’Eclisse

Scott Tobias — Mon, 16 Jun 2014 00:00:00 -0500

With L’Eclisse, Michelangelo Antonioni brought his trilogy on the theme of alienation to a close. This film is the least subtle of the bunch, but in many ways the most unforgettable.

The Nutty Professor

Noel Murray — Mon, 09 Jun 2014 00:00:00 -0500

In just his fourth film as a director, Jerry Lewis brought Frank Tashlin’s anything-for-a-gag philosophy to bear on one of his funniest vehicles, in which he plays the dual role of a nerdy professor and a Sinatra-esque super-stud he creates in his lab.

Obvious Child

Genevieve Koski — Wed, 04 Jun 2014 00:00:00 -0500

Gillian Robespierre’s romantic comedy has gotten a lot of attention for its treatment of abortion, but that’s only the most prominent example of its refreshing candor, embodied by star Jenny Slate.

Red River

Keith Phipps — Mon, 02 Jun 2014 00:00:00 -0500

Criterion’s first-ever Howard Hawks movie release is this masterful 1948 Western, featuring a dark performance by John Wayne as a temperamental cattle rancher with a complicated relationship with his adopted son.

Night Moves

Scott Tobias — Wed, 28 May 2014 00:00:00 -0500

Kelly Reichardt’s slow-burn thriller follows a trio of environmental activists—played by Jesse Eisenberg, Dakota Fanning, and Peter Sarsgaard—as they commit a crime that threatens to unmake itself with each step.

Sleepaway Camp

Scott Tobias — Tue, 27 May 2014 00:00:00 -0500

This one-of-a-kind horror film isn’t traditionally good, but that’s part of what makes it great.

The Immigrant

Scott Tobias — Thu, 15 May 2014 00:05:00 -0500

James Gray’s latest New York story re-creates history with a rare sense of urgency.

Il Sorpasso

Scott Tobias — Mon, 12 May 2014 00:00:00 -0500

This classic Italian road movie is full of surface pleasures, and plenty beneath the surface for those who choose to look.

The Bridges Of Madison County

Noel Murray — Mon, 05 May 2014 00:00:00 -0500

Robert James Waller’s bestselling romance novel about an affair between a photographer and a farmer’s wife won little respect from critics, but Clint Eastwood’s adaptation redeems every cliché.

Sorcerer

Sam Adams — Mon, 28 Apr 2014 00:00:00 -0500

William Friedkin’s adaptation of George Arnaud’s novel The Wages Of Fear bombed in 1977, but the director’s passion for this often exhilarating thriller has resulted in a sterling new Blu-ray edition.

Blue Ruin

Scott Tobias — Thu, 24 Apr 2014 12:05:44 -0500

Jeremy Saulnier’s darkly comic revenge thriller about a man woefully ill-suited to exacting revenge bears a strong Coen brothers influence, most significantly in its flawed yet tragically relatable protagonist.

Locke

David Ehrlich — Thu, 24 Apr 2014 12:05:31 -0500

Writer-director Steven Knight, who scripted Eastern Promises and Dirty Pretty Things and created the show Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, puts Tom Hardy in the driver’s seat in this powerful morality play on wheels.

The Five Obstructions

Noel Murray — Mon, 21 Apr 2014 00:00:00 -0500

Lars von Trier’s playful, approachable side comes out in this documentary, in which he asks fellow Danish filmmaker Jørgen Leth to remake his avant-garde short “The Perfect Human” five times under various conditions.

Riot In Cell Block 11

Keith Phipps — Mon, 21 Apr 2014 00:00:00 -0500

In the wake of the 1952 riot at Jackson State Prison, producer Walter Wanger and director Don Siegel addressed a hot-button social issue with two-fisted genre chops in this tough yet nuanced action-drama.

The Pawnbroker

Nathan Rabin — Mon, 21 Apr 2014 00:00:00 -0500

One of the first American films to address the Holocaust, Sidney Lumet’s shattering 1964 drama chronicles the haunted life of a concentration-camp survivor (Rod Steiger) who works as a pawnbroker in East Harlem.

