Just two months ago, Hudson Yards on Manhattan’s west side finally opened. For the unfamiliar, imagine: towering glass structures, boutique stores, and luxury apartments. This, the Hudson Yards website declares is “a template for the future of cities.” But for whom and at what cost? Reading Patti Smith’s Just Kids or Ada Calhoun’s St. Marks … Continue reading Michael M. Bilandic – Happy Life / Hellaware
Brian De Palma’s Hi, Mom! (1970) is a bait-and-switch of a film. Robert De Niro, in a proto-Travis Bickle role, plays Jon Rubin, an amateur photographer hired to take Rear Window (1954) style erotic photos of his neighbors. To explain any further, however, would spoil the surprise. Suffice to say, the script carries with it … Continue reading Film of the Week: Hi, Mom!
Claire Denis’ Trouble Every Day (2001) makes an apt comparison to her latest, High Life (2018) because both are genre films made by a director who doesn’t traffic in them. The two, however, couldn’t be any more different than one another. While both share horror elements, the genre conventions in Trouble Every Day are either … Continue reading Claire Denis – High Life
Throughout Mamoru Oshii’s filmography there lies an interest in Japan’s political history. The end of World War II and its subsequent consequences serve as the nexus through which Oshii creates the alternate setting of his films. With Patlabor 2 (1993), Oshii questions the role of Japan’s military, the Japanese Self-Defense Force (JSDF), during times of … Continue reading Film of the Week: Patlabor 2
Hotel by the River’s opening credits inform us that filming took place between January 29, 2018 to February 14, 2018. It comes as no surprise that Hong Sang-Soo shot Hotel by the River so quickly given his output of six films in the past three years alone. By this point, Sang-Soo aficionados will know the … Continue reading Hong Sang-Soo – Hotel by the River
Velvet Buzzsaw seems to be from the bygone era of the literary Brat Pack’s heyday. The film’s world of selfish characters, sleek architecture, and high couture, despite its L.A. trappings, recall the east-coast set novels of Brett Easton Ellis—American Psycho, for example. Yet, an L.A. setting alongside a script meant to both terrify and satirize … Continue reading Dan Gilroy – Velvet Buzzsaw
Let the Sunshine In – Claire Denis Zama – Lucrecia Martel First Reformed – Paul Schrader Burning – Lee Chang-dong Shoplifters – Hirokazu Kore-eda Madeline’s Madeline – Josephine Decker Shirkers – Sandi Tan Notes on Appearance – Ricky D’Ambrose Hale County This Morning, This Evening – RaMell Ross Golden Exits – Alex Ross Perry
With 24 Frames, Abbas Kiarostami creates a film akin to a piece of ambient music. The key difference, however, is that Kiarostami works backwards; the image comes first, and then the expected sounds proceed rather than the other way around. Think of, for example, Brian Eno’s Music for Films in which Eno created ambient tracks … Continue reading Abbas Kiarostami – 24 Frames
Like Andrei Rublev (1966) before it and The Sacrifice (1986) after it, Andrei Tarkovsky’s Stalker (1979) is a film about faith. What distinguishes Stalker from these two counterparts, however, is the lack of a miracle within the film’s narrative. Consequently, Stalker presents a much more bleak outlook on life. Yet, in the script’s dealing with … Continue reading Film of the Week: Stalker
I've recently updated my archive with my earliest writings which can be found here. Access is also available via the link found under the "Archives" menu in the top-right corner. The pieces here cover my writings for the University at Albany's student newspaper, the Albany Student Press. They range from reviews of albums and concerts … Continue reading Archival Update
