Creating anything can be difficult, but for the painter Lars (Thure Lindhart), creating his masterpiece, his Mona Lisa, has taken him nearly ten years of blank canvases and frustration. Giving up hope that he can repeat his previous success, he leaves Denmark and settles on a teaching job for a struggling art school in a small snowy town in Canada. […]
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Rather than a great moment, I wanted to look at an incredible moment in cinema. That’s why I decided to focus on a sequence that is great not because it provides some deep insight into the themes of the film, or serves as a sort of complete story that stands on its own (though I would argue that it does […]
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Every now and then there comes a moment or a sequence in a film that is so shocking and so transgressive that it manages to stand apart from everything that came before or after, and establishes itself as something completely unforgettable. Often , these are moments that become ingrained in the mind of the viewer, thanks in large part to […]
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Remakes (or reimaginings, reboots, etc) seem to be all the rage in Hollywood these days, but this phenomenon has been occurring within the realm of cinema for a long time. Most of the time, remakes are pointless and don’t bring anything new or interesting to the table, thus alienating fans of the original work while simultaneously failing to bring new […]
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In cinema, as in all art, sublime beauty can sometimes be found hidden within the most unlikely of places. Such is the case with Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008). Directed by Guillermo del Toro, the film is ostensibly little more than a pulpy, fun, and imaginative superhero film, but it nevertheless contains one of the most heartbreaking and breathtakingly […]
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Film noir is one of the oldest genres in cinema, and one that sort of epitomizes the films of the 1930s and 1940s. Indeed, even modern film noirs are often period pieces, since the genre is so closely linked to those two decades, in which many of the genre’s classics first emerged. As such, the genre often feels quaint, embodying […]
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These days, it seems there is a lot of talk among movie geeks about films being “game-changers.” As an acquaintance of mine on Facebook put it, it’s not enough for films to just be good anymore, instead they have to reinvent cinema as we know it. For example, The Avengers (2012) was touted as such, and was said to represent […]
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Vampires and zombies may be all the rage these days, but for my money, it’s the werewolf that occupies the top spot in the monster pantheon (okay, maybe second place, right behind Godzilla…but that’s another editorial altogether). Unfortunately, the number of good werewolf movies can be counted on one hand, and even then you wouldn’t have to use all of […]
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The holiday season is upon us once again, and as always, we’re kicking it off with the holiday that all the cool and edgy kids like to claim is their favorite. That’s right, Halloween is almost here, and to celebrate, I will once again use both of my columns here at CBR to look at some of the best movies […]
Read moreWe all have gaps in our cinematic knowledge. If we confess our ignorance of some of these films, someone, somewhere will say, “How have you not seen that?!” Catching Up is about these films, and viewing them so long after seemingly everyone else has. Some of these entries may be stunning, some are embarrassing, but all of them are classics. The Wages […]
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