If π, Requiem for a Dream and The Fountain are conceptual films, then The Wrestler is an actors film, and as we all now know, one actors film in particular. According to Aronofsky, he has a list of several kinds of films that he wants to make, and The Wrestler, as a pared down actors film, […]
Category Archives: Film Reviews
April
08
The Westler – Aronofsky plays “nice” and makes us feel. (Film Review)
posted by lisathatcher
April
07
The Fountain – Darren Aronofsky pushes the buttons. (Film Review)
posted by lisathatcher
The Fountain is Aronofsky’s most challenging film to write about, and stands alone as a unique work in his oeuvre, until Noah that is, with which there are some strong similarities. All the hyperbole we’ve come to expect are there, the use of imagery to subvert narrative, the strongest points being the most subtle, images […]
April
07
40 years Ago Today: The Conversation (film review)
posted by lisathatcher
In 1970, Karel Kachyna made a Czech film titled The Ear, and in 1974 Francis Ford Coppola made an American film titled The Conversation. Due to the highly restrictive Soviet rule in Czechoslovakia, The Ear was banned before it saw the light of day (frankly it’s a miracle it was ever made) and did […]
April
04
The Lego Movie – Made by those who love Lego for those who love Lego. (Film review)
posted by lisathatcher
If you’re reading all the reviews of The Lego Movie, and they become oddly analogous, strangely lacking insight given the overwhelmingly positive scores, you would be forgiven for thinking the cinematic off-season has driven super-hero/super-natural weary critics into a frenzy of appreciation for anything that isn’t going to ask them to analyse a relationship between […]
April
03
Requiem for a Dream – Aronofsky refuses categorical analysis by offering everything. (Film review)
posted by lisathatcher
If π was a little maddening, then Requiem for a Dream is a total mind F*&K when it comes to the overhanded frustrating emphasis Aronofsky will place on his not so subtle message. At its surface, the message of Requiem for a Dream is don’t do drugs, and there is absolutely no chance in the world […]
March
26
Pi – Darren Aronofsky begins his journey through genius. (Film review)
posted by lisathatcher
Pi or π, Darren Aronofsky’s first feature film that was good enough to launch him as a bit of an indie darling back in his early days, is one of those films one loves or one hates, primarily because they are made to show off intelligence that may or may not be present, but wants to […]
March
17
The Armstrong Lie – Alex Gibney tells the truth while Lance Armstrong continues the lie. (Film review)
posted by lisathatcher
Something has gone slightly askew with The Armstrong Lie and its difficult to know exactly what, though the relationship between Alex Gibney and Lance Armstrong, something Gibney talks up much stronger than Armstrong, appears to be one of personal disappointment on Gibney’s part, and par for the course on the part of Armstrong. Lance Armstrong, […]
March
13
Wadjda – Haifaa al-Mansour uses a cliche to access an entirely foreign world. (film review)
posted by lisathatcher
If there is a problem with Wadjda, it is the Western gaze, and watching it one gets the niggling feeling that has something to do with its remarkable permissions. The film is famous for being, not just the first full feature film shot in Saudi Arabia, but the first shot by a woman in that […]
March
09
20 Years ago Today: Four Weddings and a Funeral. (Film Review)
posted by lisathatcher
Civil partnerships (inaccurately titled “gay marriages” – they were neither exclusively gay, nor carried the same legal rights as marriages) were passed in an act of parliament in the UK in 2004, almost exactly ten years after Four Weddings and a Funeral, a film that buried it’s progressive themes under a bumbling British wit that […]
March
06
Hannah Arendt – Margarethe von Trotta and the image of the thinking woman. (Film Review)
posted by lisathatcher
Hannah Arendt’s story surrounding the writing of The Banality of Evil is a shocking one, not so much for her adept philosophical statements, which are still apt (see Errol Morris’ documentary Dr. Death for just one of many examples of a reinforcement of her New Yorker essay) but rather for her astounding courage, or is […]
Lisa Thatcher 