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The Plot Against Harry
(1969)
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Dennis Harvey
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...the film’s sensibility was simply ahead of its time, anticipating the bubbling-under ensemble humor of 1970s Robert Altman joints and deadpan 1980s efforts by Jarmusch & co...
Posted Nov 30, 2023
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Dream Scenario
(2023)
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Dennis Harvey
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It’s a caustically clever fantasy parable that plays with the notions of “viral” fame and “cancel culture,” though in the end I found it more intriguing as a concept than terribly rewarding in either comedy or insight.
Posted Nov 30, 2023
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The Eagle
(1925)
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Dennis Harvey
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Not a career peak for Clarence Brown, whose resume would encompass later classics like The Yearling, National Velvet, Intruder in the Dust and Idiot’s Delight, plus myriad glossy celluloid pedestals for Gable, Garbo, and Crawford. But it is good fun.
Posted Nov 30, 2023
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Pavement Butterfly
(1929)
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Dennis Harvey
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There are many pluses to this well-mounted effort, including some notably stylish touches, good location filming, and the beautifully photographed star nicely underplaying the purple emotions called for.
Posted Nov 30, 2023
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Safety Last
(1923)
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Dennis Harvey
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Lloyd is generally considered the most prosaic of the era’s comedic “big three,” lacking Chaplin’s poetry and Keaton’s deadpan genius. But his movies were, and are, great mainstream entertainment...
Posted Nov 30, 2023
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The Holy Mountain
(1973)
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Dennis Harvey
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One of the greatest films of the Sixties...
Posted Nov 30, 2023
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Witness in the City
(1959)
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Dennis Harvey
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The 1959 gritty street thriller...
Posted Nov 30, 2023
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The Crucible
(1996)
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Dennis Harvey
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Raymond Rouleau’s French-East German coproduction should provide something of a revelation...
Posted Nov 30, 2023
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Evilspeak
(1982)
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Dennis Harvey
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Eric Weston’s film isn’t necessarily “good,” but it is definitely out there, with some elements seemingly intended as satire, others not at all.
Posted Nov 27, 2023
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A Disturbance in The Force
(2023)
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Dennis Harvey
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Fun—and probably less traumatizing than watching the real thing, which can be found pretty easily on free online sites.
Posted Nov 27, 2023
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Napoleon
(2023)
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Dennis Harvey
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Napoleon is close to three hours long, but it never feels slack; there is vitality as well as elegance to its flow, highlighted by huge battle sequences that each have their own distinctive character.
Posted Nov 27, 2023
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5000 Space Aliens
(2021)
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Dennis Harvey
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Whether watched in one go, or a few minutes at a time, it’s an equally intense, singular if rather depthless experience—an audiovisual blitz.
Posted Nov 27, 2023
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Do Not Disturb
(2022)
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Dennis Harvey
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Its mix of black comedy, grotesquerie, and bloody thrills has a certain panache as well as chutzpah.
Posted Nov 27, 2023
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Cypher
(2022)
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Dennis Harvey
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Its conceptual originality holds the attention, and many viewers will enjoy seeing various hip-hop luminaries “playing” themselves on this slippery slope.
Posted Nov 27, 2023
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Relative
(2022)
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Dennis Harvey
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This interweaving of testimony and archival materials does render vividly how a “sickness” of molestation and violence from “people you’re supposed to love and trust” can endure over decades, inflicting scars that “never leave you.”
Posted Nov 27, 2023
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Rush to Judgment
(1967)
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Dennis Harvey
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Dry as dust, a retro-televisual series of talking heads and lectures. But as a disturbing historical artifact, it is invaluable.
Posted Nov 27, 2023
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The Stones and Brian Jones
(2023)
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Dennis Harvey
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The film doesn’t entirely make the intended case for Jones as some sort of neglected tragic genius. But the mix of vintage concert footage, interviews both new and archival, and other material is inevitably absorbing.
Posted Nov 27, 2023
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Next Goal Wins
(2023)
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Dennis Harvey
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So, one might expect an inspirational underdog sports comedy… not my favorite thing, in general. But yeesh, this movie makes The Mighty Ducks look poppin’-fresh by comparison...
Posted Nov 17, 2023
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May December
(2023)
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Dennis Harvey
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A twisty psychodrama that nods to both the upper-middle-class soap operatics of his own Far From Heaven and the identity-blurring gamesmanship likes of Bergman’s Persona, while waxing more caustic than either.
Posted Nov 17, 2023
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Biosphere
(2022)
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Dennis Harvey
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Whimsical, funny, endearing, and ultimately a bit profound...
Posted Nov 16, 2023
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Orlando, My Political Biography
(2023)
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Dennis Harvey
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The wide range of experiences glimpsed here testify to the expansiveness of what remains fairly new cultural terrain...
Posted Nov 16, 2023
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Dog Day Afternoon
(1975)
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Dennis Harvey
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It is ostensibly a thriller, but much less concerned with action or suspense than character dynamics. It also provides an apex of the “gritty” Seventies filmmaking.
Posted Nov 16, 2023
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Into the Abyss
(2011)
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Dennis Harvey
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You can say a lot about Werner Herzog, but who else could it be said of that he has fully earned the right to publicly address the most profound questions of our (or any) era?
Posted Nov 10, 2023
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Grizzly Man
(2005)
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Dennis Harvey
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No Herzog series would be complete without the unsettling curiosity and horror of Grizzly Man.
