Reviewer: Philip Tatler IV
Ratings (out of five):

Summer Interlude *** 1/2
Summer with Monika **** 1/2 

Watching Ingmar Bergman’s Summer Interlude and Summer With Monika back-to-back has somewhat conflated the two films in my head. The films explore young love during the titular season and both are set in the wind-swept dreamland of Stockholm’s outer archipelago. However, there’s a sharp line that divides the Bergman of Interlude from the Bergman of Monika. Only two years (and one other film – 1952’s Secrets of Women) separate Bergman’s two Summers but it’s clear that that period represented a major shift in the august filmmaker’s sensibilities.

Continue Reading Ingmar Bergman's Summer Interlude / Summer With Monika (Criterion)

We need to talk about some stellar DVDs released this week. Two from Bergman, thrillers of the psychological and pure action variety, Shakespearan reboots, jazzy romances, and much, much more. 

Continue Reading New and Coming Releases: May 29, 2012.

Reviewer: Philip Tatler IV
Ratings (out of five): Certified Copy **** 1/2
The Report **** 

Over the course of its 106-minute running time, Certified Copy primarily features two attractive people – Juliette Binoche and William Shimell – involved in a heated discussion about art and love. Their argument ultimately calls into question the fate of their own relationship. If this sounds like boiler plate “art house” fodder, it’s because it is. As Godfrey Cheshire remarks in the liner notes for Criterion’s release of Copy, the film “confidently revives a certain kind of European art cinema” – belonging to a tradition that includes My Voyage to Italy, My Dinner With Andre, and Richard Linklater’s Before films.

Continue Reading Certified Copy / The Report (Criterion)

Steamrolling into what will be an amazing summer for DVDs, chock full of classic re-releases and great films from 2011-2012, this week brings us loads to enjoy as well, including one of the most highly regarded 2011 films, Certified Copy, many long-sought-after films from Robert Downy Sr., and more!

Continue Reading New and Coming Releases: May 22, 2012.

Reviewer: Philip Tatler IV
Ratings (out of five): ****

Robert M. Young’s ¡Alambrista! was released in America as The Illegal but an actual translation of the Spanish title is Tightrope Walker!, a much more evocative description of the film’s central drama. In this case, the “tightrope” is the US-Mexican border and the “walker” is young Roberto (Domingo Ambriz).

The film opens with Roberto working the soil on a failing farm in Mexico. A few scenes later, after celebrating the birth of his first daughter, Roberto turns to his wife and calmly intones: “I’m thinking of crossing the border and going north. We can’t make ends meet.”

Continue Reading ¡Alambrista! (Criterion)

Reviewer: Philip Tatler IV
Ratings (out of five): (set average) *** 1/2

A couple caveats before we dive in here. Firstly, I am out of my depth writing about the avant-garde, and bow to other qualified guides (Michael Sicinski, among others) well-versed in this terrain. I’ll try to split the difference between sounding like a pretentious wanker/a brain-dead rube writing about this, but I’m in vaguely foreign territory here.

Secondly, Frampton’s films require the viewer to engage them in a way that almost makes the viewer a co-creator in the works. Extremely subjective, personal response is, for me, the only way to begin to approach these films, hence, my use of the dreaded first person in the following analysis.

Continue Reading A Hollis Frampton Odyssey (Criterion)

Teenage superheroes, rogue cops, undercover crossdressering butlers - this week's got it all. Check out the full list inside. 

Continue Reading New and Coming Releases: May 15, 2012.

Reviewer: Jeffrey M. Anderson
Ratings (out of five): ** 1/2

Yet another horror remake, this one comes from an almost forgotten and not very well-liked Troma release from 1980, written and directed by Lloyd Kaufman's brother Charles. It was a rape thriller, which probably explains its reputation today. Fortunately, the remake chooses another path. Rather than three women going camping and running into a sadistic mother and her scumbag sons, the plot becomes slightly more complex.

Continue Reading Mother's Day

Reviewer: James van Maanen
Ratings (out of five): ***

The Kreutzer Sonata, directed and co-written (with Lisa Enos) by Bernard Rose tracks the journey of a jealous husband's relationship with his pianist wife. A modern adaptation of a Tolstoy novella, the film has a number of good things to warrant a recommendation. The movie leaves all credit information, save its title, to the end, a fact I was grateful for when I finished considering the quality of the director's previous works (Paperhouse, Candyman, Immortal Beloved and Anna Karenina). Yet, it is my second favorite of his films I've seen so far (his most recent work, Mr. Nice with Rhys Ifans, is even better). 

Continue Reading The Kreutzer Sonata

There's a little something for everyone this week: whether you're into absurdist "comedy," sweeping blockbuster romance, action, or horror, you'll find something up your alley this releasing week. Enjoy!

Continue Reading New and Coming Releases:May 8, 2012.