Another month, another round-up. This July, I managed to catch some more new releases as well and a few classic features.
Posted by: ckckred | August 2, 2017
July 2017 Round-Up
Posted by: ckckred | July 2, 2017
June 2017 Round-Up
Another month, another round-up. This June I had seen more contemporary films than I had done so in the last several months (though “contemporary” really accounts for movies that have debuted within the last several decades), as well as some more revival screenings (for Love Jones, Rashomon, and Paint It Black).
Posted in Analysis, Movies | Tags: Baby Driver, Children of the Corn, eXistenZ, Fist Fight, I Daniel Blake, Love Jones, Paint It Black, Rashomon, The 400 Blows, The Usual Suspects, Wonder Woman
Posted by: ckckred | June 30, 2017
The Best of 2017 (Thus Far)
2017 thus far has proven to be a climatic year (though I said the same exact thing last year), yet we’ve received a good share of great media within the past six months. Admittedly I haven’t seen as many films from this year as I have wanted, which is why I didn’t compose a list for movies (though if I were to pick what had been my favorite picture of 2017 so far, it would be Terrence Malick’s Song to Song). To make up for that, I’ve doubled the number of TV programs and albums and surprisingly had a difficult time narrowing down the finalists. So here is some of my favorite entertainment of 2017; hopefully the next six months will be just as good.
Posted in Analysis, List, Music, TV | Tags: Aimee Mann, Archer, Archer: Dreamland, At the Drive-In, Baskets, Comedy Central, Crossover Ministry, Darkest Hour, Fargo, Full of Hell, FX, FXX, Goatwhore, Godless Prophets & the Migrant Flora, HBO, Heartless, in•ter a•li•a, Iron Reagan, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, Legion, Lifeless God, Midnight, Municipal Waste, Mutoid Man, Nightmare Logic, Pallbearer, Phobia, Power Trip, Review, Showtime, Shox of Violence, Silicon Valley, Slime and Punishment, Song to Song, Terrence Malick, The Americans, Trumpeting Ecstasy, Twin Peaks, Twin Peaks: The Return, Veep, War Moans
Posted by: ckckred | June 1, 2017
May 2017 Round-Up
Although I didn’t see as many films this month as I did during April, I caught a good share of movies in May, including several classic features I saw for the first time (Ali, The Puppetmaster, and Yesterday Girl), two new releases (David Lynch: The Art Life and Alien: Covenant), and three rewatches (In the Mood for Love, Drive, and The Killer).
Posted in Analysis, Movies | Tags: Ali: Fear Eats the Soul, Alien: Covenant, Aliens, All That Heaven Allows, David Lynch: The Art Life, Drive, Duvidha, He Who Gets Slapped, In The Mood For Love, Jeanne Dielman, Police Story, The Horse Thief, The Killer, The Puppetmaster, Whisper of the Heart, Yesterday Girl
Posted by: ckckred | May 23, 2017
Decades Blogathon — Berlin: Symphony of a Metropolis (1927)
My contribution for the 2017 edition of the Decades Blogathon. Special thanks to both Tom and Mark for hosting me.
Here we are in the penultimate day in the 2017 edition of the Decades Blogathon. It’s been a really fun one to co-host yet again with the sterling Mark from Three Rows Back. With any luck this is a trend that will continue, it’s just so great having the contributions we’ve had three years in a row. So with that, I’d like to clear the floor for the featured reviewer of today — Charles from the wonderful blog, Cinematic. Please do check out his site if you have some time.
Although cinema has always been continuously evolving since its inception, 1927 is perhaps the critical turning point in film. That year saw the debut of The Jazz Singer, the first major “talkie” that led to silent cinema’s decline and introduced the concept of spoken dialogue to the screen. 1927 also greeted audiences with the inceptions of F.W…
View original post 419 more words
Posted in Movies, Review | Tags: 1927, Berlin: Symphony of a Metropolis, Blogathon
Posted by: ckckred | May 2, 2017
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me
Although he may be the most well known surrealist in contemporary cinema, David Lynch has never exactly been mainstream. Throughout his filmography, Lynch has explored the most subversive and grotesque aspects of society, using a dream-like lens in capturing such action. Movies like Eraserhead and Wild at Heart overflow with graphic imagery while pictures such as Lost Highway, Mulholland Drive, and Inland Empire dispense the notion of linear narratives completely. Even Blue Velvet, Lynch’s most forthright and accessible picture (excluding The Elephant Man and The Straight Story) is aesthetically disturbing through its depiction of sexual depravity.
