Maybe I have seen Listen Up Philip too many times. It’s not my favorite Alex Ross Perry film. In fact when I first saw it I didn’t even really like it. I saw the characters in its ensemble as unlikable and too disagreeable (excluding Ashley played by Elisabeth Moss and Melanie played by Krysten Ritter)… Read more »
Entries by Nathaniel Sexton
A (Very) Brief Introduction to Ruben Östlund, Sweden’s Oscar Contenders, and The Square
“I hope it will be less painful this time…” — Ruben Östlund, joking about The Square’s selection as Sweden’s official nominee for Best Foreign Language Film for the 90th Academy Awards Although the Nordic country is a mainstay of the award season in the United States, having been represented 15 times since 1956, Sweden has… Read more »
A Brief Introduction to the Dardenne Brothers
Known for their hypernaturalistic, slow but rhythmic dramas that invariably concern the struggles of one or more working class characters, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne are Belgian’s most renowned filmmakers. The brothers began working in documentaries in the 1970s and in these early works one can already see the gradual formation of their signature styles —… Read more »
Dreams, Remembering, and Anti-Symbolism in Ingmar Bergman’s Wild Strawberries
“When I want to put myself to sleep in the evening, I can go through my maternal grandmother’s apartment — room by room — and remember in the smallest detail where different things were, how they looked, what color they were. I also remember the light, the winter or summer light coming through the… Read more »
A Wall Between Them: Loneliness and Connection in Let the Right One In
“I’m twelve. But I’ve been twelve for a long time.” — Eli in Tomas Alfredson’s Let the Right One In (2008) Loneliness has always figured into our curious sympathies for vampires. The vampire is separated from others by their animal nature, their bloodlust, their sensitivity to the sun, always driven into the shadows. They… Read more »
No One Is Supposed to Be Anywhere at Anytime: The Irreverence and Freedoms of Clerks
“MIDWAY upon the journey of our life I found myself within a forest dark, For the straightforward pathway had been lost.” — Dante Alighieri, Inferno, I. 1-3 “The worker therefore only feels himself outside his work, and in his work feels outside himself. He is at home when he is not working, and when he… Read more »