AFlickering
Recent RankingsCheck out AFlickering's...
| 88 T9 | A Bride for Rip Van Winkle (2016) - May 04, 2018
"not just a cautionary tale about the artificiality/mutability of identity in the virtual age; in a society which subsumes the individual into its prescribed narratives, that artifice is revealed as vital for self-actualisation. given the plot of this unmoored drama (a shy, anonymous woman is flung from her ordinary life into a series of movie-ish twists with the help of a scheming director), iwai extends the point to art as well: there's nothing more real nowadays than finding oneself onscreen."
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| 63 T6 | Mother! (2017) - May 04, 2018
"why does aronofsky tether us to Mother's perspective? why are we affiliated with the violated vagina, the shattered muse, the scorched earth, and never the ecstatically ejaculating pen(is)? i don't believe this decision is intended as (would-be disingenuous) apologia; more like aronofsky wants to fuck us into flames too, so his creation can shine ever brighter. at the very least, i can't deny he got inside."
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| 63 T6 | Paddington 2 (2017) - Apr 28, 2018
"if i read another review that's like PADDINGTON 2 IS MODERN TIMES FOR OUR MODERN TIMES i'm gonna rate this 0 though"
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| 50 T4 | The Square (2017) - Apr 28, 2018
"the titular motif is served well by ostlund's boxed in compositions and use of invasive off-screen sound, while his staging does justice to andersson and bunuel comparisons (THAT set-piece), but it's very obviously a first draft (a re-edit was rumored pre-cannes). without haneke-level discipline, a snarky satire on the hypocrisy of privileged, 'civilised' liberal/patriarchal institutions really needs more of its jokes to land (tourettes, ruben?...). i'll stick with my lanthimos on that score."
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| 75 T8 | Coco (2017) - Apr 23, 2018
"not the most thorny or surprising pixar film of recent years, but probably the most beautifully constructed, and an impassioned explanation for their longstanding obsessions with mortality and memory, suggesting that traditions--art, myth, culture, family--are the healthiest response to our temporary existence, tools for building bridges between the past and present so that nothing is lost. heavy stuff, mostly (not always, e.g. the 2D villain) granted the texture and weight it deserves."
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| 63 T6 | Casino Royale (2006) - Apr 22, 2018 |
| 88 T9 | The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017) - Apr 17, 2018
"this is pretty well-trodden territory (euripedes and FUNNY GAMES are reference points - loc42 lays it out in more detail), but lanthimos' tonal control is frightening: so many of these lines/shots would feel cheaply provocative outside this very specific register, where they had me in stitches or squirming with discomfort. i'm sure it's obnoxious if the humor doesn't land, but y'all gotta admit keoghan's innocuously unnerving anti-villain is one of the most singular characters in recent memory."
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| 75 T8 | Stewart Lee: Stand-Up Comedian (2005) - Apr 16, 2018 |
| 75 T8 | Stewart Lee: 90s Comedian (2006) - Apr 16, 2018 |
| 63 T6 | Thelma (2017) - Apr 12, 2018
"i'm kinda bored with these post-CARRIE coming-of-age/feminist empowerment narratives dressed up (somewhat lazily) in genre garb, but i love this style of filmmaking (in that respect i'm still a kindred spirit of chaw, the lone critic to name this his FOTY). trier builds a lucid visual language atop a small number of archetypal motifs, and some of the images are truly vivid and startling in context. mickle's WE ARE WHAT WE ARE came to mind, particularly for how water is used to tell this story."
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