A late dispatch on the 44th Vancouver International Film Festival.
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“…Lee wants us considering the ripple effects that these cold-blooded killings have on a hyper-proud, hyper-macho and fiercely tight-knit community…”
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“Both a point A and a point B exist in Dead Man […] but Jarmusch’s filmmaking is not concerned with hooking us on the straight line between the two.”
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"Like the Iranian masters before him, [Matthew Rankin] emphasizes both the poetic and the peripheral, making his film feel less beholden to the “action” being depicted on screen than it is to the undercurrents of ennui and the curios of the filmspace.
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“If this makes any sense to you, think of DR1FT as baby-brained The Thin Red Line… on acid (because why not).”
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“Silvicola is less a probing and argumentative documentary than it is a visual essay or a tone poem, and it’s as committed to its task of illuminating people’s stories as it is to wandering off to take in the scenery.”
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“Observing [Hirayama], we see how a warm, personal splendour can be culled from even the most banal of instances.”
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“[L]ike the best soups, Here is a film that takes its time, lets its components simmer and comingle, develop their depth at a pace that feels natural.”
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“[I]f the placidity of the filmmaking inspires in you any sort of zen-like patience, then it will also disarm and entrance you in profoundly stirring ways.”
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“[Riceboy Sleeps] is a staggeringly inspired work, one that communicates the utmost respect for its characters, while also celebrating their flaws, and allowing the performances behind them to shine.”
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“As Paterson patiently illustrates across seven days in the life of its namesake, […] revelations come when they’re meant to, when deliberate and sensitive approaches to life, no matter how taxing, foster in one feelings of completeness, and when that completeness nourishes the mind.”
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Mind mapping the role that dreams play in the central mystery and interlinking narratives of Villeneuve’s 2017 masterpiece.
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“By emphasizing aesthetics […] Castel ignores the potent emotional currents that her actors work to channel and her script tries to suggest.”
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“[B]y stymying Ben in his narcissism, Park achieves both a less-clichéd depiction of Asian-Americans, and a fertile zone for urgent and reflexive cultural critiques.”
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“[T]his pool is far from a hyper-chlorinated oasis; rather, it is a fetid, acid-laced, and psychosexual stew, one that pulls characters and viewers alike down into the murky depths of amorality and churns them into husks of the humans they once were.”
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“Unless you’re particularly embittered, this film’s commitment to mining pathos from groan-worthy small talk is what will probably make you “come around” to it in the end […]”
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“The Flying Sailor renders the famed explosion as implosion in the mind of this sailor, as a lifetime compressed into a kaleidoscopic “flash” before one’s eyes.”
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The year 2022 saw many filmmakers submitting oversized, overly-ambitious, and often risk-laden projects that have us still reeling in the fallout. So, what’s one more list? Let’s get into it.
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“[I]t is not melody or unexplainable emotion that Tár is pursuing, but the damning truths about her own self.”
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“Watching Funny Pages is like overturning a rock and watching the bugs it concealed begin to writhe and squirm.”
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