A24’s Paul Mescal Double: 'Aftersun' and 'God’s Creatures'

by Eurocheese

A24 has had a killer 2022 so far, and they’re not slowing down. The effusive love for Everything Everywhere All at Once has indeed been everywhere: tributes to all the actors (including Middleburg last week), Park Chan-wook adding his name to the list of celebrities declaring their love for the film, reports of Academy screenings going like gangbusters – the weird little blockbuster-that-could has done everything it can to stay front and center in the Oscar race. On top of that, there’s the critical success of several A24 films in their bread-and-butter category of horror/thriller (X, Bodies Bodies Bodies, Pearl) and a couple of gems that are enchanting discoveries for those that seek them out (After Yang, Marcel the Shell with Shoes On). What more could we ask of them? 

As it turns out, we can expect them to showcase the brilliant (not to mention gorgeous) Paul Mescal in two films that highlight his ability to be heartbreaking and ice cold in polar opposite performances...

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Review: South Korea's Oscar Hopeful "Decision to Leave"

by Cláudio Alves

© MUBI

A woman stands in a room, alone. Wallpapered motifs encircle her in a swirl of blue-green something. Are they waves or mountaintops, those shapes repeated into infinity? Maybe they're both, maybe neither. Maybe they're everything. 

According to a Confucian proverb, the wise man admires water, the kind man admires mountains. Or maybe it's benevolence and virtue, some other translation across languages. Two complementing sides of the same person, perhaps a binary of human natures, these words reveal more than their scholarly meaning – at least, they do in Park Chan-wook's Decision to Leave. Ideas of duality percolate throughout the work, as does the attempt to understand the unfathomable reality of another person. We try to find order in chaos, logic in that which has none, pursuing an understanding that will always be out of grasp. Every single one of us is a mystery to others, and to try to transcend the impossibility of knowing someone else is a fool's errand, the most beautiful thing in the world, ecstasy holding hands with despair. It's love…

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The Fault in Our 'TÁR'

by Nathaniel R

Cate Blanchett as "TÁR" © Focus Features

The world famous conductor Lydia Tár is breathing strangely in the wings. As she inhales and exhales forcefully with tiny staccato bursts of her facial muscles, the image of a rock star hopping in place, self-hyping before their concert is conjured. Will Tár's elite audience devolve into a hysterical screaming teenager at the first sight of her?

Conductor as rock star? It's a rare and incredulous notion. Gone are the days of monoculture when a "Maestro" like Leonard Bernstein (emphatically name checked) could become a household name. But in Todd Field's TÁR we believe it, surely in part because one of the most famous movie stars in the world is playing her. In the year of our lord 2022, Cate Blanchett needs no introduction; Lydia Tár is a different story, and her introduction -- an exhausting recitation of her many diverse accomplishments as she turns 50 -- is a doozy...

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Review: "Piggy" is a visceral nightmare

by Cláudio Alves

© Magnet Releasing

Somewhere in the Spanish countryside, in a small town of Extremadura, Sara lives the kind of earthly hell familiar to many of those who grew up as fat teens. Judgment comes from every direction, shame inflicted upon her until it curdles the spirit. It's not just strangers that hurt, for a casual remark from one's mother can be so lacerating it leaves a scar. Still, there's nothing worse for Sara than her peers, cruel kids who couch their hatred in vacuous assertions that they mean well, that it's for her own good. A trip to the pool for Sara becomes another opportunity for torment at the hands of mean girls, including former friends.

Nearly drowned, her clothes stolen, a humiliated Sara walks home half-naked under the summer sun. It's then that a mysterious van appears, looming ominous in her path. Inside, the girl's tormentors lay powerless, victimizers turned victims at the hands of a kidnapper cum killer. Sara sees it all, the man in charge sees her, and they both do nothing – the van drives away…

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Semi-Contrarian Takes on 'Alcarras', 'Bones and All', and 'Triangle of Sadness'

by Nathaniel R

BONES AND ALL © United Artists Releasing

Hello strangers. Yours truly has been moving apartments for the past few days hence the radio silence. But HQ (aka the desktop computer) is now plugged in, wifi connected, and ready to be of use again if the rest of me can similarly recharge. When was the last time you moved? It's a bitch, right? Bone tired and the whole body aches from packing and box lifting and such. Can't wait to talk about The Fabelmans and TÁR but first some quick takes on recent NYFF screenings the last of which (Triangle of Sadness) is just fabulous and now in theaters. Go see it!

BONES AND ALL
The latest flick from Luca Guadagnino (Call Me By Your Name) is an interesting experiment in fusing tender romantic drama with sickening gore...

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