Personal Essay by John McAmis
It’s a harsh truth, but any human who testifies that they enjoy being alone is lying.
Read MorePersonal Essay by John McAmis
It’s a harsh truth, but any human who testifies that they enjoy being alone is lying.
Read MorePersonal Essay / Retro Review by Andrew Swafford
Last month, I got engaged--and it has got me thinking about one of my personal favorite love stories.
Read MoreRetro Review by John McAmis
Fantastic Planet, set in an odd world where plants gurgle and statues dance, holds a great deal of truth about humans, and we see a version of our own society through giant red eyes.
Read MoreRetro Review by Dylan Moore
It is easy to forget or take for granted the effectiveness of a piece of music to inform the editing rhythms of a film...it can feel like background noise, but the swells and crashing of waves in Moods amplified by the music and woven together from fragments of footage gives an active vision of the the sea.
Read MoreRetro Review by Zach Dennis
The plot of ParaNorman seems better suited for 2016 than its actual release in 2012, but that is because it harps on a breath of clarity that is much needed in a world marked by shootings, tyrannical politics, and targeted aggression.
Read MoreRetro Review by Zach Dennis
The trick of Taxi Driver is not in the lengths Travis goes to break from his loneliness, but how it is able to visualize something so absolutely foreign to so many people — the sick mental state.
Read MoreRetro Review by Nadine Smith
As with so many of the greatest movies, Miami Vice only exists while you’re watching it, like a trick of the light.
Read MoreRetro Review by Andrew Swafford
Refn’s follow up to 2011’s surprise smash hit Drive indulges the filmmaker’s most exploitation-driven power fantasies while challenging them with a sense of justice that makes each violent act truly mean something.
Read MoreRetro Review by Andrew Swafford
Mira Nair’s film about a traditional Hindu arranged marriage in contemporary India is not so much about the event’s potential stressors, despite their constant presence. Rather, the film is a celebration of all the ways that people come together: as couples, as families, and as cultures.
Read MoreRetro Review by Andrew Swafford
While it may not be his absolute masterpiece, Hitchcock manipulates his audience’s expectations to maximum effect in this sometimes-maligned movie, which demonstrates that the master of suspense was also the master of genre-hopping within a single film.
Read MoreRetro Review by Zach Dennis
Finding Nemo may not sit in the annals of Pixar as one of their top tier works, but the reason it resonated with so many people is this central message of parenthood and responsibility. It is something we all struggle with — whether we have kids or not — and Nemo accentuated that better than a lot of other films.
Read MoreRetro Review by Lydia Creech
More than anything else, Paprika is an assault on the senses. It is colorful, frenetic, and weird in the best way.
Read MoreRetro Review by Andrew Swafford
She’s Gotta Have It is a raw and messy masterpiece that features a non-conventional storytelling structure, sensual cinematography, and an overall perspective on sexual politics that still feels like a shock to the system thirty years later.
Read MoreRetro Review by Jessica Carr
The black and white film follows an isolated vampire (the girl) as she stalks and preys on male victims in an imaginary Iranian town called Bad City. Things look gloom and doom in Bad City until the girl meets the dreamy and very James Dean-esque Arash. Iranian-American director Ana Lily Amirpour places an emphasis on a combination of music, images, and body language to set the tone for this atmospheric film.
Read MoreRetro Review by Dylan Moore
Deren’s techniques remain interesting and impacting when most of the movies and television we all probably watch is set in a capital-R Real world that uses match on action and eyeline match to build a straightforward geography and narrative.
Read MoreRetro Review by Andrew Swafford
On a plot level, Fehérlófia couldn't be more well-worn and clichéd. We have beat this horse to death. However, Jankovics's mare couldn't be more alive.
Read MoreRetro Review by Dylan Moore
Brando jabs at a reporter when they say, "You know this is, uh--this is sort of your whole personality in a capsule...not to believe--" with, "How do you know what my personality is?" and they respond, "well, because I have met you and yo-you radiate your personality." Brando responds with a reflective "really?"
Read MoreRetro Review by Lydia Creech
I would not call the Coen’s True Grit revisionist, but I am happy to see them place the story back on the female lead and that they address some of the rah-rah religiosity and violence of traditional Westerns in their usual thoughtful way.
Read MoreRetro Review by Andrew Swafford
Critics were quick to sing the praises of Glazer’s breakout film Under the Skin for its deliberate pace, its stunning visuals, and its unorthodox story, but few have dug into Glazer’s back catalog to find Birth, which has all of the same strengths.
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