Cinephilia
Cinephilia: Wim Wenders retrospective features Paris, Texas
November 2, 2015With the upcoming release of Everything Will Be Fine, Wim Wenders’ latest film starring Rachel McAdams and James Franco, The Cinematheque is presenting a retrospective of this important filmmaker’s nearly 50-year career, showcasing 14 of his features and a collection of his experimental short films. Along with contemporaries Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Werner Herzog, Wenders was at the forefront of the New German Cinema — arguably the most influential filmic movement of the ’70s. Fassbinder’s The Marriage Of Maria Braun, for example, tackled the effects of America’s cultural influence in West Germany. Wenders has previously focused on the effects of…
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Cinephilia: Goodnight Mommy is an unsettling psychological tragedy
October 26, 2015Children need their mother’s love; mothers innately care for their children. With this double-edged sword, Goodnight Mommy terrorizes our minds by imagining a scenario where either a mother is neglectful, or a boy is unreceptive to his mother’s care. Finding…
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Pawn Sacrifice does little to excite
September 28, 2015Two adversaries, one a kid from the Bronx and the other a product of Soviet propaganda, glare violently into each other’s eyes. The sound of a ticking clock echoes as the two combatants carefully make their moves. One gracefully attacks…
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Cinephilia: TIFF takeaways
September 21, 2015After arriving at my hotel, picking up my press pass, and standing in line at the public screening of Son Of Saul, it occurred to me that this is nothing like the film festival experience to which I’m accustomed. People…
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Cinephilia: diversity captured at VIFF
September 14, 2015You won’t need to get in a plane or a time machine to view the notably diverse films playing at the 34th annual Vancouver International Film Festival, just a dark cinema. Within a day, you can spend time in an…
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Cinephilia: What we were watching in 1965
September 8, 2015Feet are risqué. Ankles are sexy. Legs are too sinful. Can you imagine a conservative audience’s reaction to a Michael Bay movie in the ‘60s? “No Jessabelle, that’s not your boyfriend’s hand in his pocket; he’s just never seen a…
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Cinephilia: If I could hand out Oscars
August 4, 2015The summer movie season is nearing an end and the Academy Awards will never recognize any of my picks, so I’ve decided to assemble an Oscar ballot for the first two thirds of the year, before the awards season hopefuls…
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The Wonders is an idyllic coming-of-age story
July 27, 2015As someone who spends most of his day in front of computer, TV, and cell phone screens, I felt a magical connection to the slow lifestyle in Alice Rohrwacher’s beautifully simple The Wonders. No matter how hard we try to…
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Cinephilia: The Look of Silence speaks volumes
July 20, 2015In Indonesia from 1965 to 1966, union members, many farmers, and numerous intellectuals were branded as communists and executed. In that short span, close to one million people were killed, and the perpetrators have ruled the country ever since. Oppenheimer’s…
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Cinephilia: Self/Less fails to be philosophical
July 13, 2015Donald Davidson is casually going for a stroll in a swamp when — bang! — a flash of lightning comes down and kills him. Another bolt carrying all of Davidson’s DNA hits the swamp and creates his perfect replica: Swampman.…
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