Crash (1996)

David Cronenberg's Crash is a film about desperate people in a situation that is beyond desperate. It is, according to J.G. Ballard...

8½ (Federico Fellini, 1963)

A common misconception about Federico Fellini's 8½ stipulates that the film concerns the issue of writer's block. It does not. Rath...

Steven Spielberg: 1941

As with most of the films that eventually "caused" the death of New Hollywood, the reports of 1941 's commercial and critical ...

Au hasard Balthazar

Robert Bresson's Au hasard Balthazar announces its originality and deep knowledge of the art of cinema and the individual elements that...

Brian De Palma: Greetings

Though it shares only the most minimal of stylistic traits with his previous two features, Greetings marks the spot where Brian De Palma be...

Carpenter's Tools: In the Mouth of Madness

As I have said repeatedly in my trek through John Carpenter's filmography, the most entertaining and rewarding aspect of his filmmaking ...

Shutter Island

I noticed when I signed into my Blogger account to write this a whopping five posts in a row discussing Martin Scorsese's much-belated B...

Safe

The climax of Todd Haynes' Safe is so intense, so gripping, so utterly terrifying and yet so impersonal and calm at the same time that ...

Vivre sa vie

Doubling back as I am to catch Vivre sa vie , one of Jean-Luc Godard's most beloved films (oddly out-of-print until Criterion puts out t...

Lost — Season 5

[Warning- contains spoilers] As with the Oceanic Six at the start of Lost 's fifth season, I fear I spent too much time off the island. ...