Eric Johnson is my best friend. We've known each other for almost 15 years. We met the first week of high school in a theater class and his first impression of me was that I was a pompous sophomore. In truth, I was just a nervous freshman. Soon enough, we grew past his snap judgment and we became collaborators of legend. Clan Man? Friend-Gro? Spartanaire Spring Show 2008? Yeah, you've probably heard of them. We've shared music, feelings, faith, and…
So Pretty is one of the rare cases in which it is best to not go in blind. I must've read something intriguing to put it on my Criterion Channel queue, but I had no recollection of it by the time I pressed play this morning.
So Pretty is shot with such convincing documentary style that, to a dummy curious about trans communities, thinks its a documentary until he turns his brain on and starts picking up on shots that…
What an awful title for a decent movie. The title of source play and novel (written by the same person who adapted his own story twice, Calder Willingham) was "End as a Man" which has at least two meanings and applies to the themes concerning masculinity. The best guess for the titular "One" of The Strange One is Ben Gazzara as Jocko De Paris, the manipulative head honcho amongst a group of cadets at a military college.
After a night…
I was so excited to watch this movie, I had already planned to rewatch Diary of a Country Priest right after watching it. But this movie packs such a wallop and is so dense with thought, I'm going to have to wait until I approach another dark and deep religious drama.
That's a testament to the power of First Reformed. I knew it was going to be heavy, but I wasn't thinking it would be this heavy. I should have…
Helen Keller has a spectacular quote that only someone of her specific personal knowledge could have understood and only someone of her impressive pith could have said: "Blindness separates people from things; deafness separates people from people." There exist variations on that quote, but its central message is impossible to misunderstand. Neither blindness nor deafness is easy to have in a world full of mostly seeing and hearing people, but they create different obstacles to overcome.
Sound of Metal encapsulates…
