FATALE is a densely plotted and devilishly twisted erotic fantasy of a noir. Filmed with self-conscious style, it offers a variation on FATAL ATTRACTION that is not without merit, yet with a bemused view of womanhood that gives one pause. We are firmly ensconced in the, admittedly noir Madonna/whore paradigm here, but making a woman… Read More »
SUBURBICON
Chekov’s three sisters had their dream of a perfect life in Moscow. The increasingly desperate and frazzled denizens of SUBURBICON have Aruba, a place where the food is exotic, the golf is for couples, and the long arm of the law cannot reach them. Alas, this deliciously stylized evocation of the dark side of the… Read More »
KILLING GROUND
The end of a relationship is always poignant. Be it an impulsive move made by one person that changes the dynamic forever, or a bullet to the head at close range, the finality is a moment is a time of reflection on the past, and a pondering of the future. The solidly made little horror… Read More »
IN ORDER OF DISAPPEARANCE (Kraftidioten)
IN ORDER OF DISAPPEARANCE is a bracingly original foray into very black humor. Set in the arctic-lite of rural Norway, it is a tale of relentless pursuit, clueless hubris, and the eccentricities that long winters provoke in the population. Writer Kim Fupz Aakeson and director Hans Petter Moland serve up this arch film about fathers and sons… Read More »
THE WITNESS — James Solomon Interview
James Solomon likes stories that we all think we know, and then finding the story behind that story. It’s what attracted him to the conspiracy behind the Lincoln Assassination that led to his film THE CONSPIRATOR, and his adaptation of Johnathan Mahler’s book about unrest in the summer of 1977, The Bronx is Burning for… Read More »
Dennis Hauck talks TOO LATE
The most obvious thing to ask Dennis Hauck about his superb neo-Noir, TOO LATE, is his decision to tell the story in a series of five 20-minute long continuous takes. So, when I spoke with him on February 26, 2016, that’s the first thing brought up. I was curious both about what those takes could… Read More »
TOO LATE
Kierkegaard, noted Existentialist and proto-Absurdist, once opined that life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards. As a cinematic exploration of the tragic and comedic implications of that, there is Dennis Hauck’s wistful neo-Noir, TOO LATE, a film that employs a strategic insouciance as it nimbly plays with the time/space continuum… Read More »
YOU’RE KILLING ME
YOU’RE KILLING ME is a wry and delightful black comedy of very bad manners, of which murder may not be the most heinous. In it, a group of hip twenty-somethings on the fringes of show biz negotiate awkward game nights, the finer points of dating etiquette, and the protocols of disposing of a dead body.… Read More »
STRANGER BY THE LAKE
There is no getting around the prurient interest that STRANGER BY THE LAKE evokes. Set entirely on the rocky shore of the titular lake, it teems with beautiful young men madly in lust both with each other and with being in a state of nature. It is the stuff of porn flicks and of classical… Read More »
BLACK MASS
It is only the smallest of exaggerations to say that there are only two types of scenes in BLACK MASS. One is of James “Whitey” Bulger either having someone executed with a vicious precision, or doing the dastardly deed himself. The other is an assemblage of characters having an extended conversation about what has happened… Read More »