Netflix Instant Picks 3/8/13—3/14/13

Slim pickings this week in terms of notable additions and deletions from Netflix, but at least it's balanced out with one of Howard Hawk...

The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (Jacques Demy, 1964)

The following is my belated February entry for Blindspots . Jacques Demy announces the “movie”-ness of The Umbrellas of Cherbourg from its ...

Written By (Wai Ka-fai, 2009)

Better known as Johnnie To's creative partner and co-founder of To's independent Hong Kong company Milkyway Image, Wai Ka-fai is als...

Something Old, Something New: Floating Clouds/Tabu

When I recently caught up with Mikio Naruse's Floating Clouds , I was struck not only by its considerable power but in how strongly it r...

The Band Wagon (Vincente Minnelli, 1953)

As a belated celebration of Vincente Minnelli's 110th birthday, I wrote some brief thoughts on his excellent Astaire vehicle and cinemat...

Netflix Instant Picks 3/1/13–3/7/13

Another Friday, another list of Netflix Instant titles to watch from myself and Corey Atad. A lot expired in the wee hours of the morning, b...

Oeuvre: De Palma: Body Double

Body Double is one of my favorite films, so I jumped at the chance to write about it for Spectrum Culture's running feature reviewing a...

Favorite Film Discoveries: January/February 2013

Inspired by Brian Saur hosting my picks for my favorite first-time watches of 2012 over at his site , I decided to keep closer track of the...

Blu-Ray Review: The Terminator

I've been waiting for a good-quality Blu-Ray of The Terminator , my favorite James Cameron film and one of my favorite genre pictures of...

Young Mr. Lincoln (John Ford, 1939)

I was exhilarated by John Ford's Young Mr. Lincoln when I saw it recently, finding all the things I loved about Steven Spielberg's ...

Inescapable (Ruba Nadda, 2013)

A Taken ripoff without the action? It could work, I suppose, but the replacement of Pierre Morel's demented but fluid vision of post-9/...

Shelf Life: A Matter of Life and Death

I love this inverse Wizard of Oz romance from the Archers, and as an introduction to the work of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, it ...

Netflix Instant Picks 2/22/13—2/28/13

Corey and I have our latest Netflix Instant picks for US and Canadian subscribers. I'm on a Johnnie To kick, so you know I gotta recomme...

Special Giveaway: Fandango Gift Card (NOW CLOSED)

Recently, I was invited by 20th Century Fox's Fan Network to participate in some social media promotion in advance of A Good Day to Die ...

Like Someone in Love (Abbas Kiarostami, 2013)

Abbas Kiarostami continues to work wonders outside Iran, bringing all the masterful techniques he developed and perfected in his homeland wh...

Bullet to the Head (Walter Hill, 2013)

Walter Hill's Bullet to the Head  may be a middling feature, but it offers a thrilling glimpse at how a great talent can elevate even me...

The Fire (Brigitte Bertele, 2013)

When it attempts to be a thriller, Brigitte Bertele's The Fire  falls flat; what's more, it seems to know this, as these attempts pr...

Shelf Life: The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

I have a fondness for Terry Gilliam's The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus  and did a brief review of it  at Movie Mezzanine for my weekl...

Netflix Instant Picks 2/15/13—2/21/13

It's that of week again where Corey and I post our favorite picks for Netflix Instant. This week, I celebrate finally getting the chance...

Man of the West (Anthony Mann, 1958)

Over at Movie Mezzanine, I wrote some thoughts about Anthony Mann's stirring 1958 masterpiece, Man of the West , starring a perfectly ca...

Something Old, Something New: Déjà Vu / Resident Evil: Retribution

More belated links. At Movie Mezzanine, I compare two great Vulgar Auteurist pieces, Tony Scott's Déjà Vu  and Paul W.S. Anderson's ...

Night Across the Street (Raúl Ruiz, 2013)

Raúl Ruiz's final completed feature (another is being finished by his widow) is as cryptic as the few other Ruiz films I've seen, wi...

Criminally Underrated: Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance

I wrote about the weakest (but still delightful) Neveldine/Taylor feature to date, Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance for Spectrum Culture...

Netflix Instant Picks 2/1/13—2/7/13 and 2/8/13—214/13

Since I forgot to link to last week's Netflix picks, I'll just post links for that one and the one that went up this morning. Netfli...

