Reviews

Movies

Competent, Worthy, and Lacking

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Maria Full of Grace is a straightforward, clinical, nearly artless movie that starts out as a rote tract on the human cost of the drug trade and eventually builds itself into a story in which the audience has an emotional investment. In the end, it sits somewhere between the brilliant and razor-sharp British miniseries Traffik and its obvious, too-condensed American re-make Traffic (directed by Steven Soderbergh).

Tagged: Dramas, Drugs, Joshua Marston, Maria Full of Grace, Reviews
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Movies

The Horror. The Horror!

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As flawed as it is and even though its freshness and shock value have been diminished by imitation and time, Eyes Without a Face still works amazingly well – primal, raw, troubling, and real. Its authenticity makes it superior to 95 percent of horror movies, and it illustrates how horror operates even when it’s not terrifying.

Tagged: Eyes Without a Face, Foreign-Language Films, Georges Franju, Horror, Reviews
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Movies

Obstruction Junction, What’s Your Dysfunction?

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The premise of The Five Obstructions is simple, elegant, and gloriously artificial. A pupil gives his teacher under-any-circumstances-difficult assignments with absurd conditions, and the mentor complies – with no agreed-upon goal beyond the completion of the tasks. Through the assignments, the movie emerges as a portrait of a submissive relationship that’s not at all one-sided.

Tagged: Documentaries, Jorgen Leth, Lars von Trier, Reflexivity, Reviews, The Five Obstructions
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Best of Culture Snob Movies

The Luckiest Person in the World

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The subject of Intacto is “luck,” which is not to be confused with the random workings of “chance.” In director/co-writer Juan Carlos Fresnadillo’s vividly imagined movie from 2001, luck is a tangible if not quite quantifiable thing that certain gifted people harness, steal, collect, and gamble. That they have nothing to gain from it is something they don’t seem to recognize.

Tagged: Intacto, Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, Reviews, Thrillers
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Best of Culture Snob Movies Music

Portrait of the Artist from a Curious Distance

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The best part of Metallica: Some Kind of Monster is its reputed backstory. Commissioned by Metallica’s record label as a promotional film about the making of the metal band’s new album, it instead documented the group’s near-implosion. Yet as engaging as the film is, it’s still strangely amiss. It’s lean but feels too long; it’s probing through the camera’s omnipresence but too gentle and polite; and it’s revealing without ever getting to the heart of the band or its leaders.

Tagged: Bruce Sinofsky, Documentaries, Joe Berlinger, Metallica, Metallica: Some Kind of Monster, Music Documentaries, Reviews, Some Kind of Monster
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