Philosophy PhD student at Penn State.
Backrooms is oddly derivative of Jordan Peele’s Us, but if this betrays a certain lack of confidence from Cane Parsons then it must be said that nothing else does. The film is gorgeous and terribly fun to see in a theater. I fear that psychologizing the backrooms concept runs against the ambiguity that it depends on, but then I didn’t find this lessening my enjoyment in the moment and that’s a good sign that it holds up anyway.
When it comes to communism, you’re either with it or you’re not. If you’re with it, then you have be with all of it—a whole history of expression. What I love so much about Boots Riley is that he’s with it. His communist maximalism is too much, it always overwhelms as much as it inspires. But that’s what you sign up for when you decide to see the world through a communist frame. If you can’t get down with Boots Riley, ask yourself if you’re really with it and try again.
Zach Cregger is trying to carve out his own space in the horror movie genre, but I left Weapons decidedly underwhelmed. There are some fun moments here, but the divided character structure is arbitrary; rather than revealing information organically, everything is caught in a formalism that also traps the audience in a mystery which is only superficially interesting. By forcing us to see multiple scenes from only slightly different perspectives, the film drags on longer than it needs to, and it…
One Battle After Another consciously draws together four threads which have defined Paul Thomas Anderson’s films: The mediation of history on his characters (Magnolia, There Will Be Blood, Phantom Thread); the melancholic twilight of the past (Boogie Nights, Inherent Vice, Licorice Pizza); the primacy of love in making sense of the world (Punch-Drunk Love, Phantom Thread, Licorice Pizza); the nature of domination (There Will Be Blood, The Master, Phantom Thread). Until now, Phantom Thread had been the only one of…