Oscar-Nominated Shorts

I have capsule reviews for each of the animated and live-action shorts nominated for this year's Oscars at Spectrum Culture. They are mo...

Trash (Paul Morrissey, 1970)

Man, I've got to get better about updating this place with links. My review for Paul Morrissey's excellent, transgressive Trash (my...

Palette Cleansers: Canyon Passage

I debut a new feature this week at Movie Mezzanine that elaborates on the use of color in a film in establishing mood, character, narrative,...

Yossi (Eytan Fox, 2013)

Yossi starts so powerfully that the frustratingly stiff, unvarying approach of its camera makes the eventual slog all the more disappointin...

Netflix Instant Picks 1/25/13—1/31/13

Apologies for the lateness of this post, but last Friday's Netflix picks can be found at Movie Mezzanine. For this installment, I promot...

The Long Day Closes (Terence Davies, 1992)

This is my unforgivably late Blind Spots entry for last November. December's pick, Feuillade's Judex, will likely not receive a writ...

Something Old, Something New: The End of Evangelion / It's Such a Beautiful Day

I watched Don Hertzfeldt's masterpiece and Hideaki Anno's nihilistic OAV within days of each other, and I could not help but be draw...

Graveyard of Honor (Takashi Miike, 2002)

For this week's Shelf Life piece at Movie Mezzanine, I took a look at the Takashi Miike film that, more than the few others I've see...

Something Old, Something New: The Last Temptation of Christ / Lincoln

I knew I'd forgotten to link to something this week. Last Monday, my second Something Old, Something New piece went up, this time on the...

My Top 25 Film Discoveries of 2012

I've been reading the blog Rupert Pupkin Speaks for a while now, and I was delighted when its operator, Brian Saur, sent a request for m...

Netflix Picks 1/18/13-1/24/13

It's that time of week again, where Corey Atad and I pick our favorite offerings on Netflix Instant. My own picks for the week are an Os...

Luv (Sheldon Candis, 2013)

I got an early surprise this year with a festival holdover from Sheldon Candis, the remarkable, intimate drama Luv . Tracking a prepubescent...

Phantom Lady (Robert Siodmak, 1944)

Over the weekend, I started a new column on Movie Mezzanine that picks a film a week for review, and my first selection was Robert Siodmak...

The Tower (Kim Ji-hoon, 2013)

The Tower starts off agreeably enough, with shots of geometrically aligned staffers in an ostentatious but cheaply made high-rise apartment...

Netflix Picks 1/11/13-1/17/13

This week's Netflix picks are up at Movie Mezzanine. This week, I single out the unexpectedly rewarding fourth installment of an uneven ...

The Baytown Outlaws (Barry Battles, 2012)

I have no sensitivity to seeing the South depicted as a caricature, but the caricature in The Baytown Outlaws is so thin I kept wishing Bil...

Something Old, Something New: Lonesome / Girl Walk//All Day

I debuted a new weekly feature this morning at Movie Mezzanine called Something Old, Something New. In it, I take a film released within the...

Overtime (Matt Niehoff and Brian Cunningham, 2011)

Overtime starts as a vague Tarantino homage before turning into a silly pastiche of various clichés over the course of its 80 minutes. Ultr...

The Best Blu-Rays of 2012

To go with my favorite Criterions of the year, I put up my favorite Blu-Rays of the year over at Movie Mezzanine. Check 'em out .

Netflix Picks of the Week 1/4/13-1/10/13

Every week at Movie Mezzanine, Corey Atad and I pick three movies on Netflix Instant (me for the US, Corey for Canada). These posts will go ...

Promised Land (Gus Van Sant, 2012)

All I gotta say is, when I get around to Elephant this year, it better undo a lot of the damage of Van Sant's last decade. I still have...

The Best Criterions of 2012

Up at Movie Mezzanine, I've put up a list of my 10 favorite Criterion releases from the past year. It was a bit of an off year for the c...

New Gig: Movie Mezzanine

This morning, Sam Fragoso of Duke and the Movies launched his new website, Movie Mezzanine . I'm proud to say that I will be serving as ...

Blindspots 2013

It may be presumptuous of me to plan for another year's worth of Blindspots posts when I still have two more from 2012 to complete (expe...