Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion
★★★★ 4/4 A dark satire of fascism, police states, machismo, and kink, Elio Petri’s Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion stands as a forgotten classic of agitprop, a clever, confusing, [...]
October 2015
The Martian
★★★ 3/4 Turns out the best thing for latter-day Ridley Scott’s career is to go simple. After a series of films with escalating plot loopiness—from the chowderheaded (Prometheus) to the [...]
99 Homes
★★½ 2.5/4 99 Homes, Ramin Bahrani’s uneven torrent of rage and hopelessness set amidst the 2010 housing crisis in Orlando, may singlehandedly create the scariest new genre of the 21st [...]
What Did the Lady Forget?
★★★ 3/4 What Did the Lady Forget? (Shukujo wa nani o wasureta ka) isn’t considered among Ozu Yasujirô’s greatest achievements but it is a richer film than what it appears on the [...]
Sicario
★★★ 3/4 The new Netflix Pablo Escobar drama Narcos opens with the following title card: “Magical realism is defined as what happens when a highly detailed, realistic setting is invaded by [...]
Grandma
★★★ 3/4 Simple, bittersweet, and moving, Paul Weitz’s Grandma works not because of the supremely progressive nature of its subject matter, but because it presents these themes in such a [...]
Film The Madman 