Proxy

Mike D'Angelo — Wed, 16 Apr 2014 00:00:00 -0500

In Zach Parker’s Hitchcockian study in multiple pathologies, a young woman goes to a support group after she miscarries, but the grieving mother she befriends isn’t who she appears to be.

Alice

Noel Murray — Mon, 14 Apr 2014 00:00:00 -0500

Czech animator Jan Svankmajer mixes live-action, puppetry, and stop-motion animation in his surreal 1988 adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland, turning the children’s classic into a hypnotic nightmare.

Breaking The Waves

Scott Tobias — Mon, 14 Apr 2014 00:00:00 -0500

A transitional Lars von Trier film found the director between two styles, and drawing from both—while also discovering the dramatic power of putting female characters in torment.

Only Lovers Left Alive

Scott Tobias — Wed, 09 Apr 2014 00:00:00 -0500

Proving that there’s still energy left in the tired vampire-romance genre, writer-director Jim Jarmusch and stars Tilda Swinton and Tom Hiddleston find their own idiosyncratic angle.

Joe

Nathan Rabin — Tue, 08 Apr 2014 00:00:00 -0500

David Gordon Green’s bleak, eviscerating drama about an ex-convict (Nicolas Cage) trying to contain the violence around and within him is leavened by the director’s sense of humor and play.

Performance

Keith Phipps — Mon, 07 Apr 2014 00:00:00 -0500

On the run from gangland employers in London, a vicious collector (James Fox) changes his identity and hides out with a former rocker (Mick Jagger) in Donald Cammell and Nicolas Roeg’s radical play on genre and identity.

Persona

Scott Tobias — Mon, 07 Apr 2014 00:00:00 -0500

This 1966 anomaly forms the fractious centerpiece of Ingmar Bergman’s career, with the previously self-sequestering director engaging with the changes in international cinema for the first time, and going full-bore into the avant-garde.

Under The Skin

Noel Murray — Thu, 03 Apr 2014 13:05:19 -0500

Jonathan Glazer’s abstract, discordant yet daring, and even poignant science-fiction book adaptation follows an alien huntress (Scarlett Johansson) as she travels through Scotland, looking for men to seduce and ensnare, but developing deeper curiosities.

Nymphomaniac: Volume II

Noel Murray — Thu, 03 Apr 2014 00:01:00 -0500

Picking up where Volume I left off, Lars von Trier’s arresting opus follows Charlotte Gainsbourg’s protagonist as she becomes desensitized to sex and resorts to desperate measures to get any kind of feeling back.

The Freshman

Keith Phipps — Mon, 31 Mar 2014 00:00:00 -0500

In his biggest hit, Harold Lloyd shows off his physical and comedic skills—as well as his agelessness—as a hapless college student who joins the football team. The result is a slobs versus snobs touchstone.

Nymphomaniac: Volume I

Noel Murray — Thu, 20 Mar 2014 00:02:00 -0500

The first part of Lars von Trier’s latest provocation uses one woman’s complete sexual history to address his career-long preoccupations with gender roles, authoritarianism, religion, http://thedissolve.com/reviews/661-nymphomaniac-volume-ii/obsessive behavior, and lust.

The Missing Picture

Scott Tobias — Tue, 18 Mar 2014 00:00:00 -0500

Documentarian Rithy Panh takes novel measures to fill in the blanks of Cambodia’s recent past.

The Hidden Fortress

Keith Phipps — Mon, 17 Mar 2014 00:00:00 -0500

Akira Kurosawa’s biggest international hit pre-Yojimbo has inspired many imitators, most famously Star Wars. But while its widescreen adventure owes a lot to American Westerns, it also remains a perfect gateway for Westerners interested in Kurosawa.

Ernest & Celestine

Tasha Robinson — Thu, 13 Mar 2014 00:11:01 -0500

There’s a familiar, tired trope at the center of this Oscar-nominated, César-winning French animated feature about a mouse and a bear who become friends, but that doesn’t hold it back in the slightest.

