movies

When I was younger and less properly medicated, I would periodically and spontaneously be brought to tears over the passing of River Phoenix. I had admittedly not even seen a film he had been in, I was just enchanted by his boyish androgyny and the way he spoke in interviews I watched on YouTube. When…

Yesterday I sat down to watch Beau Travail (1999) and, upon discovering I was tired, took a three hour nap before beginning the film. I think this was ultimately a good choice, as Beau Travail isn’t a film I finished feeling like I would have wanted to miss a single image or line, especially given…

Yesterday I started watching Laurel Parmet’s 2023 film The Starling Girl, which follows Jem Starling, the eldest daughter in a fundamentalist Christian family from Kentucky. At 17 years old, she’s discovering new things about herself, which is heightened when her charismatic youth pastor, Owen, returns from a mission trip in Puerto Rico (from now on,…

I’ve been trying to watch films lately that leave me thinking about their small moments. That is how I landed on the 1997 Iranian film Taste of Cherry, which gave me an impression of its impact even before viewing it. The film follows a middle-aged man, Mr. Badii, as he drives around looking for someone…

I am hungry but I am put off eating right this moment. I just finished Yorgos Lanthimos’ 2009 film Dogtooth and I feel compelled to do some dissecting. Dogtooth does not reveal its secrets easily, which is consistent with the other Lanthimos I’ve seen in its entirety, The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017). I…