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Brand Upon the Brain! (2006)
Filmmaker(s): Guy Maddin

Guy and his sister grow up on an island. His domineering mother keeps watch over everything from the tip of a lighthouse, his eccentric father experiments in the basement laboratory. Then there are the orphans, on whose heads the adoptive parents later find puzzling wounds. Another brother and sister pair is sent to the island: the Lightball Kids, two detectives that are meant to bring light into the darkness. The brothers and sisters are all yanked into the emotional roller coaster of first love, while something cryptic comes to light in the parents' house.

Jalapeno Water Here’s the problem: Maddin is an impressive filmmaker. He is important and has made at least two films that are important to me. But he is not a very interesting person. So when he applies his mastery to making a personal film - a...


Published February 16, 2024
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Encounters at the End of the World (2007)
Off the map, things get strange.
Filmmaker(s): Werner Herzog

Herzog and cinematographer Peter Zeitlinger go to Antarctica to meet people who live and work there, and to capture footage of the continent's unique locations. Herzog's voiceover narration explains that his film will not be a typical Antarctica film about "fluffy penguins", but will explore the dreams of the people and the landscape.

Death in the Ice There is no denying the man. He has already changed me, and others. Interestingly, it seems that this is less by design than by accidents that occur because he chooses to put his camera in places where the cosmos is unstable. Sometimes it...


Published February 16, 2024
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Silk (2007)
Come Back, or I Shall Die...
Filmmaker(s): François Girard

Based on the best-selling novel by Alessandro Baricco, this visually stunning film tells the story of a French trader who finds unexpected love far away from home.

The Folded Letter Gosh, yet another movie with a delicious idea, but mediocre execution. The thing is boring in a pretty way and vaguely calls up romantic notions of singular love. You may not make it until the end, but I urge you to, because the...


Published February 16, 2024
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Crop Circles: Quest for Truth (2002)

Space Between Circles The documentary is an elastic category that doesn’t know itself. Like the crop circles that are the subject of this one, they in more or less intriguing and attractive manner, secure that our need for a ‘message‘ will impose a narrative. Nominally, documentarians are...


Published February 16, 2024
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The Machinist (2004)
How do you wake up from a nightmare if you’re not asleep?
Filmmaker(s): Brad Anderson

Trevor, an insomniac lathe operator, experiences unusual occurrences at work and home. A strange man follows him everywhere, but no one else seems to notice him.

One and a Half One can hope for good films. When preparing for the journey, one communicates with one‘s self about what to expect. If the construction is like this, a ‘puzzle film,‘ then the conversation continues through the film as it sustains two souls watching....


Published February 16, 2024
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The Lincoln Lawyer (2011)
This case is a dangerous game of life and death.
Filmmaker(s): Brad Furman

A lawyer conducts business from the back of his Lincoln town car while representing a high-profile client in Beverly Hills.

Reverse Indemnity What an amazingly lucky form the courtroom has presented filmmakers! It allows us to have one film where we sit in our seats with others making sense of a narrative, where we watch another ‘film‘ where a lawyer presents a narrative to a seated audience....


Published February 16, 2024
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Sucker Punch (2011)
You will be unprepared.
Filmmaker(s): Zack Snyder

A young girl, institutionalised by her abusive stepfather, retreats to an alternative reality as a coping strategy and envisions a plan to help her escape.

Intersection as the Razor to the Eye By now you will know that this is a box office flop, presumably because it caters to a demographic that gets easily confused, and the more engaged watchers can’t muddle through. I will say that I admire the overall structure....


Published February 16, 2024
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127 Hours (2010)
There is no force more powerful than the will to live.
Filmmaker(s): Danny Boyle

The true story of mountain climber Aron Ralston's remarkable adventure to save himself after a fallen boulder crashes on his arm and traps him in an isolated canyon in Utah.

The Hand Left in the Thing There are so many filmmakers out there that I am still approaching many films the way they were intended to be approached: as self-contained works of art (or craft). But there are some filmmakers I know well enough to trust...


Published February 16, 2024
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The Brothers Bloom (2008)
They'd never let the truth come between them.
Filmmaker(s): Rian Johnson

The Brothers Bloom are the best con men in the world, swindling millionaires with complex scenarios of lust and intrigue. Now they've decided to take on one last job – showing a beautiful and eccentric heiress the time of her life with a romantic adventure that takes them around the world.

Yes I say, Yes Yes (No) The structure here selects one of the few models we have for dramatizing inner complexities. The grand problem is that people are fascinating, but we need a narrative skeleton to ‘see‘ into them. One choice is to take a standard...


Published February 16, 2024
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The Secret Life of Words (2005)
Filmmaker(s): Isabel Coixet

A touching story of a deaf girl who is sent to an oil rig to take care of a man who has been blinded in a terrible accident. The girl has a special ability to communicate with the men on board and especially with her patient as they share intimate moments together that will change their lives forever.

Blind Spots, Clarity This is what Cassavedes thinks of as simple and direct theatre, a pipeline to emotions. The idea is to simplify, presumably to purify. We have a remote oil rig with two full characters and a handful of surrounding beings. Our man (played by Tim...


Published February 16, 2024
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