Three TV Shows That Promise an Intriguing Viewing Experience
These three TV shows of early spring 2024 are the most compelling, mind-boggling, and expensive-looking ones to watch before you go back out in the sun.
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Film Noir Trio Showcases Edward G. Robinson on All Sides of the Law
The films in Film Noir: The Dark Side of Cinema XVII are united by one of Hollywood’s greatest actors, the almost casually brilliant and magnetic Edward G. Robinson.
Kore-eda Hirokazu’s ‘Monster’ Falls Short of Its Literary Ambitions
Kore-eda Hirokazu’s Monster has striking moments, but casually skips over details, reducing its characters to incomplete fragments.
‘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.
Men Are So Lovely and Dry: Saltburn’s Queer Narrative Failures
Saltburn sparked discussion for its shocking sex scenes, but for all its stylized images and clever gendered trope inversions, its queer promises are empty.
The Troubled History of Silent Film ‘Pandora’s Box’
Its lesbian love interest was once modified and a saccharine ending tacked on, but a new controversy arises with G.W. Pabst’s silent film classic Pandora’s Box.
Personhood and Performance in Alexis Soloski’s ‘Here in the Dark’
Alexis Soloski’s Here in the Dark illuminates the act of performance (no matter the stage) and the notion of stepping into and out of one’s personhood.
Fantasy Made Reality in William Oldroyd’s Adaptation of Ottessa Moshfegh’s ‘Eileen’
William Oldroyd and Thomasin McKenzie discuss sympathising with a young woman caught between fantasy and reality in the adaptation of Ottessa Moshfegh’s Eileen.
Spoof of Spooks ‘Slow Horses: Season 3’ Is a Wild Ride
Slow Horses is acutely aware that it’s entertainment. Many scenes play like spoofs of the straight-faced crummy thrillers that pose as prestige cinema.
Twisted and Ambitious ‘The Curse’ Watches and Condemns Us
Satirizing the struggles of a married couple shooting an HGTV show, Showtime miniseries The Curse bends genres and points fingers to monstrous effect.
The Historical-Reflective in Hitchcock’s ‘The Lady Vanishes’
Alfred Hitchcock’s The Lady Vanishes depicts a variety of cultural deaths as they were happening. No small feat for a light comedy with sex-farce undertones.
Carnivorous French Provocateur Catherine Breillat on ‘Last Summer’
Filmmaking should be carnivorous, made from “the flesh of the actors” says French provocateur Catherine Breilla as she discusses her thriller, Last Summer.