‘Claudine’ Is a Sweetly Embroidered Drama of Class Struggle
John Berry's Claudine is a compelling watch featuring performances that leave impressions upon the heart long after the film is over.
crime
Director Thomas Bezucha on His Neo-Western, ‘Let Him Go’
Adapting Larry Watson's novel, director Thomas Bezucha sets the quest of a retired sheriff and his wife to the era of American society's fall from grace.
Martin Scorsese’s ‘The Irishman’ and the Gangster’s Reimagined Soul
Scorsese's The Irishman is not a masculine power fantasy, nor could its heavy underlying sadness ever be mistaken for delight in violence or criminality.
On Jean-Luc Godard’s Game of Despair, ‘Pierrot le fou’
Pierrot le fou is filled with cars, guns, cash, and books, but Godard is more interested in what exists between these "definite things", namely the thoughts inhabiting empty space.
‘The Other Side of Madness’ Is the Most Obscure Charles Manson Film
If truth is stranger than fiction then the truth about some films, such as the Charles Manson film The Other Side of Madness, feels as strange as reality ever gets.
Forest Whitaker Film ‘Ghost Dog’ Is a Sampler’s Paradise
Jarmusch's 1999 classic Ghost Dog, now in a Criterion edition, freely mixes and matches Bushido philosophy, Mafia and samurai flicks, Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, and lo-fi hip-hop into a sly and dreamy comedy about role-playing.
Jacking-in to Kathryn Bigelow’s Lost Classic ‘Strange Days’
Cyberthriller Strange Days is the Kathryn Bigelow version of a Brian De Palma film—interrogating the male gaze of the immoral.
How ‘Watchmen’ and ‘The Boys’ Deconstruct American Fascism
Superhero media has a history of critiquing the dark side of power, hero worship, and vigilantism, but none have done so as radically as Watchmen and The Boys.
Jules Dassin Versus Mark Hellinger and ‘The Naked City’
Producer Mark Hellinger may have committed the biggest crime in the filming of Jules Dassin's classic film-noir, 'The Naked City'.
The Poetry of Murder in Jean Renoir’s ‘Toni’
Renoir's Toni is a grim piece of work saturated in summer sunshine and tree-speckled shadows.