Essays
Senses run through this second issue of Animus. Mark Asch writes beautifully about the doubt that so troubles Tom Cruise’s character in Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut, an anxiety which only the certitude of bodily sensations can quell. James King meanwhile explores The Scent of Green Papaya, a
Essays
Burt Lancaster swims out of oblivion In the beginning was a stream with a deer lapping at the water’s edge in a forest. Music floods the bucolic scene with melancholy, while a gliding camera offers the point of view of a man whose feet crunch through the leaves that
Essays
We are all drowning in an ocean of weak tea It is incumbent upon a critic working in the year 2021 to maintain a healthy skepticism toward overly romanticised views of the past, difficult as the archival stills of Times Square marquees from the ‘70s might make that for us.
Essays
Abel Ferrara and Gianfranco Rosi offer attention and forgiveness in Bad Lieutenant and El Sicario, Room 164 Abel Ferrara’s 1992 film Bad Lieutenant is bluntly titled: its protagonist is just bad, there is no way around it. Even the term “antihero” feels too generous for this drugged up lieutenant
Essays
Gregg Araki's Mysterious Skin and the Adam Sandler vehicle That's My Boy are two sides of the same strange coin when it comes to the treatment of trauma on film TW: childhood sexual abuse, rape, paedophilia In 1980s California, Donny, a boy of no more than
Essays
Communication breaks down in Ryusuke Hamaguchi's Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy Of all the latent social problems brought to the surface by the pandemic and by the forced isolation that so many experienced in 2020 and into 2021, the challenges of communication may not appear to be the
Essays
The first part in a series on what exactly we are trying to do here Early in A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies, the director talks about his childhood as a film-obsessed youth and the big book about movies that he liked to peruse at length whenever
Extras
Besides its original, welcome and refreshing focus on refugees, Remi Weekes' His House also stands out for its nuanced and unconventional portrayal of (survivor’s) guilt and trauma, undermining cliches and expectations at every turn to craft a more unstable and therefore more haunting kind of horror.
Extras
The poor quality, cheap special effects and banal approach to both the character of Superman and the threat of nuclear annihilation in Superman IV: The Quest for Peace are of course very endearing, and the film undoubtedly deserves its place in the so-bad-it’s-good canon. But its true appeal lies
Extras
Considering how topical this film was at the time of release and remains today — showing the bullying and silencing of a young woman working for a powerful film producer, clearly based on Harvey Weinstein — I am sure there have been tons of writing on the dynamics it explores, namely the
Extras
At first glance, Eliza Hittman’s Never Rarely Sometimes Always appears to adopt wholesale a visual style that seeks to make the viewer experience, on a visceral level, the habitat of the characters, the mood and the texture of their lives. Shot on 16mm, the film favours close-ups on faces
Extras
From the very first shots of Yi Yi, Edward Yang’s control of his images is evident. He does not cut away from long takes when one would expect him to, nor does he follow up a long shot with the kind of close-up most filmmakers would use to punctuate