Her Smell (2018)

If The Rose was Bette Midler performing an unofficial Janis Joplin biopic, Her Smell (2018) feels like a fictional take on Courtney Love and Hole. However, director-writer Alex Ross Perry has said his true inspiration for the character of Becky Something (Elisabeth Moss) and her rock band Something She, which is set in the 1990s […]

Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (2010)

The wave of Best Of 2010s lists prompted me to note down quite a few recommendations. Both Lewis Rice O’Donnell and Axel Carrington put this title on their lists and that’s two people whose tastes in cinema I trust. Directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (2010) is a slow, […]

Opening Night (1977)

I remember watching Opening Night (1977) a long time ago when I borrowed the Criterion Collection Cassavetes boxset from the uni library. I enjoyed it though I felt like I was missing something, maybe. You hear so much about John Cassavetes and then you watch one of his movies, and it’s such a singular experience. […]

Hi, Mom! (1970)

A product of its times as well as being a statement on its times, Hi, Mom! (1970) is a free-wheeling satire of middle-class values. A young Robert De Niro plays Jon, a returned Vietnam vet in New Yorl who veers from one obsession to the next, beginning as a budding pornographer who wants to create “Peep […]

It Follows (2014)

When It Follows (2014) concluded, “elegant” was the word that came to mind. There’s a certain dreamy mood to writer-director David Robert Mitchell’s film, which comes through in the colours, costuming, framing, and staging. It’s almost as if Sofia Coppola Virgin Suicides era had made a horror film. The initial yearning of protagonist Jay (Maika […]