George Washington

Scott Tobias — Mon, 10 Mar 2014 00:00:00 -0500

Sundance rejected David Gordon’s Green 2000 debut, but it still helped redefine what we expect from American indie films.

Bethlehem

Noah Berlatsky — Thu, 06 Mar 2014 00:03:00 -0600

In detailing the relationship between an Israeli intelligence officer and the Palestinian teenager he uses as a double agent, Yuval Adler’s tense drama smartly defies the glamour and allure of ordinary spy narratives.

The Grand Budapest Hotel

Scott Tobias — Wed, 05 Mar 2014 00:00:00 -0600

Wes Anderson’s latest takes place in an elegant hotel where the service remains impeccable, even as real-world barbarity threatens to check in.

King Of The Hill

Noel Murray — Mon, 24 Feb 2014 00:00:00 -0600

After Kafka put Steven Soderbergh’s ascendent career in a tailspin, he recovered with this lovely evocation of a young boy growing up alone in Depression-era Kansas City.

Tess

Keith Phipps — Mon, 24 Feb 2014 00:00:00 -0600

Resonances of Roman Polanski’s personal tragedies, both received and inflicted, inform his adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s pessimistic 1891 novel, which follows its heroine (Nastassja Kinski) through a world of senseless cruelty.

Foreign Correspondent

Keith Phipps — Mon, 17 Feb 2014 00:00:00 -0600

Two decades before Psycho, Alfred Hitchcock pulled off another mid-film gearshift in this 1940 international thriller, which starts as a droll chronicle of a naïve American reporter in Europe, and morphs into a warning of encroaching dangers.

Darkman

Noel Murray — Mon, 17 Feb 2014 00:00:00 -0600

Long before director Sam Raimi took on Spider-Man—and about two decades before Liam Neeson started vengeful-action-hero roles— Raimi found a way to explore superhero archetypes with pathos and Evil Dead-style manic humor.

Fantastic Mr. Fox

Scott Tobias — Mon, 17 Feb 2014 00:00:00 -0600

Wes Anderson’s stop-motion adaptation of a Roald Dahl children’s book represented a number of personal firsts, but even changing his style and working method doesn’t erase the quintessential Roald Dahliness of it all.

Jules And Jim

Carrie Rickey — Mon, 10 Feb 2014 00:00:00 -0600

François Truffaut’s modernist Pygmalion, still the standard of all screen love triangles, is one of the rare movies that takes on different resonances depending on when in life a viewer experiences it.

The Lego Movie

Keith Phipps — Thu, 06 Feb 2014 00:05:00 -0600

Ready to dismiss this animated comedy as shameless brand extension? Not so fast! Fusing elements of Toy Story and The Matrix, Phil Lord and Chris Miller’s film leaves room in a busy science-fiction plot for lots of imagination and fun.

The Long Day Closes

Scott Tobias — Mon, 03 Feb 2014 00:00:00 -0600

Terence Davies’ memories mingle in his singularly beautiful 1992 nostalgia piece, which positively radiates with love and sadness.

Thief

Scott Tobias — Mon, 27 Jan 2014 00:01:00 -0600

Feature debuts don’t come much more confident and accomplished than Michael Mann’s, which is as meticulous in its execution as its central heist.

The War Between Men And Women

Tasha Robinson — Mon, 27 Jan 2014 00:00:00 -0600

Working biographical details of an author’s life into a fictional narrative has become common practice in recent decades, but this Jack Lemmon comedy, inspired by the life of humorist James Thurber, was a rare treat in 1972.

Visitors

Noel Murray — Thu, 23 Jan 2014 00:02:00 -0600

Godfrey Reggio, director of the “Qatsi” trilogy, returns with another abstract, senses-staggering collage of beautiful images set to Philip Glass music, this time pondering the effects of technology on human life.

Stranger By The Lake

Scott Tobias — Wed, 22 Jan 2014 00:00:00 -0600

This riveting story mixes thriller material—furtive public sex, equally furtive murder—with a balanced style that makes inner mysteries as compelling as outward ones.