Posted in Analysis, Movies, Review | Tags: David Lynch, Frank Silva, Kyle MacLachlan, Mark Frost, Ray Wise, Sheryl Lee, Twin Peaks, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me
Posted by: ckckred | April 30, 2017
April 2017 Round-Up
Although I unfortunately found little time to write anything for this site recently, I did manage to see a good amount of movies over April, including a few 2016 releases I’ve been meaning to catch up on as well as several classic pictures I had somehow missed beforehand.
Posted in Movies, Review | Tags: A Gentle Woman, A Hard Day's Night, April 2017, Blood Simple, Breakdown, Daisies, Death by Hanging, INLAND EMPIRE, Julieta, Mamma Roma, Monsieur Lazhar, Moonlight, Paterson, Pickpocket, Repo Man, Shadows, The Connection, The Ladies of the Bois de Boulogne, The Long Good Friday, Three Crowns of the Sailor, Trespass, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, Vidas Secas, Wake in Fright, Woman in the Dunes, Xala
Posted by: ckckred | February 23, 2017
R.I.P. Seijun Suzuki
Tragic news: on February 13th, legendary filmmaker Seijun Suzuki, behind such films as Tokyo Drifter and Branded to Kill, passed away at 93. Suzuki may well be the Jean-Luc Godard of Japan: like Godard, Suzuki’s films were stylish blends of violence and humor paying tribute and taking aim at Hollywood cinema. Renown for his yakuza genre films, Suzuki’s work inspired the likes of Wong Kar-wai and Quentin Tarantino (it’s difficult not to watch Kill Bill and not be reminded of Suzuki).
I had the great fortune last year of seeing a rare print of Suzuki’s The Call of Blood last year. Although it isn’t one of the director’s most well-known pieces, the film epitomizes Suzuki’s auteurism perfectly, a wild feature that’s as boisterous as it is sharp. He will be missed.
Posted in Movies, News, Uncategorized | Tags: Branded to Kill, R. I. P., Seijun Suzuki, The Call of Blood, Tokyo Drifter
Posted by: ckckred | February 22, 2017
The 10 Best Films of 2016
2016 may have been a long and unpredictable ride, yet for all the troubles occurring in the world, it was a fine year for cinema, boasting dynamic new films from established veterans like Martin Scorsese and Isabelle Huppert to proving the prowess of new talents such as Jeremy Saulnier and Robert Eggers. Moreover, 2016 provided a great diversity of films, with genres like comedies (Toni Erdmann), musicals (La La Land), and horror (The Witch) often ignored by the critical mainstream are coming back into the limelight. There were so many compelling films over the past year that I plan on writing a secondary post just to list all of my favorite recent films. But without further ado, here are my ten favorite pictures of 2016.
Read More…
Posted in Analysis, Movies | Tags: 2016, Coen brothers, Damien Chazelle, Elle, Ethan Coen, Green Room, Hail Caesar!, Isabelle Huppert, Jeremy Saulnier, Joel Coen, Knight of Cups, La La Land, Lo and Behold: Reveries of a Connected World, Maren Ade, Martin Scorsese, Mia Hansen-Løve, Paul Verhoeven, Robert Eggers, Silence, Terrence Malick, The Witch, Things to Come, Toni Erdmann, Werner Herzog
Posted by: ckckred | January 28, 2017
R.I.P. Emmanuelle Riva
Tragic news: yesterday night, Emmanuelle Riva, the legendary French actress, passed away at age 89. Riva had been one of France’s most acclaimed figures, renown for her roles in Hiroshima mon amour, Thérèse Desqueyroux, and more recently, Michael Haneke’s Amour. Riva still has two more films scheduled for the future, Paris Pied Nus and Alma, the latter of which is still in production.
Throughout her career, Riva gave audiences a number of devoted and powerful performances. In Amour, her role as an elderly Parisian suffering from paralysis became one of the most acclaimed roles in her career, earning her an Oscar nomination for Best Actress. She will be missed.
Posted in Movies, News | Tags: Alma, Amour, Emmanuelle Riva, Hiroshima mon amour, Paris Pied Nus, R. I. P., Thérèse Desqueyroux
