End-of-year, best-of film lists are some of the best evidence that people do not—and, probably, cannot—simply choose the […]
quality
I have seen movies where I am happy about what happens, but the movie itself is a bad […]
Life has a way of taking apart all the pieces of your enchanted world and refusing to put […]
La promesse (1997; on the Criterion Channel or for rent on Amazon Prime), written and directed by the […]
By Tim Winterstein –
There are only so many explanations for evil. Think of every single thriller/murder/crime book, show, or film you’ve ever read or seen. I don’t care how long it takes to get to the answer or how many twists there are before the detective solves the crime; you can count the number of motives on one hand.
A lot of movies are pitched as “redemption” stories. A person is caught in a web of his […]
Jack Donovan in his book Becoming a Barbarian has a chapter titled “The Empire of Nothing.” In it he offers a compelling critique of our current political and cultural milieu. In fact, he argues that it isn’t so much a culture that is being forwarded but an anticulture where there is no “Emperor, no center and no people.” Instead, the Empire of Nothing is a collection of businesses and institutions that have aligned against identity in some vague hope of “progress.”
In 1985, one year after the year in which the all-encompassing State of Orwell is set, Terry Gilliam released Brazil (on the Criterion Channel until October 31 or for rent on Amazon Prime). It is all the dread and paranoia of Nineteen Eighty-four superimposed with the absurdity of Monty Python. The world of Brazil is ridiculous and absurd. There are large air ducts running through even the nicest houses, and small ducts and tubes everywhere. Everything depends on the ant-like bustle of transferring paperwork from one bin to another, and from that department to this. The Ministry’s SWAT-like apparatus is always ready to execute some arrest order or another, making the next of kin sign receipts, in duplicate at least.
In a pure coincidence, I followed Three Christs with another movie about who, really, is the delusional person. […]
In the days of high dudgeon prior to a presidential election, with numbers and claims and promises flowing […]