Throne Of Blood

Keith Phipps — Mon, 13 Jan 2014 00:00:00 -0600

Akira Kurosawa’s interpretation of Shakespeare’s Macbeth draws on the traditions of Noh theater to ponder the perhaps-unavoidable consequences of human ambition.

Stella Dallas

Scott Tobias — Mon, 06 Jan 2014 00:00:00 -0600

King Vidor’s 1937 melodrama lets audiences in on the selflessness and conflict of a relentless status-seeker played by Barbara Stanwyck. In the process, it fully earns its rep as a “weepie.”

Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Project No. 1

Noel Murray and Scott Tobias — Mon, 06 Jan 2014 00:00:00 -0600

The six films in this Criterion box set of world cinema come from different decades, genres, and countries. They don’t have much in common, apart from quality and quiet historical significance.

The Wolf Of Wall Street

Scott Tobias — Mon, 23 Dec 2013 00:04:00 -0600

Martin Scorsese’s latest, the rise-and-fall story of real-world convicted stock-market fraudster Jordan Belfort, echoes the savagery of his Raging Bull and the gleeful, celebratory greed of his Goodfellas.

The Past

Scott Tobias — Thu, 19 Dec 2013 00:00:00 -0600

Asghar Farhadi’s follow-up to 2011’s A Separation takes another nuanced, sympathetic look at a dissolving Iranian family, this time years after the central couple separates.

The Selfish Giant

Noel Murray — Thu, 19 Dec 2013 00:00:00 -0600

Director Clio Barnard returns to the West Yorkshire city of Bradford, the site of her brilliant documentary The Arbor, for her feature debut, a bleak yet beautiful drama about two delinquents who face an uncertain future after dropping out of school.

Her

Scott Tobias — Tue, 17 Dec 2013 00:00:00 -0600

Writing on his own for the first time, Spike Jonze’s 21st-century love story of a man and his operating system perfectly captures the mood of the times while exploring timeless themes.

Big

Keith Phipps — Mon, 16 Dec 2013 00:00:00 -0600

Penny Marshall’s deft comedy about a 12-year-old granted his wish to become 30 offered an early clue about where the career of its multi-talented star, Tom Hanks, might be headed.

Ms. 45

Scott Tobias — Thu, 12 Dec 2013 00:01:00 -0600

Abel Ferrara’s 1981 feature—which is receiving a limited theatrical re-release—uses the language of exploitation movies to say something more complex and sophisticated than its grindhouse roots suggest.

Mary Poppins

Noel Murray — Mon, 09 Dec 2013 00:00:00 -0600

P.L. Travers’ contentious relationship with Walt Disney over the adaptation of her children’s novel is the subject of the new movie Saving Mr. Banks, but Disney’s live-action musical is a near-masterpiece on its own terms.

Inside Llewyn Davis

Keith Phipps — Tue, 03 Dec 2013 00:00:00 -0600

Joel and Ethan Coen’s sad, beautiful new film follows the circular path of a folksinger (Oscar Isaac) who tries, with little luck, to extend his career beyond the Greenwich Village scene of the early 1960s.

Investigation Of A Citizen Above Suspicion

Keith Phipps — Mon, 02 Dec 2013 00:00:00 -0600

A police inspector murders his lover and deliberately leaves clues pointing to him as a perpetrator. Elio Petri’s provocative Best Foreign Language Film winner suggests the corruption within the system and the soul that explains his actions.

Knightriders

Noel Murray — Mon, 25 Nov 2013 00:00:00 -0600

George Romero’s strange, beautiful action epic stars Ed Harris as a motorcycle jouster who practices courtly ideals in a traveling renaissance festival. It’s one of the director’s best films.

Narco Cultura

Scott Tobias — Wed, 20 Nov 2013 00:00:00 -0600

This enlightening, daring documentary compares the lives of a Mexican cop investigating the many murders made possible by a flourishing drug trade, and a musician getting rich by glorifying the drug-cartel lifestyle.

City Lights

Scott Tobias — Tue, 19 Nov 2013 00:00:00 -0600

Charlie Chaplin’s City Lights came along well into the talkie era, but stuck to Silent Era conventions—to a point. It doesn’t ditch sound entirely, just uses it strategically.

