‘Foreign Land’ and the Dawn of a New Age in Brazilian Cinema
The bleakness in Walter Salles and Daniela Thomas’ 1995 crime thriller Foreign Land would mark the film as a paragon in the newly emerging Brazilian cinema.
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‘La Cérémonie’ Explores Social Class Struggles with Chilling Exactitude
Filmed under a cool glass of calm and enwrapped in an airy atmosphere, La Cérémonie makes judicious use of its setting to starkly contrast its warring classes.
‘True Detective: Night Country’ Finds Comfort in Darkness
At the edge of civilization where True Detective: Night Country is set there is no promise of salvation, only carnal vengeance and some comfort in the darkness.
Who Thought Monty Python’s John Cleese Could Be a Romantic Lead?
You can sense Charles Crichton’s stare bearing down on John Cleese every time the former Monty Python actor attempts anything more comedic than a bemused smirk.
Getting High on Your Own Supply: ‘Scarface’ as an Allegory of Capitalism
Scarface implies that under capitalism, “getting high on your own supply” is inevitable, as the system is based on the exploitation of dissatisfaction.
The Amplified Silence in Scorsese’s ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’
There are taboo subjects in the context of Indigenous Americans in Killers of the Flower Moon. Scorsese’s film only amplifies the silence surrounding them.
David Fincher’s ‘The Killer’ Is a Deadly Satire of the Corporate World
You can read David Fincher’s The Killer as a story about a murderer, or you can see it as the satire of our pathetic little existence that it really is.
Martin Scorsese’s ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ Shows Genocide Is (also) a Private Affair
Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon is another storytelling masterclass and examination of 20th-century American histories of greed and destruction.
French Wartime Noir ‘Strangers in the House’ Haunts
Whether as a star vehicle, a Simenon mystery, a wartime allegory, or merely a studio product, Strangers in the House is a rewarding French film that’s gone largely unnoticed.
Actor Aidan Gillen on His Role in Noir Love Letter to Dublin, ‘Barber’
Irish actor Aidan Gillen talks about his lead role, and the freedom given to him to define his character, in Fintan Connolly’s Dublin-set modern noir, Barber.
Fragments of a (Diabolical) Dream: Vojtěch Mašek’s ‘The Sisters Dietl’
Reading Vojtěch Mašek’s s diabolical and superb The Sisters Dietl is like consuming a many-layered pastry laced with something hallucinogenic.
Comedy Series ‘The Afterparty’ Is Among the Last of Its Kind
The second season of Apple TV’s funny, inventive, and self-indulgent comedy whodunnit The Afterparty is utterly unnecessary in the best way.