#12 — Her (Spike Jonze, 2013) The basic plot description of Her, written and directed by Spike Jonze, implies that the film is a despairing broadside against modern technology. In an indeterminate near future, Theodore Twombley (Joaquin Phoenix) is a … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 10s — Number Twelve
#13 — Parasite (Bong Joon-ho, 2019) Looking back, it’s remarkable that Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite was the first foreign language film to claim the Academy Award for Best Picture. There’s first the oddity that no film reliant on subtitles to reach … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 10s — Number Thirteen
Palm Springs (Max Barbakow, 2020). Constructed around the sort of metaphysical comedic premise that allows for careening chaos and popping-candy metaphors for the toil of personal development, Palm Springs is a sprightly diversion. Nyles (Andy Samberg) and Sarah (Cristin Milioti) … Continue reading Then Playing — Palm Springs; Shirley; The Go-Go’s
Sibil Richardson doesn’t dispute the fact that she and her husband, Rob Richardson, committed a crime. She lays it out plainly. The two of them were facing a dire situation with their small business, and their place of desperation led … Continue reading Now Playing — Time
#14 — 20th Century Women (Mike Mills, 2016) It dismays me to know that 20th Century Women is a period piece, roughly as removed in time from the era it depicts as, say, Steven Spielberg’s 1987 World War II drama, … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 10s — Number Fourteen
#15 — Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller, 2015) If George Miller was going to go back the Wasteland, he was going to get everything he could out the post-apocalyptic landscape. Mad Max: Fury Road was released thirty years after … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 10s — Number Fifteen
#16 — Selma (Ava DuVernay, 2014) Ava DuVernay’s Selma is a proper history lesson. Attaching that description to a film usually signifies dreary dryness and a plodding pace as the filmmakers labor to impart lessons more than shape action or … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 10s — Number Sixteen
Je Tu Il Elle (Chantal Akerman, 1974). Esoteric and aloof, Chantal Akerman’s early feature is exactly what I thought all French cinema was like until I actually, you know, watched some of it. Je Tu Il Elle is almost amusing … Continue reading Then Playing — Je Tu Il Elle; Dark Places; The Decline of Western Civilization
#17 — The End of the Tour (James Ponsoldt, 2015) When it was announced that Jason Segel was hired to play writer David Foster Wallace in James Ponsoldt’s The End of the Tour, the brays of outrage were drowned out … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 10s — Number Seventeen
La Ciénaga (Lucrecia Martel, 2001). This loose, impressionistic drama craftily captures the complexity of life itself, where outcomes can be shocking and predictable at the same time. There are incidents aplenty in this story of family, but the film is … Continue reading Then Playing — La Ciénaga; Seven Beauties; Merrily We Go to Hell
Coffee for Two 