Aug 212 minReelsI Heart Huckabees: A Screwball Comedy for the Existentially CuriousTough sell, this one. So tough that co-writer and director David O.Russell struggled to get it off the ground—his fevered pitch likely...
Aug 143 minReelsDrunken Masquerade: Polanski’s Boozy Trainwreck at The PalaceWelcome to a palace where the absurd and the ridiculous join forces in a masquerade of vanity and lunacy, and you’ve got Roman Polanski's...
Jul 233 minReelsFrom Minnesota Nice to North Dakota Nonsense: Fargo Season 5's Unholy MessFargo's fifth season is a spectacle that somehow manages to be both wildly unremarkable and excruciatingly painful to endure. It's as if...
Jun 183 minReelsBad Luck Banging: A Provocative Satire of Pandemics, Porn, and Post-Soviet PurgatoryRomanian movie “Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn” (Babardeala cu bucluc sau porno balamuc), 2021, features Emi Cilibiu (Katia Pascariu), a...
May 293 minReelsLove, Lust, and Liquor: Riding the Emotional Rollercoaster of “Betty Blue”The joys of youthful despair are deliciously contradictory. You gamble with life like you’ve got nothing to lose, diving headfirst into...
May 293 minReelsPiano Duels and Psychedelics: The Birth of Victim Culture in Autumn SonataI started watching “Autumn Sonata” (Höstsonaten), 1978, with a sense of reluctance. The film opens slowly, and I found myself struggling...
May 282 minReelsTradition’s Bitter Joke“Late Marriage” (Hatuna Meuheret), 2001, is a film that straddles the line between dark comedy and bleak drama, making “Shtisel” look...
May 282 minReelsDervish Whispers: Mysticism in the DesertNacer Khemir, a Tunisian filmmaker, spins a mystical masterpiece with “Bab’Aziz — The Prince Who Contemplated His Soul.” (2005) It’s an...
May 212 minReelsAutumn Despair: ‘Fallen Leaves’ and the Bleak Winds of Finnish CinemaFallen Leaves (Kuolleet lehdet), 2023 The latest cinematic perplexity from Finnish auteur Aki Kaurismäki, takes the concept of a...
May 213 minReelsSmart AF“American Fiction” (2023), directed by Cord Jefferson, is a riotous take on the literary world’s hunger for “authentic” Black narratives....
May 162 minReelsDeath at a funeral and other party favorsIn Frank Oz’s “Death at a Funeral” (2007) the grim reaper doesn’t just stop by for tea; he knocks over the china, trips on the rug, and...
May 167 minReelsFebruary movies I survivedNapoleon, 2023 Ridley Scott decides he’s going to make a movie about Napoleon. So far so good. After all, previously he managed to turn...