Thoughts on Film

hostiles copy

Hostiles by Scott Cooper

“The essential American soul is hard, isolate, stoic, and a killer. It has never melted.” The film opens with this D. H. Lawrence quote, and the impression from the jump is that writer/director Scott Cooper channels his personal shame (and American...

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northxnorthwest

North By Northwest: Hitchcock Going Full Hitchcock

It is a dizzying first watch, purposefully fitting in overwhelming dialogue and pitting the audience in the same state of confusion that Cary Grant finds himself in. But once it gets going, it’s pure popcorn: Hollywood at its golden age....

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joyland

Joyland by Saim Sadiq

Watched at the Wisconsin Film Festival: In the simplest of terms, the film is about what it means to be a man or a woman in Pakistan. It is the structures developed that force people into corners despite their actual anthropological...

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out of the past thoughts on film