Author: joeromano
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Review: “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” – Celine Sciamma
The release of Celine Sciamma’s “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” on Criterion Collection on June 23 has spurred an interest in the film that had been missed by some audiences. It is stunningly sad work – a tale of longing, beauty, and memory set amongst the portraiture of a desolate and difficult world. Amongst…
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The ‘Jolly Tales’ of Greta Gerwig and the Inherent Hardships of Human Life
The movies rarely show us how sloppy becoming an adult looks. Noah Baumbach and Greta Gerwig’s collaborative effort in “Frances Ha” sums this sentiment up very concisely. It’s hard to explain what you do when you don’t actually do it. While this seems to defy any form of logic, any student living in the aftermath…
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Review: “Never Rarely Sometimes Always” – Eliza Hittman
To blend the utter brutality and unforgiving nature of the real world with the tender emotion of a person in crisis is a difficult task to beckon of anyone. The deft touch of Eliza Hittman was perfectly suited for “Never Rarely Sometimes Always”, the solemn odyssey of a lonesome teenage girl searching to regain control…
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Review: “The Lodge” – Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz
If the harsh corners and thick wooden doors are not confining enough, then the rampant torrents of snow that befall the resident of the titular holiday getaway would surely cause anyone to doubt their sanity. This supposition does not even take into account the roguish misbehavior of grim forces, whether those be the products of…
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Review: Capone – Josh Trank
There is a fine line between haunting and laughable and Josh Trank’s “Capone” toes that line bunglingly. Some of the images certainly transport the viewer into a wicked nightmare, as Al “Fonz” Capone (Tom Hardy) waddles his way through a dreamscape rife with cascading jet black and steel gray balloons, violent acts of savagery, ravenous…
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The Filmography of Sofia Coppola: A Celebration of Sadness
So rare is it to find a talent that transcends genre or prototype, producing a distinct voice and flare that can be identified by simply glancing at the screen. A filmmaker’s task is not just to tell the story of a few fictional or fictionalized people through a series of set events, but rather to…
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The Assistant: The Sharpness of Silence
Those subtle mundane silences, the lapses in communication, the frayed thoughts, the million little anxieties, the thousand envelope-induced paper cuts can deliver quite a lethal dose when compiled together. They become palpable in Kitty Green’s debut dramatic feature film, “The Assistant”. Enacted under the flat shimmer of the fluorescent office bulbs, these minute transgressions accumulate…