Nosferatu

Noel Murray — Tue, 19 Nov 2013 00:00:00 -0600

Now restored for a new DVD/Blu-ray, F.W. Murnau’s silent vampire classic was nearly destroyed in a legal tussle, which would have deprived the world of Max Schreck’s creepy bloodsucker.

Nebraska

Scott Tobias — Wed, 13 Nov 2013 00:00:00 -0600

The latest from the director of The Descendants and Sideways returns to the Midwest, and to the banality of everyday life and everyday family drama.

JFK

Noel Murray — Tue, 12 Nov 2013 00:00:00 -0600

A superb new anniversary reissue doesn’t lend more credence to Oliver Stone’s conspiratorial “counter-myth” to the lone-gunman theory of the Kennedy assassination. But it’s a reminder of the shadowy government forces in our midst.

Assault On Precinct 13 / Body Bags

Nathan Rabin — Tue, 12 Nov 2013 00:00:00 -0600

There’s a gap in years and quality between John Carpenter’s brilliant Rio Bravo homage and his Showtime horror anthology, but both highlight his ability to make the most out of minimal resources.

Intolerance

Scott Tobias — Tue, 05 Nov 2013 00:00:00 -0600

Made in the shadow of the controversial Birth Of A Nation, D.W. Griffith’s follow-up may be his greatest achievement, a living monument to the early-20th-century turmoil that summoned it to life.

Fearless

Sam Adams — Tue, 05 Nov 2013 00:00:00 -0600

Unavailable since the pan-and-scan era, Peter Weir’s masterful drama uses the near-death experience of a plane-crash survivor (Jeff Bridges) to meditate on the meaning of life.

These Birds Walk

Scott Tobias — Tue, 29 Oct 2013 00:00:00 -0500

A documentary about Pakistan’s foremost social-welfare organization and the 85-year-old philanthropist behind it would seemingly lend itself to propaganda, but Omar Mullick and Bassam Tariq’s beautiful film instead offers an emotional, aesthetically striking experience that cuts more deeply than words.

La Notte

Scott Tobias — Mon, 28 Oct 2013 00:00:00 -0500

Michelangelo Antonioni’s beguiling vision of a floundering marriage sends its glamorous but disaffected central couple on a boozy journey through an alien, ultra-modern Milan.

Blue Is The Warmest Color

Scott Tobias — Wed, 23 Oct 2013 00:00:00 -0500

The actor/director squabbles that have overwhelmed the conversation of this sexual-coming-of-age story are a narrow filter for an impressively broad film, shot in widescreen and covering an equally wide gamut of human emotion.

All Is Lost

Keith Phipps — Wed, 16 Oct 2013 00:00:00 -0500

In J.C. Chandor’s gripping minimalist survival drama, Robert Redford gives a virtually wordless performance as a yachtsman who copes with a seafaring disaster on the Indian Ocean.

12 Years A Slave

Scott Tobias — Tue, 15 Oct 2013 00:00:00 -0500

The autobiography of a northern black man kidnapped and sold into slavery in 1841 makes for an uncompromising, merciless, riveting film in the hands of Shame director Steve McQueen.

Eyes Without A Face

Scott Tobias — Mon, 14 Oct 2013 00:00:00 -0500

This 1960 mad-doctor horror classic was ahead of its time, and was orphaned in its era, as so many truly unique classics are.

Wild Style

Nathan Rabin — Mon, 14 Oct 2013 00:00:00 -0500

The hip-hop time capsule gets the rich reissue it deserves 30 years after its release.

Captain Phillips

Keith Phipps — Wed, 09 Oct 2013 00:00:00 -0500

The 2009 Somali-pirate hijacking of the Maersk Alabama, captained by Richard Phillips, is a well-known piece of recent news. But Paul Greengrass’ scrupulous retelling casts the standoff in a new light.

The Big Parade

Noel Murray — Tue, 08 Oct 2013 00:00:00 -0500

King Vidor’s 1925 World War I epic was considered the greatest achievement in American film since The Birth Of A Nation, and it remains startling in its grim depiction of combat.

