My Night at Maud’s (1969; Eric Rohmer) GRADE: B+ By Mike Dub In describing Eric Rohmer’s My Night at Maud’s, the third and probably best-known of his Moral Tales, it is tempting to use terms that might sound somewhat condescending, or make the film seem trivial. “Novel,” “refreshing,” […]
Suzanne’s Career (1963; Eric Rohmer) GRADE: B- By Daniel Barnes Shot on a shoestring and never released theatrically, the 60-minute featurette Suzanne’s Career is a technically abysmal early effort. Most professional filmmakers would look to bury it, as Quentin Tarantino did with My Best Friend’s Birthday. The film […]
By Mike Dub and Daniel Barnes MD: Going into this festival, I wanted to concentrate on the subgenres and archetypes of the movie psychiatrist, but after watching these three films, another thread struck me as being prominent to the psychotherapy film: the relationship between prestige and exploitation. All […]
Let the Fire Burn (2013; Jason Osder) GRADE: A- By Daniel Barnes Jason Osder’s powerful and disturbing Let the Fire Burn is part of a new wave of media collage documentaries that also includes Brett Morgen’s July 17, 1994 and Penny Lane’s Our Nixon. Rather than offer comforting […]
The Piano Teacher (2001; Michael Haneke) GRADE: B By Mike Dub Throughout his well-regarded and controversial career, Michael Haneke has specialized in disturbing violence. With unnerving precision, Haneke unfurls stories that build delicately to sudden, shocking explosions of blood and death. In The Piano Teacher, based on a novel […]
Jack and Jill (2011; Dennis Dugan) GRADE: D- By Daniel Barnes *Dared by Matt B. Over a decade ago in a college newspaper review of Little Nicky, I wrote, “Adam Sandler is truly his generation’s Jerry Lewis,” with everything great and terrible that statement implies.” It’s a fairly […]
