7 years ago
frances ha 10
You Can’t Always Get What You Want: Noah Baumbach’s Trilogy of Disappointment
Gracing the cover of the most recent issue of Film Comment are Greta Gerwig and Lola Kirke, staring into one another’s eyes, just under the headline, “Mistress America: I’ll Be Your Mirror.” The photograph, taken from a scene in which the trajectory of both ch...
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It’s Not Not About Him: On Noah Baumbach and “While We’re Young”
“Your first film was entertaining. It was honest. This feels so ungenerous, like you took your ball and went home.”
This slap to the ego is delivered in writer-director Noah Baumbach’s latest serio-comedy, While We’re Young. The recipient, Josh (Ben Stiller),...
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Imagine Me and You: Female Friendship on Film
In the landmark PBS documentary “Growing Up Female” Julia Reichert and Jim Klein sought out to put a spotlight on socialization of girls growing up in America in the 1970s. One of the more troubling aspects of that picture was the prevailing notion that media ...
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The Diet Coke of Gay: An Interview with Desiree Akhavan
Desiree Akhavan’s Appropriate Behavior, the break-out film for the New York-based director/writer/actress, is a delightful and honest depiction of what it means to be young, Iranian-American and bisexual. The protagonist Shirin, played by the director and loos...
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Consider the Starman: 5 Cinematic Moments of David Bowie Fueled Awesomeness
One of the most powerful elements a film can employ is music. A strong soundtrack creates tone, stirs up atmosphere, and reflects the film’s material. Most brilliant directors have a keen ear for what music will compliment and fuel the aesthetic of a cinematic...
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Video Essay: Kevin B. Lee’s The Best Films of the Decade So Far
The people have spoken! Remember those half decade lists I was talking about and how the remarkable Kevin B. Lee started all this kerfuffle? Well, the esteemed video essayist has completed his daunting task in polling 290 film critics and cinephiles and the re...
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To Half and Half Not: The Films to Remember from 2010 – 2014
The end of the year is, undoubtedly, a time of reflection: what we’ve experienced, what we’ve learned, how many resolutions we broke and what we’re going to do to rectify that, etc. It is also the time of lists. Lists, lists, lists. The internet in mid to late...
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“Life Partners”
In the middle of the road, two young women shout profanities and expletives at one another, one accusing the other of cutting them off, the other making the accusation that their side-view mirror was almost clipped. They’re actually best friends and this is th...
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8 Great Modern Films in Black & White
Films have been in color, in one way or another, since nearly the beginning of the medium. From meticulously hand-painted prints like in the films of Georges Méliès to additive color systems like Kinemacolor in the early 1900s, black and white has never been e...
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“Adult World”: The Millennial Plight
In a moment of crisis late in Adult World, 22-year-old protagonist Amy finds herself flinging books at her mentor and screaming: "I AM SPECIAL! I GOT GOOD GRADES! I SCORED IN THE 97TH PERCENTILE ON MY SAT’S, THANK YOU VERY MUCH!" The tantrum is silly in the ut...
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