What I will say about Aquarius, the latest film from Brazilian filmmaker Kleber Mendonça Filho is that it is an absorbing, detailed and considerate character study of its female protagonist – and more, that protagonist happens to be a woman in her mid-sixties. There really isn’t enough major roles or stories […]
Arrow Academy
Cinema Eclectica 118 – Beachy Beachy Fun Times With The Rock
Rob and Graham go head to head after accidentally super-gluing their foreheads together. It’s a two-man show this week that starts with an uncharacteristically adorable preview before normal service resumes in Off the Shelf with the Western “One Eyed Jack’s” from Arrow Academy, the Eastern “Harmonium” from Eureka/Masters of Cinema, […]
Spotlight on a Murderer (1961) An anti-murder mystery from a famed French Surrealist (Review)
Shadows and Fog (1990) Woody Allen’s Under-rated Homage to German Silent Cinema (Review)
One year following his overlooked 1990 film, Alice, Woody Allen followed that up with his tribute film towards the German expressionist film movement, Shadows and Fog. As the title suggests, Allen and cinematographer, Carlo Di Palma, soak the film in a misty and darkened b/w atmosphere, so Woody was obviously […]
Story of Sin (1975) the standard by which all other Blu-Ray and DVD releases should now be judged (Review)
Story of Sin begins with a quintessentially Walerian Borowczyk image; the doors of a church confessional booth being opened. Already, we can see so many things that fascinate this director, from what’s on-screen (the frame-within-a-frame, the old-fashioned handmade props and sets) to the implicit (the unlocking of secrets, the critical attitude towards […]
Radio Days (1987) Honey-hued homage to the Golden Era of Radio (Review)
The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985) Perfectly captures our love affair with movies (Review)
Alice (1990) Woody Allen, stepping out of the shadow of his comedy (Review)
In his book Crackpot, John Waters devotes a chapter to his guilty pleasure movies – the joke being that the trash cinema most people would describe as a guilty pleasure is exactly what you’d expect Waters to unashamedly love. Instead, the chapter is devoted to achingly sincere, existential art films which Waters […]
Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989) Woody Allen’s narrative pleasures are worth the wait (Review)
No matter how many times actors, writers and directors repeat that old saw about dying being easier than comedy, critics are still more likely to go into raptures about hard-hitting Oscar-season dramas than summer comedies. One rare exception, enshrined as a great living American director despite an almost entirely comic […]
The Hired Hand (1971) A Long Lost-Masterpiece from Peter Fonda (Review)
Following the industry-reshaping success of Easy Rider, the film’s three stars Dennis Hopper, Jack Nicholson and Peter Fonda took the opportunity to direct personal projects on a studio budget. In the end, all three of them flopped, though they each have plenty of interest for students of those actors’ screen […]