Posted Nov 10, 2023
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Heart of Glass
(1976)
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Dennis Harvey
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Some of the auteur’s most bizarre Kinski-free features...
Posted Nov 10, 2023
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Queen of the Desert
(2015)
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Dennis Harvey
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[It] demonstrated that Herzog can fail big, as well as on a DIY scale.
Posted Nov 10, 2023
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Encounters at the End of the World
(2007)
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Dennis Harvey
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[An[ extraordinary Antarctica sojourn...
Posted Nov 10, 2023
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Cobra Verde
(1987)
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Dennis Harvey
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Kinski lends burning charisma...
Posted Nov 10, 2023
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Woyzeck
(1979)
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Dennis Harvey
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Kinski lends burning charisma...
Posted Nov 10, 2023
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Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
(2009)
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Dennis Harvey
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One of Herzog's more artistically successful rare ventures into quasi-commercial, quasi-Hollywood filmmaking...
Posted Nov 10, 2023
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Signs of Life
(1968)
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Dennis Harvey
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It is notable that this acclaimed first feature is comparatively conventional—albeit perhaps only when held alongside the singular style and mystic sensibility of many subsequent works...
Posted Nov 10, 2023
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Lessons of Darkness
(1992)
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Dennis Harvey
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It restores your faith in humanity to think that the genius behind such cosmic objets d’art...
Posted Nov 10, 2023
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Aguirre: The Wrath of God
(1972)
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Dennis Harvey
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Cosmic objets d’art...
Posted Nov 10, 2023
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Skin Deep
(2022)
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Dennis Harvey
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His assured first feature finds a young couple visiting a remote communal retreat, where they experiment with adopting different perspectives—in very literal terms, as there is actual body-swapping going on here.
Posted Nov 10, 2023
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Sisi & I
(2023)
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Dennis Harvey
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Complete with highly anachronistic soundtrack choices (by Portishead, Nico, Le Tigre, etc.), it’s a plush period piece that is nonetheless heavy on revisionist interpretation.
Posted Nov 10, 2023
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Manodrome
(2023)
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Dennis Harvey
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[It] ends on its least hyperbolic note, to graceful, even somewhat touching effect. But until then, it piles on contrary devices, some of a ripped-from-headlines ilk, without creating the organic character inner life or narrative that might unify them...
Posted Nov 10, 2023
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The Mission
(2023)
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Dennis Harvey
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The Mission works on a lot of levels, from the aesthetic pleasure of its extensive painterly animation sequences to the variably questioning, sometimes humorous input from commentators.
Posted Nov 10, 2023
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Radical
(2023)
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Dennis Harvey
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Radical is a feel-good movie that earns its uplift, rather than force-feeding the desired emotional responses.
Posted Nov 07, 2023
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Rustin
(2023)
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Dennis Harvey
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Rustin, however, is a cinematic conception that feels stagey in the wrong ways. The dialogue is stiltedly explicative, with characters practically introduced by their verbal resumes.
Posted Nov 07, 2023
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Priscilla
(2023)
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Dennis Harvey
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Intriguing as that prospect is this time, though, the results are maybe a little too reductive, making an almost bewilderingly complicated, almost unknowable relationship somehow seem smaller than life.
Posted Nov 07, 2023
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Bones of Crows
(2022)
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Dennis Harvey
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If Bones of Crows sometimes seems heavy-handed, a dirge of suffering, you can hardly indict it for being unfaithful to reality. This material is so packed with drama, the 2022 feature has already been spun off into a five-hour broadcast...
Posted Nov 07, 2023
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Night of the Hunted
(2023)
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Dennis Harvey
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After a certain point, I wished him dead… less so innocent lives could be saved, and more just so he would shut up.
Posted Oct 30, 2023
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Fuzzy Head
(2023)
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Dennis Harvey
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Too often forced quirkiness overwhelms more heartfelt content here. Still, you have to admire McColm’s singularity of purpose, even if the results sometimes seem too private for a viewer to decipher.
Posted Oct 30, 2023
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Nightsiren
(2022)
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Dennis Harvey
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It’s a very handsome-looking movie that doesn’t entirely pull together, but provides a lot of intriguing elements to chew on.
Posted Oct 30, 2023
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Hell House LLC Origins: The Carmichael Manor
(2023)
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Dennis Harvey
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The goings-on manage to be quite satisfyingly quease-making...
Posted Oct 30, 2023
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V/H/S/85
(2023)
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Dennis Harvey
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This latest isn’t a complete bust, but nothing here is all that good, let alone memorable.
Posted Oct 30, 2023
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Shredder Orpheus
(1990)
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Dennis Harvey
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A dressup 1989 snarkfest that's part dystopian sci-fi, part imitation Shock Treatment, and part skateboarding showcase. It's the bad Eighties new wave movie you didn't know you needed.
Posted Oct 30, 2023
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The Cassandra Cat
(1963)
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Dennis Harvey
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A marvelous fantasy-cum-social satire in which the titular magic feline reveals all the hypocrises hidden beneath a small town’s placid surface.
Posted Oct 30, 2023
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Anguish
(1987)
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Dennis Harvey
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A Mobius strip-like narrative that constantly turns in on itself.
Posted Oct 30, 2023
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The Little Shop of Horrors
(1960)
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Dennis Harvey
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The original Roger Corman drive-in black comedy...
Posted Oct 30, 2023
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