Shefali Shetty, Vasundhara Das, and Tillotama Shome star in director Mira Nair's Monsoon Wedding
Retro 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.
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Tippi Hedren and Rod Taylor star in director Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds
Retro 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.
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Ellen DeGeneres voices Dory and Albert Brooks voices Marlin in Andrew Stanton's Finding Nemo
Retro 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.
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Paprika dreams of flying. Paprika is written and directed by Satoshi Kon.
Retro 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.
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Tracy Camilla Johns stars in director Spike Lee's She's Gotta Have It
Retro 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.
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Sheila Vand stars in director Ana Lily Amirpour's A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night
Retro 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.
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Maya Deren writes, directs, edits, and stars in the short film At Land
Retro 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.
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Hungarian filmmaker Marcell Jankovics writes, directs, and animates Fehérlófia
Retro 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.
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Retro 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?"
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Hailee Steinfeld stars as Mattie Ross in the Coens' True Grit
Retro 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.
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Nicole Kidman stars in director Jonathan Glazer's Birth
Retro 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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