Looking back, it's hardly surprising that Baumbach and Gerwig have become a couple in the wake of this collaboration; his camera regards her with great love and affection from the very first shot. Central to this of course is Harris Savides' subtly vibrant cinematography. This quiet approach dovetails nicely with the film's central relationship and, ultimately, Baumbach's unexpectedly humanist portrait of an asshole.

Korine is critical much the way that Verhoeven is. There ought to be no mistaking his virulent anti-capitalism, but he's not about to deny that the nice things it buys aren't pretty. Indeed, much of the film is gorgeous--if garish--to behold, but the repetition of shapes and palettes slowly strips the once-spirited images of their vitality. Spring Break is "forever" because it decays what is human and alive in time.

Only further proof that Steven Soderbergh's imminent retirement is nothing short of a catastrophic tragedy for American cinema. Few filmmakers, even in the Classical Hollywood age, were as adept at transitioning from project to project with the precision and grace that Soderbergh consistently displays. He's a modern master; no two ways about it.

An Injury to One is available here on Wilkerson's personal Vimeo page, along with a number of his other films. http://vimeo.com/52202683

Many of the issues I have with Haneke are brought to mind here, but what elevate Dogtooth are the moments of sheer joy and levity brought on by something as simple as reciting dialogue from Jaws or Rocky. The world that the Father has created for his family is a fascist re-imagining of bourgeois normality, but there is still hope in Lanthimos's vision that a more powerful image still might puncture this sick façade.

Everything Haneke has ever tried to do Ackerman accomplishes here in 11 minutes. Her form is as rigorous as it is poetic and even playful in the way the rhythms of the camera pans anticipate the reemergence of the director with every 360 degrees. The terror and angst in viewership that finally emerges, however, comes with the realization of a violent gaze that we at once eagerly indulge and are powerless to overcome.

Ying's vision of China is one that psychologically fragmented itself through the process of betraying the utopian horizon for an ugly totalitarian capitalism. As communities pull themselves apart to accommodate both economic development and its attendant environmental ravages, Xu Yun slowly reveals himself to be not simply a fish out of water, but a kindred spirit to the flood that promises to swallow Zigong whole.

Not a particularly strong picture on the whole, but I'll be damned if Fred Willard with a faux-hawk isn't one of funniest things I've seen in a movie in quite some time.

A film of seemingly unfathomable depths. Where those depths lead, however, I can't claim to know or guess with any great certainty. L'Intrus hangs in the air like a phantom of the bodily present, haunting what may be the past or what may not be at all, but which seems to be the elements of its own constitution. Denis has drawn out something special in this film.

There is a true audacity in Spielberg opening his sequel to "Raiders" with an extended fifteen minute setpiece beginning itself with a dance sequence straight out of Busby Berkeley. The tension he sustains as the song ends and he sets his pieces through Indy's conversation with Lao for the climax of the Shanghai sequence is a masterful display of classical design that boils over and explodes in delightful mayhem.

I just remembered that I have in fact seen this movie. Lord have mercy.

Apatow's radicalization continues as he delivers a tragicomic portrait of modern American marriage as an endlessly cyclical car crash in slow motion. Pete and Debbie's relationship is beset by the ignored, dulled traumas of their respective pasts, as well as by the inevitable turn of the economic system that once supported their lifestyles. As in Funny People, the conclusion is mere respite, peaceful yet fleeting.

Haneke would have you think that he hates the bourgeoisie more than any director on the European scene. Amazingly, he persists without the basic self-awareness necessary to realize that his semi-annual castigations of that class perfectly contribute to the conditions necessary for their continued cultural dominance. He is the people he despises in his own work. Maybe one day he'll finally figure that out, but at this rate I sincerely doubt it.

Even more than in Spielberg's other work, the clash between the mundane and the mythological takes centre stage here. Day-Lewis grounds Lincoln as a quiet, determined, but deeply sad man. Lincoln the legend only ever appears through oratory or through Spielberg's purposeful reflection or framing, and always following a simple human moment. Lincoln is about family and politicking, but as art in cannot contain history.

I'm afraid if I rewatch this my one memory of a really good Chris Nolan film will be taken from me forever, and I'll be forced to watch the horror of "The Dark Knight Rises"'s third act in my mind's eye for the rest of time.

Even more than Anderson's attention to the play of bodies in space, what really shines through is his devotion to his leading lady. Of course Anderson is married to Jovovich, so there should be little surprise at this, but no director working today films an actress with as much obvious care and affection. In their own perverse way, Anderson's Resident Evil films are a series of visceral love letters to his wife.

The closest analogues I can find to Day of Reckoning are Zombie's Halloween films, so radical is Hyams in his exploration of the costs of violence. Nothing is safe here. The body, the psyche, the products of human development and culture--all are subject to the destructive power of the violent act. Hyams's frame, the light used to produce the image, quakes as if about to rupture. Form itself abhors the violent act.

Politically astute compared with most Hollywood thrillers, politically naive compared with most first-year sociology classes. Ah well, at least it gave Alan Arkin an opportunity to prove he still has one of the best comic deliveries around.

To speak of "bare-bones" cinema is too reductive. This is cinema sans bones, a cinema of the flesh. Stripped of all the elements that should hold a film together, it nonetheless breathes, feels, and dances. It surges with a subtle vitality at the possibilities of life, even of a life lived in quiet transience. In a way this is one of Kiarostami's most experimental features yet, and consequently one of his most vital.

Really strong review from the Fantastic Fest premiere by Indiewire: http://www.indiewire.com/article/fast-and-furious-universal-soldier-day-of-reckoning-is-one-of-the-best-action-movies-of-the-year

"A forthcoming crime film from Johnnie To". The most popular phrase in all of Asian cinema.

The trick with Born on the Fourth of July is to keep the volume down as low as possible and then try to synch up horribly inappropriate pop music with the histrionic images on screen. Trust me, it makes the film a lot more enjoyable.

In which Mr. Korine agrees to put a Black Keys song in the soundtrack in exchange for funding. I've heard of worse tradeoffs, I suppose.

Minor Miyazaki is still major cinema.

Is there anybody who can point me to a torrent, stream or really anything of Wang Bing's? I'm most anxious to see Tie Xi Qu, but I'd settle for any of his work.

The end of Godard's first period is one of the most incisive, calamitous explorations of nihilism ever attempted in cinema. The barren void at the heart of the bourgeois West is pulled and prodded until its barriers come crashing down and the society that has lived on it for so long can literally do nothing but eat itself to death. This is not a "revolutionary" film the way that many describe it; it is apocalyptic.

Masterpiece.

Tony Scott's passing is a devastating loss for contemporary American cinema. One can only hope that the numerous works of art he made are not overshadowed or forgotten in the wake of his death. He was one of the original vulgar auteurs, and among those ranks he will always be one of the greats. Rest easy, Tony.

What kind of twisted world do we live in where not a single critic, programmer or academic votes for Showgirls in the S&S poll? It's a damn shame.

If seeing Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning is not a life-or-death matter for you, then you are not a vulgar auteurist. Plain and simple.