Stoker
There's more than one transition going on in Park Chan-wook's 2013 thriller Stoker. Yes, the film tells the story of how the seemingly carefree India (Mia Wasikowska) goes from worshipping her father to worshipping her uncle Charlie (Matthew Goode). But the Hitchcockian thriller -- and it is one, beyond the shadow of a doubt -- was also Director Park’s first English-language title. Continue Reading →
Asteroid City
SimilarI ♥ Huckabees (2004), Stalker (1979),
Watch afterIndiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023),
Oppenheimer (2023) The Flash (2023),
StarringFisher Stevens, Willem Dafoe,
About twenty miles or so outside of Marfa, Texas, there’s a mural dedicated to the production of George Stevens’ Giant. Big wooden standees display James Dean with his arms draped over a rifle, framing him in the iconic Christ pose which would be the last image to represent Dean in the public consciousness before he died. Giant is about a great number of things, though, fittingly, what resonates all these years later is its ideas about the passing of time. Continue Reading →
The French Dispatch
SimilarBed and Board (1970), Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (2006),
Boys Don't Cry (1999) Driving Miss Daisy (1989), My Own Private Idaho (1991), Natural Born Killers (1994), The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004),
Watch afterDune (2021), The Power of the Dog (2021),
StarringFisher Stevens, Owen Wilson, Toheeb Jimoh, Willem Dafoe,
StudioSearchlight Pictures,
This review is part of our coverage of the 2021 Chicago International Film Festival. Continue Reading →