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The Manchurian Candidate [Blu-ray] | DVD Review
"Hidden within its creepy strata is a thorough – and often humorous - skewering of Washington politics and the manipulative, but fragile egos of beltway ideologues. The notion of brainwashing is a conceptual driver, and the film contains a biting and resonant message: the most resilient and dangerous form of mind control is invariably self-induced."
The Misfits [Blu-ray] | DVD Review
Both by design and by accident, The Misfits is a remarkably prescient farewell to an era. Huston’s intent was to chronicle the death rattles of the American cowboy tradition; the demise of rugged individualism in a modern world that rewarded conformity and commerce. The adventurous riders of the western plains were being corralled by the material pressures of consumerism; their free spirits permanently altered by the crushing need to draw steady paychecks in a new, commodity based, reality.
DVD Review: Criterion Collection: Kes [Blu-ray]
As a film, Kes has often been described as documentary-style. Not only is that inaccurate, it demeans Loach’s achievement; as if he somehow deceived audiences into believing this waif-and-bird story simply through stylistics. There isn’t the slightest aspect of cinema verite anywhere within Kes’s angst stricken blue-green layers.
Criterion Collection: Kes [Blu-ray] | DVD Review
As a film, Kes has often been described as documentary-style. Not only is that inaccurate, it demeans Loach’s achievement; as if he somehow deceived audiences into believing this waif-and-bird story simply through stylistics. There isn’t the slightest aspect of cinema verite anywhere within Kes’s angst stricken blue-green layers.
DVD Review: Criterion Collection: White Material [Blu-ray]
Much of the credit must go to Huppert, who conveys more emotional turmoil with her chin than most actors can evoke with their entire bodies. Not since Heaven’s Gate 30 years ago, has Huppert taken a role so wholly dependent on her unique physicality. In an early scene, Huppert desperately clings to the side of a rusty, overcrowded bus in a life-or-death attempt to escape the advancing rebels. Her tiny arms bulge from the strain as her body is engulfed in a hot, dry wind, manifesting not only her character’s fierce determination but also her stubborn resistance.
