The New Classics: Two Days, One Night

by Michael Cusumano

I become invested in the struggles of Sandra in Two Days, One Night in a way I rarely do with other protagonists. 

The Dardenne’s unadorned style combined with the rawness of Marion Cotillard’s performance convince me completely of the reality of what’s unfolding, and I monitor Sandra like a friend for whom I am gravely concerned, inspecting every downward glance for hints of an impending crack up. When she teeters on the brink of a deep abyss after the film’s brutal first act, I can intuit that she is probably one more setback away from surrendering to her darkest impulses. The film doesn't need to say so...

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The New Classics: Gosford Park

Hey everyone. Michael Cusumano here. If you've got to be trapped inside, why not be trapped inside with thirty or so of the greatest British actors ever? 18-year-old mystery spoilers ahead!

 

Scene: The Murder of Willam McCordle 
I don’t think you count yourself as having seen a Robert Altman film unless you’ve seen it three times, minimum. All great films expand on rewatch, but Altman movies transform, accumulating power as additional dimensions come into focus. In no film is this more apparent than his late-period masterwork, Gosford Park...

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The New Classics: Living Deliciously in "The Witch"

Hey everyone. Michael Cusumano here, excited to be back for a second season of The New Classics (and not just because publishing one of these every Tuesday will help me tell the weeks apart!) Each which we annoint one the best of the 21st century by discussing a single scene. 

Scene: Living Deliciously
The ending of Robert Eggers’ The Witch certainly feels like a happy ending. How could it not, with that final thrilling image of a cackling Thomasin rising nude into the moonlight, embracing her place in Black Phillip’s coven? She has shed her fanatically repressed biological family like she shed her blood-splattered “shift” at Black Phillip’s whispered command, and now she’s off to see the world and taste butter by the churnful. Liberation!

But at what cost?

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"The New Classics" Returns

Exciting news! Michael Cusamano's engaging series "The New Classics," which focuses on top-notch 21st century films by dissecting a single scene, begins its second season April 28th --weekly editions Tuesdays at 1 PM! Here's what's been covered previously if you'd like to catch up. Any suggestions for season two? 

Season 1 of The New Classics

• Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001)
• Y Tu Mama Tambien (2001)
• Sexy Beast (2001)
• Master and Commander (2003)
• Shattered Glass (2003)
• Before Sunset (2004)
• Collateral (2004)
• Eastern Promises (2007)
• Michael Clayton (2007)
• No Country For Old Men (2007)
• Happy-Go-Lucky (2008) 
• The Hurt Locker (2009)
• Inglourious Basterds (2009)
• In the Loop (2009)
• I Am Love (2010)
• Meek's Cutoff (2010)
• A Separation (2011)
• Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011)
• It's Such a Beautiful Day (2012)
• Blue Ruin (2013)
• 20th Century Women (2016)
• The Florida Project (2017)

The New Classics - The Florida Project

Michael C. here. When I started this column I made a rule that anything less than two years old was too recent. So for the season finale let's go with a first round draft pic. 

Sean Baker and Willem Dafoe on the set of The Florida Project

Scene: Child Predator
There’s nothing that he can do about it. That’s the guiding principle that drives Willem Dafoe’s Bobby throughout Sean Baker’s heart-rending The Florida Project. He maintains the boundaries he needs to keep up the pretense that he is operating a motel and not a lilac-colored homeless shelter, but we can intuit that he would help more if he could. It’s all in the unnecessary helping of kindness and humor around the edges when he’s laying down the law... 

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