Film Critic at Slant Magazine.
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Pickup on South Street 1953
Pickup on South Street, Sam Fuller’s brutal yet sensual masterpiece, begins on a speeding subway train, full of colliding bodies stuffed inside like canned sardines. No one speaks, but everyone glances; some at the floor or out the window, others at unsuspecting passengers, yet all attempting in one way or another to not betray what’s truly on their mind. Every initial glance is revealed to be misdirected until our anti-hero, Skip McCoy, bursts onto the scene to meet the sultry…
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It's Always Fair Weather 1955
The post-war hangover to follow Donen/Kelly's night out On the Town. Where their earlier collaboration was on the cusp of the 50s, and thus still mired in the earlier decade's lingering celebration of soldiers and the WWII victory, It's Always Fair Weather is firmly entrenched in the 50s expansion of consumerism and soul-sucking "suit" jobs designed to move every man, woman and child toward the elusive pursuit of the virtually unattainable American Dream. Whether through the brilliant passage-of-time montage that…
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Immaculate 2024
From my review:
"Still, even early on, this film is at least a clear cut above the likes of Corin Hardy’s The Nun and Julius Avery’s The Pope’s Exorcist, thanks in large part to Sweeney’s performance. Her expressive eyes communicate the wavering fear, confusion, anger, and general disorientation that Cecilia goes through as her dream of communing with God becomes a hellish nightmare and her search for transcendence soon leaves her with a total loss of bodily autonomy.
It’s at…
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Imaginary 2024
"With a similar elevator pitch and budget as M3GAN, Jeff Wadlow’s Imaginary is clearly striving to become 2024’s PG-13 horror darling about an evil children’s doll wreaking havoc on a family already in a state of metamorphosis. Regrettably, the filmmakers here have completely abandoned the archness of tone and shades of camp that made M3GAN such an entertaining, if ultimately inconsequential, experience. In place of that film’s knowing playfulness is an overwrought family drama that’s as undercooked as it is…
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The Third Generation 1979
"The other day I had a dream that capitalists created terrorism in order to force the state to better protect the business community. Funny, isn't it?"
"Germany for the Germans. Everyone else will be sent home."
It's impossible not to relate Fassbinder's dense and challenging portrait of capital and leftist activists to today's political climate. The Third Generation, virtually unavailable for over 25 years, presents a confounding, chaotic world view where capitalism, anarchy and terrorism constantly overlap and the political…
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One Way Passage 1932
A pair of broken champagne glasses, two discarded cigarettes. Love is fleeting and dreams can last as long as a boat ride from Hong Kong to San Francisco, but like life, all will come to a bitter end. A powerfully bittersweet, unsentimental romantic comedy with a serious bite. Powell and Francis are smooth as silk as passion slides ever-so-elegantly towards its demise, while Frank McHugh's drunken hijinks and Warren Hymer and Aline McMahon's atypical romance keep things light and bubbly. It got me choked up a few times, but at 68 minutes, it chugs along at quite the pace with none-too-long between laughs.