Last Night in Soho
Similar28 Days Later (2002), Cube (1997), Cube Zero (2004),
Shaft (2000) Watch afterNightmare Alley (2021), tick tick... BOOM! (2021),
Has any other director in recent years had as frustrating a creative decline as Edgar Wright? Discounting his feature debut—the 1995, no-budget A Fistful of Fingers—his streak was white-hot. Two series of Spaced both developed and prefaced his earnest eye for nerd culture, leading up to what would become his Cornetto Trilogy. His work was so loving, so finely tuned, and, especially in the case of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, some of the most pop-culturally keen around. However, Baby Driver couldn’t help but sit in neutral; it was a pet project missing heart. With that out of the way, perhaps there was something more substantial to come next. Continue Reading →
The Electrical Life of Louis Wain
SimilarBack to the Future Part III (1990), Copying Beethoven (2006), Metropolis (1927), The Elephant Man (1980),
StarringSophia Di Martino,
StudioFilm4 Productions,
The Electrical Life of Louis Wain is an alternatively madcap and melancholic retelling of the artistic and personal life of the peculiar Louis Wain by making a lot of noise but not saying much. Biographical films have to tread a very difficult line. They must tell their central characters’ life and accomplishments while humanizing them through their rituals and quirks. And they must do this all without turning the movie idealization or fetishization of such things. Narratively, what Louis Wain gets right is that focusing on the man as a deeply troubled individual and melds his artistic work along with the afflictions that he suffered. What it gets wrong is its inability to dig deeper into Louis Wain beyond his whimsies and mannerisms and the surrounding greater Victorian English culture. Continue Reading →
The Velvet Underground
Watch afterEverything Everywhere All at Once (2022), Thor: Love and Thunder (2022),
To listen to the Velvet Underground today is to marvel at how very much its own thing it was. Their droning, dirge-like songs, often accompanied by the discordant squeaking of a viola, addressed such unsavory subjects as drug addiction and sadomasochism, and seemed to be designed for listeners who neither identified with hippie folk or rebellious rock and roll. They were so far ahead of their time that even more than five decades later no one else has sounded quite like them yet. Todd Haynes’ documentary, just called The Velvet Underground, captures their lightning in a bottle moment in music history, eschewing the tropes of the genre in favor of a dizzying sound and visual landscape. Continue Reading →
The Green Knight
SimilarHarry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002), Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005), Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001), Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004), On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969), Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006), The Silent Partner (1978),
StudioA24, Bron Studios,
It’s no more than a few minutes into its 132-minute runtime that The Green Knight lays its cards on the table. It doesn’t really subvert expectations here; it’s not like it immediately carves out its identity. Rather, it makes itself clear in the most literal of ways, although in one that doesn’t register as such immediately. After an opening in which Sir Gawain (Dev Patel) wakes up hungover and half-naked, the camera tracks him from behind through sweaty medieval corridors and out into the cloud-covered morning. As he walks through the village, text flashes across the screen declaring itself “a filmed adaptation.” Continue Reading →
Slalom
SimilarMonster (2003), Volver (2006),
The first lesson for 15-year-old Lyz Lopez (Noée Abita) in Slalom is an appropriately harsh one, considering the film’s subject matter. To become a world-class skiing champion, she has to overcome all fear, all under the guidance of an overbearing coach (Jérémie Renier) who grooms her in more ways than one. Continue Reading →