Jesse Pasternack reveals how the Coen Brothers turn noir elements on their head with visual gags, a rambling voiceover narration, and the iconic, carefree protagonist at the center of it all. There are few types of films which have as many distinctive characteristics as film noir. Just hearing or reading those words — “film noir”… Read more »
David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive (2001) has usually been celebrated for its weirdly oneiric narrative hijinks and its unsettling doublings of character. In 2012, the critic Miriam Bale identified the film as a key entry in a subgenre she coined the “persona swap” film, in which the personalities of two female characters become blended or swapped… Read more »
Full transparency: all Blu-rays reviewed were provided by Kino Lorber, Fun City Editions, the Criterion Collection, Imprint Films, Arrow Video, 88 Films US, Dekanalog, and Vinegar Syndrome. Well, here we are everyone: at the end of another calendar year for this column and another incredible year for physical media. We saw long-awaited releases, upgrades… Read more »
Every month, Establishing Shot brings you a selection of films from our group of regular bloggers. Even though these films aren’t currently being screened at the IU Cinema, this series reflects the varied programming that can be found at the Cinema and demonstrates the eclectic tastes of the bloggers. Each contributor has picked one film that they… Read more »
Full transparency: all Blu-rays reviewed were provided by Peekarama, Vinegar Syndrome, Fun City Editions, and Kino Lorber. We have what I would call a pandering line-up of titles for this half of the month’s Blu-ray reviews. Who’s it pandering to? WHY, ME, OF COURSE. What I mean is that all four films I will… Read more »
Guest post by Caleb Allison. Spoilers throughout! Douglas Sirk has become synonymous with lushly subversive melodrama wrapped in Technicolor brilliance, but before his nearly unbelievable string of melodramatic masterpieces in the 1950s, including Magnificent Obsession (1954), All That Heaven Allows (1955), Written on the Wind (1956), and Imitation of Life (1959), he conjured up a… Read more »