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Karyn Kusama’s THE INVITATION (2015) is eerily poetic connecting its seductively almost paralyzing ambiance, to what I imagine it feels like to be in a sedated juncture of elevated sorrow. Sorrow being the big bad wolf in this decadent, psychological tale of a couple hosting a dinner party with a small group of close friends they hadn’t seen in two years, all secluded in the Hollywood Hills. Doesn’t it sounds like a Manson-cultish-holy-hell-of-a-dinner-party? This film oozes of subtlety and it’s strangely gratifying. The opening sequence, for instance, has that profound foreshadowing factor with the coyote getting hit by a car.…
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Anna Biller’s THE LOVE WITCH is magnetic for a multitude of reasons whether it resides in its themes of feminism, fantasy, witchcraft and the pursuit of love, or perhaps it’s strength in color schemes, melodramatic dialogue, and some swanky, groovy music. The mise en scène is of the grandest kind as it’s impressiveness shines in the arena of independent filmmaking, almost like it’s the discovery of some rare fossil. This is a genuinely, handcrafted film just like every stitch you hand sew on a quilt that takes copious amounts of concentration, time, and skill. I mean every crevice of this…
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One cannot deny the hilarity in the opening sequence of SWISS ARMY MAN and those of you who have seen it know what I’m talking about that is of course if you have that kind of sense of humor. Being this film was distributed by A24 it makes sense because in a similar vein of obscure hilarity they also distributed THE LOBSTER which was an awesome film! Aside from the slapstick gassy gimmicks there’s something strangely familiar about what the filmmakers did with this narrative that made me time travel back to the days of childhood which was all about…
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I had my first Cinefamily experience last week. I had the pleasurable chance seeing my first Lina Wertmüller film, LOVE & ANARCHY and it was unique sitting among other cinephiles. It’s one of the great experiences of sitting among an audience listening to them laugh collectively at such gut wrenching hilarity whether it be a facial expression, gesture, or some clever line of dialogue was total bliss and one of my favorite parts of going to the movies is seeing the reaction of audiences. This is usually the prime reason I sit in the back row of theaters, taking…
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I had my first Cinefamily experience last week. I had the pleasurable chance seeing my first Lina Wertmüller film, LOVE & ANARCHY and it was unique sitting among other cinephiles. It’s one of the great experiences of sitting among an audience listening to them laugh collectively at such gut wrenching hilarity whether it be a facial expression, gesture, or some clever line of dialogue was total bliss and one of my favorite parts of going to the movies is seeing the reaction of audiences. This is usually the prime reason I sit in the back row of theaters, taking in…
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What’s so mesmerizing about Jane Campion’s THE PIANO (1993) is this feminist mindset captured by the lens tethered to vivid imagery and subtle language translated in strange silences, hand gestures, and facial expressions along with a compelling soundtrack that hypnotizes the mind into a strange, euphoric lull of bewilderment and sometimes frustration because it leaves this creeping essence of a melody that permits no escape nor can it be ignored. It’s a period piece, it’s a dark love story, there’s passion, there’s soul wrenching music, it’s erotic, it takes place on an island in New Zealand alongside the Maori tribe,…
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Where do I even begin with Liliana Cavani’s 1974 THE NIGHT PORTER as the core foundation of the film’s subject matter is about a sadomasochistic relationship? The core of this story lays heavily in the tragic isolation between Lucia, a Holocaust survivor (played by Charlotte Rampling) and Max her former Nazi torturer (played by Dirk Bogarde) who happens to be her lover working as a hotel porter in Vienna long after the war has ended. Some might consider this as a “nazi sexploitation” film and that might make most uncomfortable but from a psychological standpoint it’s simply about two lost…
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Where do I even begin with Liliana Cavani’s 1974 THE NIGHT PORTER as the core foundation of the film’s subject matter is about a sadomasochistic relationship? The core of this story lays heavily in the tragic isolation between Lucia, a Holocaust survivor (played by Charlotte Rampling) and Max her former Nazi torturer (played by Dirk Bogarde) who happens to be her lover working as a hotel porter in Vienna long after the war has ended. Some might consider this as a “nazi sexploitation” film and that might make most uncomfortable but from a psychological standpoint it’s simply about two lost…
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I couldn’t help but notice the underlying theme in Mel Gibson’s directorial work and this hit me in the very early hours this morning. Fairly random, I’m aware, but if you look at BRAVEHEART or PASSION OF THE CHRIST and HACKSAW RIDGE what do all of these three stories embody? A man’s will and fierce determination to defy the odds. A man essentially sacrifices himself through the physical, emotional, and spiritual trauma of the injustices any mortal soul may face. William Wallace, Jesus Christ and Desmond Doss all project this solo journey governed by a belief that is unshaken or…
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Steve McQueen’s HUNGER (2008) is a powerful, meditative work of art peering into the 1981 Irish hunger strike in the Maze Prison spearheaded by Bobby Sands (Michael Fassbender). What’s so extraordinary yet painfully captivating about this film is the explicit images McQueen drives into the heart of the narrative. Aside from the 17-minute-long dialogue between Sands and a priest which consequently is a static shot of deeply emphasized information about who and why Sands is hell bent on this hunger strike. It moves so fluidly into the third and final descent of his journey in some agonizingly heartbreaking imagery which…
[Film Reviews from a Female Brain]
MARISSA THE CINEPHILE 