Gravity

Keith Phipps — Thu, 03 Oct 2013 00:04:00 -0500

Two astronauts (Sandra Bullock and George Clooney) fight for survival in open space in Alfonso Cuarón’s technically dazzling thriller, which achieves intimacy in the vastness of the cosmos.

A Touch Of Sin

Scott Tobias — Thu, 03 Oct 2013 00:02:00 -0500

Jia Zhang-ke’s geographically diverse survey of modern China examines pockets of discontent throughout a landscape where hardship and injustice has become too much for some to bear.

Wadjda

Andrew Lapin — Thu, 12 Sep 2013 00:01:00 -0500

The first-ever narrative feature shot entirely in Saudi Arabia has the added distinction of being directed by a Saudi woman. It also happens to be terrific.

Informant

Noel Murray — Thu, 12 Sep 2013 00:01:00 -0500

Brandon Darby went from founding a radical leftist organization aiding flood victims after Katrina to working with the FBI to put two would-be Republican National Convention protestors in prison. Jamie Meltzer’s documentary profile is a wild ride.

To Be Or Not To Be

Keith Phipps — Tue, 27 Aug 2013 00:00:00 -0500

In 1942, Ernst Lubitsch courted controversy by setting a comedy in present-day Poland, against the grim backdrop of the Nazi menace, but he pulls it off with an astonishing deftness.

The World’s End

Matt Singer — Thu, 22 Aug 2013 00:05:00 -0500

Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg, and Nick Frost follow Shaun Of The Dead and Hot Fuzz with a triumphant final entry in their “Cornetto Trilogy,” this one about a pub crawl disrupted by profound weirdness.

Charulata / The Big City

Noel Murray — Tue, 20 Aug 2013 00:00:00 -0500

In his direction, Satyajit Ray expressed strong empathy for whatever his protagonists were going through; a pair of Criterion releases showcase the Indian auteur’s gift for universality.

Ain’t Them Bodies Saints

Keith Phipps — Thu, 15 Aug 2013 00:02:00 -0500

David Lowery’s striking second feature is a spiritual cousin to films by Robert Altman and Terrence Malick—but its ambiguous, impassioned approach to the story of two criminals in love makes it a singular experience.

Seconds

Scott Tobias — Tue, 13 Aug 2013 00:00:00 -0500

This twisty piece of science fiction with a moral dimension would have fit snugly in the Twilight Zone universe, if not for its uniquely cinematic, disorienting sense of atmosphere.

Drug War

Noel Murray — Thu, 25 Jul 2013 00:04:00 -0500

A by-the-books police captain and a drug dealer facing a death sentence team up for a big narcotics bust in the latest from Hong Kong action maestro Johnnie To.

The Act Of Killing

Noel Murray — Thu, 18 Jul 2013 00:04:00 -0500

Perpetrators of genocide in mid-1960s Indonesia reenact their horrific crimes in this provocative, conceptually audacious documentary.

Lord Of The Flies

Scott Tobias — Tue, 16 Jul 2013 00:02:00 -0500

Director Peter Brook’s emphasis on starkness and simplicity does right by William Golding’s classic allegory, making it feel not like an allegory at all, but the inevitable result of order dissipating and violence sweeping in to fill the vacuum.

Computer Chess

Scott Tobias — Tue, 16 Jul 2013 00:00:00 -0500

Andrew Bujalski finds several new angles on the conflict between humanity and technology in a 1980s-set film shot on even older equipment.

The Life Of Oharu

Scott Tobias — Wed, 10 Jul 2013 04:20:00 -0500

Produced during Kenji Mizoguchi’s early-to-mid-’50s peak, this examination of one woman’s tumble down the social ladder condemns a society that caters to the whims and pleasures of men while leaving women to wriggle on the chopping board.

Berberian Sound Studio

Noel Murray — Wed, 10 Jul 2013 02:20:00 -0500

The line between fiction and reality starts to blur when a British foley artist works on an Italian “giallo” film called The Equestrian Vortex. Peter Strickland’s psychological thriller doubles as a vibrant homage to a cherished horror subgenre.