Category: Arthouse Cinema

  • Her Smell (2018)

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    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… Read.

  • Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (2010)

    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,… Read.

  • Opening Night (1977)

    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.… Read.

  • Hi, Mom! (1970)

    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… Read.

  • 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… Read.