Nicholas Bell

Cortes’ latest is a discordant rhythm of its own.

The trap of love.

"With 2012 already upon us, the Mayan prophecy of world’s end is destined to become more pervasive in the future cinematic offerings. But it’s the tagline for The Divide that reinforces the film’s glum outlook and proves the least hackneyed element about it, proclaiming that “the lucky ones died in the blast.” His film makes a strong case for that. Or maybe you’d rather be caged with strangers losing their minds while eating kidney beans and getting raped for an inordinate amount of time. Which side of the divide are you on?"

Not your mother’s apocalypse.

The title of the film is taken from a poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins called “Spring and Fall,” wherein the poem’s narrator addresses a young girl named Margaret. The narrator instructs the young woman, “Ah as the heart grows older/It will come to sights much colder….It is the blight man was born for,/It is Margaret you mourn for.” And so it is Lisa who begins to learn that she’s not grieving for the dead woman or even fighting for justice. Instead, she’s mourning for her own loss of ideals, her own dissipation of youth and ignorance. A complicated, thoroughly impressive film with some excellent dialogue, it’s also a nostalgic time capsule of both New York and its actors from a few years ago, filmed in 2005. Since then, all our hearts have grown older.