The man-child as mass murderer: Justin Kurzel’s Nitram
Without showing any violence, this emotionally stunning descent from pathetic misfit into merciless killer is utterly striking, convincing and instructive.
Just make something up! Tales of tall tales and parables for our times (KVIFF 2022)
Karlovy Vary 2020: We live in an age of creative awakening. This is the flipside, the upside of ‘post-truth times.’ We know not where this leads but it behoves us to make the best of the journey. The alternative is dystopia – and we all know what that is like!
Girls on film: Nina Menkes’ Brainwashed: Sex-Camera-Power (KVIFF 2022)
KVIFF 2022: The truth about ‘girls on film’ according to director Nina Menkes.
The luxury of awfulness: Kristoffer Borgli’s Sick of Myself
Cannes 2022: It feels so apt that Norwegian director Kristoffer Borgli, on stage in a crisp suit at Cannes and wresting the spotlight away from Thierry Fremaux himself, called his feature debut Sick of Myself a ”toast to the assholes”.
The Unsparing Judgement of Oneself: the Life and Work of Larisa Shepitko
Today, as we watch in awe her fellow Ukrainians’ bravery and refusal to relent, The Ascent, and Shepitko’s life, may give us a clue as to what is worth fighting for.
Focus of faith: Joachim Trier’s The Worst Person in the World
A film of wanderings and street-level epiphanies, a romantic comedy ending in stripped-down tragedy, a portrait of the future artist as a young woman.
Is Charlie Chaplin’s The Gold Rush (1925) modern?
Is Charlie Chaplin’s The Gold Rush (1925) modern? Who cares! Like any true masterpiece, it transcends the confines of any epoch.
Berlinale 2022 – Returning home, only to find it different
«Europe has a tendency to wake up and find itself different in the immediate aftermath of the Berlinale, from all the way back in 2014 with the Maidan protests, and indelibly more so now with a full-blown invasion and war in Ukraine. Through no fault of the films themselves, history is speeding up and finding us responding to constantly outdated upheavals.»
M. Night Shyamalan’s The Visit, Part II: Shit happens, but with precision
Although not strictly a found footage film itself, The Visit is commenting upon, and at times even satirising, the ingredients of the genre. Bonus: references to other Shyamalan films.
The Deep Darkies of the Soul: M. Night Shyamalan organically swings in The Visit
“You have to laugh to keep the deep darkies in a cave.” Shyamalan’s most audacious film presents a bizarre mix of knowing irony, youthful naivete, mental illness, comedic horror and tonal shifts, yet everything seamlessly works.
The Matrix Resurrections: Precision and poetry
Lana Wachowski’s solo Matrix effort is very uneven, but especially the first act is hugely impressive, marked by precision-point filmmaking and mirror poetry.
Sculpting Time: Joachim Trier’s The Worst Person in the World
«The images, the sounds, and the emotions of this film are all in me, mind and body, and will stay with me, not just as a favourite among Trier’s films, but as a favourite film.»