Film Reviews
Welcome to FilmFestSalon! Read our reviews on domestic films, foreign films and the classics.
Film: “First Reformed”
Veteran filmmaker Paul Schrader’s latest film, “First Reformed”, is clearly a very personal statement. While dramatically bumpy, it is an ultimately persuasive story of a Christian reverand’s crisis of faith in a world seemingly intent on destroying itself. Ethan Hawke gives a fully committed performance – certainly a career peak – that firmly holds an…
Film: “Hereditary”
Hereditary, a new scare-fest written and directed by Ari Aster, is now in wide release. If there’s a genre that it best fits into, let’s call it horror-puzzler. Strange and awful things happen to a family, but who is doing those terrible things to whom or, more exactly, who is making the family do them…
Film: “The Rider”
Sometimes it’s better to know as little as possible about a film before seeing it. All I knew about Chloe Zhou’s “The Rider” was that it was her second film, and had already won a number of festival prizes. I found it a strong story, confidently told, but there was something about it that was…
Film: “Godard Mon Amour”
French filmmaker Michael Hazanavicius, the Oscar winner for “The Artist”, presents another comic fable about a film genius in “Godard Mon Amour”. But this one is a real person, in fact, a living legend. Granted, this is a highly specialized entertainment, but for a cineaste like myself, most of it was very enjoyable. Jean Luc Godard…
Film: “The Endless”
A new film, “The Endless”, is kind of intriguing, if not particularly original. But the almost universally enthusiastic reviews are a mystery. I guess being old enough to remember countless other cheap indies from the past hampered my enjoyment. Writer Justin Benson stars with Aaron Moorhead as brothers who had been raised since childhood in…
New Directors/New Films 2018
I attended just three of the films this year, but it’s always exciting to see new talent in this venue. The films are shown at the Walter Reade Theater of the Lincoln Center Film Society, and at the Museum of Modern Art. It is a serious festival, and the filmmakers almost always appear for an…
Film: “The Death of Stalin”
By now, those of us who go to see a film by Armando Iannucci are very aware of what makes him special. Like all great satirists, he sniffs out the worst parts of the human character, shoves it in our faces and, in spite of this, gets us to laugh about it. “The Death of…
Film: “A Fantastic Woman”
I went to see this Chilean import after it won the best foreign film Oscar. It is sincere but unexceptional (with one standout, however). Apparently the social stigma against homosexuality and the transgendered is strong in Chile; an open wound, in fact. Director Sebastian Lelio (who co-wrote with Gonzalo Meza) presented this subject with sympathy,…
Oscars 2018: Random Notes
After the Globes and Saturday’s Spirit awards, there were few real surprises. It was nice that James Ivory got the best adaptation for “Call Me By Your Name”. I actually think he improved on the book. While often moving, the book was rather fey and overwritten at times. It was narrated by the adult…
Film: “Loveless”
“Loveless”, a foreign Oscar nominee from Russia, is an absorbing drama about the disappearance of a child. I admit, the subject matter never fails to grab me (I’ll never forget the townspeople’s search for the missing child in D.H. Lawrence’s Women In Love). And yet, while the treatment is as painfully intense as you might…