May December is a favorite type of film for me. One that expands the more you think about it because the film itself is a conversation starter, it has no answers, and it takes a big swing. The swing here is a heightened tone that I could only pithily describe as if Almodóvar made Persona. There is an actress, Elizabeth Berry (Natalie Portman), and a woman (Julianne Moore) whose sexual past with a minor has made her a community pariah. …
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Morvern Callar 2002
Morvern Callar has one of the bleakest cold opens of any film. We see the titular woman (played by Samantha Morton), as she wakes up with her boyfriend dead from suicide on the floor and a computer screen that says "READ ME." The note instructs her to "be brave" and to send his novel to various publishers he's listed. That's the plot portion of the opening, before we even get there we lay with Morvern on the floor, her fingers…
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Caravaggio 1986
Jealousy. Knives. Riff raff and bishops.
Art as a series of transactions. Using individuals for access and being used by institutions for their glory. A constant (golden calculator) calculation. The occasional exhibition without inhibition where you and your horde (who is also calculating how to use you and your institutions) can dress up to play a part but only feel comfortable doing so in the basement of the institution.
What a beguiling canvas this is.
My first Derek Jarman. Tilda…
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Anatomy of a Fall 2023
The best aspect of this courtroom drama is how patiently it reveals its intention to show how a microscopic lens on a relationship can be uglier and more hurtful than existing in the relationship itself. That level of scrutiny over an argument or the cloud of doubt over an unknowable intent. Sandra Hüller is great but I was immensely impressed by the arc and performance of her young son, Milo Machado Graner, who is having to navigate an adult methodology…
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TÁR 2022
To give a hint at what's special about TÁR you needn't look further than the opening credits. The opening credits start backwards with members of the crew that generally are at the very end of the end credits, like catering and production units and assistant editors. This is a movie about how an ego can grow too big and turn to manipulation when one role gets too much credit in a collaborative field. An orchestra is like a film set,…
