Memory minds. It minds who you are, but, more particularly, who you were. It minds who you love, but, quite peculiarly, who you hate. For Zev and Max, it all has been a long ride till retaliation. For if it is true that no vengeance is possible without memory, no grievances exist when they cannot…
Living in captivity is not so when captivity is everything you know. No cell can be bigger than the one constituting our environment, and when our whole environment consists of a small room, bigger than an average houseroom but smaller than a bachelor apartment, a shedding that has seen your birth and growth, then the…
A light-hearted score by Jed Kurzel (“The Snowtown Murders”) punctuates Slow West, first-time director John Maclean’s 84-minute deconstruction of the myth of the frontier. Winner of the grand jury prize in the international dramatic competition at Sundance, the U.K.-New Zealand co-production is a slow burn that is awash in contradictions. Starring Michael Fassbender (“12 Years…
Those days that see no sunset are bound to become myths. Amy Winehouse was once like one of those twilightless days that just faded away from view. She did, however, fade in front of our eyes. We saw her dissipating, slowly disappearing — we saw her vanishing only to never watch her die. Asif Kapadia’s…
“I’ve become so disturbed by younger people. They upset me so much that I’ve closed my doors” – Henrik Ibsen from “The Master Builder” Now 44, childless, arthritic, and stuck in career limbo, Josh Svebnick (Ben Stiller, “The Watch”) has the good sense to realize that life is passing him by. Though Josh and his…
J. C. Chandor’s New York drama, A Most Violent Year, is a misleadingly titled film, as its timeframe only covers a month and there is very little physical violence. While the title references the exceptionally high crime rate of New York in 1981, the film itself is an intriguing study of different types of violence,…
You can say this about Life After Beth, the indie zombie romantic comedy (zom-rom-com?) by first time director, Jeff Baena: Aubrey Plaza (2012’s “Safety Not Guaranteed”) makes for a great zombie. With her deadpan delivery and soulless eyes, she doesn’t have to do much to look and act like the dead reawakened. Don’t get me…
