Love can’t stop the future in Jia Zhangke’s magisterial ‘Ash is Purest White’
“Ash” doesn’t move through time as much as it metabolizes it — taking it in and having its setting rearranged.
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Category Archives: Film & Television
Julianne Moore lights up screen and dance floor in ‘Gloria Bell’
The subtlety in the film is admirable — Gloria’s character development is soft but significant. But the script leaves more to be desired.
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‘Captain Marvel’ is failure of imagination
Belated and ballyhooed, “Captain Marvel” sells itself on the promise of a game changer for its franchise and proceeds to bend over backward for a brand-maintenance agenda. A failure of imagination, this textureless piece of plastic is so mechanically structured it’s been made uninhabitable to any artistry or panache.
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Sebastián Lelio on reimagining ‘Gloria’ with Julianne Moore in ‘Gloria Bell’
Lelio was invigorated by the idea of a new “Gloria.” As he explained in an interview with The Daily Californian, his motivation came primarily from one source: Julianne Moore.
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Love in time of rapid modernization: An interview with director Jia Zhangke
“I was born in 1970,” Jia began. “So all the changes I’m reflecting in my productions, they kind of coincide with my own personal growth. But the focus in my films is still people.” And Jia’s sentiment of studying relationships’ evolutions under the influence of economic shifts is at the center of the romance “Ash.”
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Gaspar Noé’s ferocious fantasia ‘Climax’ sputters out on its 1-way trip to hell
The latest film by French cinema’s enfant terrible Gaspar Noé tracks the synergic bliss and apocalyptic infighting of a dance group preparing for a stateside tour.
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Greta’s tired tropes made unsalvageable by impressive performances
“Greta” banks on contrived and dated conventions surrounding how women behave, and in the few moments it tries to defy those standards, it backs itself into a drab and insipid corner of clichés.
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‘Woman at War’ brings surprising levity to story about environmental activism, corporate greed
Halldóra Geirharðsdóttir plays Halla, a fifty-something woman who lives an independent, unassuming life as a choir director in a small town in Iceland. She spends her days swimming, biking around the scenic hamlet and doing tai chi in front of her side-by-side posters of Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela.
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‘True Detective’ goes full gothic in revealing, uneven season finale
The episode, somewhat aptly titled “Now Am Found” is a clunky, disjointed tying of loose ends: While it does offer explanations for the Purcell case, it doesn’t answer why the rest of the season had to be so boring up until this point.
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‘Fighting with My Family’ not total knockout, still packs one hell of a punch
But by and large, “Fighting with My Family” hits the mark more than it misses, guiding its protagonist to her athletic ascendancy with heart, humor and ease.
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