A few weeks ago I published a list of my top ten favorite films from 2015, and stressed in that opening paragraph, which I assume everyone skipped over, that last year saw the releases of well over ten great movies, making for a nice break from the norm. I gave a shout-out to some of…
Ang Lee’s 2000 masterpiece Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon will doubtless be remembered as one of the best films of the century. Its stunning artistic sense, awe-inspiring fight sequences, and beautiful score are matched only by its deeply heartfelt romantic storyline and perfectly realized characters. It revitalized Chinese cinema in foreign markets and changed the way…
A Bigger Splash (2015) The Plot: Marianne Lane (Tilda Swinton), a world-famous rock star, and her documentarian boyfriend Paul De Smedt (Matthias Schoenaerts) are enjoying a private vacation/medical recovery session after Marianne severely damages her vocal chords in concert. Their Mediterranean lovers’ retreat meets an early end when an old friend, Harry Hawkes (Ralph Fiennes),…
A few years ago I wrote an incoherent, rambling filler article™ on the 2001 fashion-based comedy Zoolander. In 2013, I could hardly describe that article as timely or relevant, or even very good, but having just reread it I can say that I made one really solid point. Zoolander is, by genre, a stupid comedy.…
When we are very, very small, we encounter certain places and things that, along with the people linked to them, serve a formative role within our development as human beings. I hope to no one’s great surprise, some movies did this for me, and over the years writing for this blog I have made an…
Last year I struggled to make a top ten list because I had a hard time picking ten movies I actually liked. With the exception of a few irreplaceable gems, 2014 sucked. I had difficulty yet again compiling such a list, but this time because too many good movies came out in 2015. 2015 was…
Room (2015) The Plot: A young woman, Joy (Brie Larson), and her five-year-old son Jack (Jacob Tremblay) have spent his entire life (and a little longer in her case) in captivity, confined to a single small room. Despite these conditions, Joy tries to raise her son as a normal human. They play games, she tells…
Rooster Illusion 