Podcast here.
We open with an elephant being pulled up a hill. The technology to do so is deficient, but a way is found — eventually. It’s a classic ‘the film in a nutshell’ scene: the ambitions of cinema push past its technological limits, always wanting more and causing destruction as it tries to keep up. The elephant (here a metaphor for spectacle and filmic excess — the dialogue even makes reference to it being interchangeable with a big horse.…
The aesthetics of Black cinema often find popularity elsewhere. This is a focal point of Elvis Mitchell’s documentary about the history of Black film. It is a truth that repeats throughout: Black film breaks the mould, or establishes bold conventions, only for those expressions to find mainstream success in the movies of white filmmaker’s, or to just become synonymous with these later points as opposed to their origins. This documentary gives you the real story, a beautifully…
After the sensational Aftersun, it’s hard to view this as anything more than prologue. Looking back at a short from the director of a breakthrough feature is a kind of beach-combing, as we sift through the images for indications of what is to come.
This certainly gives fruitful rewards, displaying the same assured and un-expository approach to filmmaking. This is thematic and stylistic precursor to Aftersun. It is another work of implication, where conversations about things draw our attention to…
Japanuary 2023
As always, a big thanks to Ben for spreading the love and joy of Japanese cinema.
I abhor true crime. I don’t want to know how these people tick and I see the obsession as disturbingly voyeuristic. Thankfully, this film is in line with me.
In place of speculation and dives into cloudy motives, that just further showcase people that don’t merit showcasing (while actual victims are forever sidelined) this gives us raw fact and obfuscation. We learn…
Soren Kirkergaard wrote that 'life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards'. Aftersun is an impressionistic portrait of this truism, an intricate web of framing devices that comes across as effortless.
In fact, describing Aftersun makes it sound so much more complicated than it is. The film presents three narrative perspectives, all adopting the lens of Sophie (Frankie Corio), the daughter of Calum (Paul Mescal) (the father and daughter relationship that the film entirely revolves around).…
As an English Literature teacher who has taught Shakespeare’s Macbeth for seven years, my perspective on adaptations will differ to most. While I understand that Joel Coen’s turn is a striking piece of cinema full of good actors saying pretty words, and certainly is cinematic (on a visual level), it is a lukewarm adaptation that is often at odds with the strength of the source material. Coen’s Macbeth feels like what people think Shakespeare is: an arch, arty thing to…
