Over at In Review Online, Kenji Fujishima has rallied together a "Directrospective" on the films of Hong Kong auteur Wong Kar-Wai. The series has been covering, chronologically, one Wong feature per day since August 13th, all leading up to the American release of his long-awaited martial arts epic The Grandmaster. Today, I weighed in on 2046, Wong's brilliant oddball of a "sequel" to In the Mood for Love (2000). It's my first perfect four star review for the site, which gives you a quick sense of how deeply this film affects me. Be sure to check out the other astute entries in the series as well!
David Gordon Green's got a new film coming out, but it's not quite the stoned, brainless bromantic comedy he's been churning out over the past few years, nor is it the pastoral melodrama that launched his career – instead, it's a rather noxious synthesis of the two (read: a pretty bad idea). Two weeks removed from watching Prince Avalanche and I almost feel I went too easy on it; the movie's construction is so lazy and its sad-sack riffing (between Emile Hirsch and Paul Rudd, a cute pairing) so uninspired that it has basically already evaporated from my mind. Read my full review here.
With the emergence of Lisandro Alonso, Lucrecia Martel, and Pablo Trapero, among many others, onto the international scene in the past decade, the Argentinean cinema has been thriving. Joining them is Matías Piñeiro, a young writer/director who now has three feature-length fiction films, a short, and feature documentary under his belt, not to mention considerable critical accolades across the world. His recent film, Viola, especially, was a hit with American critics this year after a strong showing at 2012's Toronto International Film Festival. It's a light and airy quasi-romantic comedy that recalls Eric Rohmer in its casually philosophical chattiness as well as Hou Hsiao-hsien and Jose Luis Guerin in its stylistic atmosphere. It's quite good, and I wrote about it for In Review Online here.
My review of Computer Chess, mumblecore writer-director Andrew Bujalski's funniest and richest film yet, went live today at In Review Online. I dare you to look at the image above and tell me you don't want to see this film when it comes out in nationwide arthouses over the next two weeks.
