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 […]
Le Silence de la Mer (1949; Jean-Pierre Melville) GRADE: A- By Mike Dub “This film has no pretension of solving the problem of Franco-German relations, for they cannot be solved while the barbarous Nazi crimes, committed with the complicity of the German people, remain fresh in men’s minds.” – […]
Godzilla (2014; Gareth Edwards) GRADE: C- By Mike Dub There is an interesting idea buried in the mediocrity of the latest revamp of Godzilla, directed by soon-to-be kazillionaire Gareth Edwards. Throughout the first three-quarters of the 123-minute film, Edwards teases his audience with momentary glimpses of the epic battle between […]
The Back-up Plan (2010; Alan Poul) GRADE: F By Daniel Barnes The “and” credit is hallowed ground in the opening credits of any film, an honorable position of respect not to be bestowed lightly. Naturally, the film’s stars are always listed first in a movie’s credits, followed by […]
The Galapagos Affair: Satan Came to Eden (2014; Daniel Geller, Dayna Goldfine) GRADE: B By Mike Dub Most people, at least a few times in their lives, have had the urge to abandon society and move to some uninhabited island and live off the land in peaceful isolation. […]
Variety (1983; Bette Gordon) GRADE: B By Mike Dub Bette Gordon’s 1983 independent thriller Variety is a sharp, ambitious thriller. It deserves to mentioned alongside other vivid films about the alienated abyss of the old New York City – the ugly, dangerous, vile New York City that is nostalgically eulogized […]
