Go See a Movie!
Friday, October 21, 2016 at 5:20PM 
Go see something this weekend and report back!
New York and LA
Two incredible new films have arrived: Moonlight and The Handmaiden. I'd argue the latter is Park Chan Wook's best film yet. You absolutely must not miss either of them though I wish distributors would stop releasing films that can appeal to the same audience at the same time (I mean the last few weeks haven't had ravishingly artistic auteur films with queer storylines, so why two at once?). I wrote up a little snippet on The Handmaiden at Towleroad and we've previously reviewed Moonlight tag team style right here. I believe that both plan to expand into more cities next weekend. Both coasts also get an Icelandic mystery called Autumn Lights and NYC gets the indie porn drama King Cobra (with Christian Slater, James Franco and more)
Multiple Cities
Expanding into several more cities this weekend: the Holocaust related courtroom drama Denial (reviewed), Mexico's violent Oscar submission Desierto (reviewed - you've been warned), and cinephile favorite Kelly Reichardt's latest Certain Women with Laura Dern, Kristen Stewart, and Michelle Williams (reviewed). Ewan McGregor's debut directorial effort American Pastoral hits Chicago, Minneapolis, and Dallas.
Reader Comments (6)
I've got American Honey covered this weekend - and I'll get to see Neon Bull next week too!
The Handmaiden is too long, they make the same scenes to overlap too much and you can't always see a reason to this. And I am not sure the sex scenes really work. Too staged, too symmetric. But my problem with the movie is the final act.
SPOILER
This movie didn't need torture scenes. Really? Again?
END OF SPOILER.
I agree with Nathaniel (and therefore, disagree with cal roth). Best Park Chan Wook film, and to answer the (spoiler) question/statement - yes it did need it. The best part of it was how over-the-top he kept going (first act felt tame, and you wondered why it got such a constructive rating, second act replays some screens from the first, and you go "oh, now I understand", and then the final act just goes bat-shit crazy, in a good way (another octopus? Excellent.)
I have to say, it also reminded me a bit of Lynch's BLUE VELVET, especially the scenes with the "men's club".
SPOILER
I like the movie, it's gorgeous, camera work, cinematography and specially art direction are all incredible but in the end I felt I've just seen another overcooked version of Les Diaboliques, including the part of faking death. Park could have made it under 100 minutes.
SPOILER
I found "The Handmaiden" really mediocre. I was disappointed since i am a huge "Oldboy" fan. Contrary to many reviewers i liked the first of the movie the best, but after the film started to crumble. The final third is IMO a juvenile film, an young adult EMO's wet dream. To me that last sentence may be appealing, but not to me.
6/10
I'm going to Certain Women, but it's the first theatrical release I've ventured to in a long while. Why are films so back-loaded this year? In 2013, we'd already seen 12 Years a Slave and Gravity at this point.