REVERSEBLOG: the reverse shot blog

See It Big: "Play Time"

robbiefreeling — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 10:07:18 GMT

The first clue is in the title. Not in its meaning exactly, but in the fact that when Jacques Tati’s 1967 cri de coeur, three painful years in the making, was finally released in French cinemas, the...

Castles Made of Sand: Genevieve Yue reports from the 2011 Abu Dhabi Film Festival

robbiefreeling — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 05:00:58 GMT

bu Dhabi isn’t exactly a superlative city, save, perhaps, for its interest in superlatives. As the glitzy, modern capital of the UAE, a country that gained independence only 40 years ago, Abu Dhabi...

A Few Great Pumpkins VI—Seventh Night: Fear(s) of the Dark

robbiefreeling — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 10:58:50 GMT

It’s commonplace to bemoan the sad reality that animation has been so long considered a children's medium. The limitless possibilities for expression and beauty and terror and surreality offered by...

A Few Great Pumpkins VI—Sixth Night: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

robbiefreeling — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 06:07:36 GMT

Because Fredric March won the best actor Oscar for his double-role as the twin protagonists in the 1931 Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the film is primarily remembered for his performance. Yet to ignore...

A Few Great Pumpkins VI—Fifth Night: The Howling

robbiefreeling — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 08:41:14 GMT

“Repression is the father of neurosis,” chides Patrick MacNee in the first clearly audible moments of The Howling (1981). Fortunately, Joe Dante’s never been one to hold it all in. This is, after...

A Few Great Pumpkins—Fourth Night: Kill List

robbiefreeling — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 08:48:00 GMT

Some horror movies send you off into the dark night giddy with fear and pleasantly reeling from revulsion. Others give you a glimpse of something so dark and bleak that you’re left with a queasiness...

[VIDEO] Reverse Shot Talkies #32: Todd Rohal, Robert Longstreet, Steve Little

clarencecarter — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 08:46:00 GMT

East meets west on the high seas in Reverse Shot's first Talkie/Direct Address mutation. Watch as DA host Damon Smith and filmmaker Todd Rohal canoe Austin's Town Lake and grapple with even...

A Few Great Pumpkins VI—Third Night: Whistle and I’ll Come to You

robbiefreeling — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 05:44:44 GMT

Third Night: Whistle and I’ll Come to You Imagine a horror film with no anticipation, no sense of danger, no foreboding, no inexplicable happenings, no haunted house, no droplets of blood or creaking...

A Few Great Pumpkins VI–Second Night: Lost Highway

robbiefreeling — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 15:51:19 GMT

David Lynch is not often thought of as a director of horror films, yet for the past 30-plus years he has given us some of the most genuinely terrifying imagery in American cinema. Taking into account...

See It Big: "The Shining"

robbiefreeling — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 06:49:48 GMT

When Stanley Kubrick announced he was planning on making his first horror movie, people had the right to be afraid. Too often tagged as a cool modernist, the New York–born director (living for many...

See It Big: "Alien"

robbiefreeling — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 15:27:14 GMT

Before I saw a single frame of Alien, it had nested under my skin. First imprinted on my underage mind was an image from the movie poster, which depicted an asteroid-like egg hovering over a...

A Few Great Pumpkins VI—First Night: The Masque of the Red Death

robbiefreeling — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 14:13:30 GMT

First Night: The Masque of the Red Death To these tired eyes, the greatest development in horror cinema in 2011 was the lack of a new Saw sequel. Keep your severed fingers crossed that this isn’t...

NYFF: Michel Hazanavicius's "The Artist"

robbiefreeling — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 06:28:22 GMT

One of the most celebrated works of the great French cartoonist Sempé depicts a man who sees a lady fall over in the street and cannot contain his laughter, just as a large funeral cortège passes by....

"Martha Marcy May Marlene" plus an interview with director Sean Durkin

robbiefreeling — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 07:50:02 GMT

Like Jeff Nichols’s Take Shelter—its only real rival for the title of Fall’s Best American Film—Sean Durkin’s Martha Marcy May Marlene concludes on a shot that’s either totally declarative or...

Kaurismäki's "Le Havre" opens this Friday

robbiefreeling — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 13:56:46 GMT

Aki Kaurismäki’s Le Havre starts like a caper film: two shoe-shiners stand at a railway station, waves of sneakers passing by. Then, a fine pair of leather oxfords stops before them. The camera tilts...

NYFF: Alexander Payne's "The Descendants"

robbiefreeling — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 10:01:20 GMT

An essentially dark drama bathed in tropical sunlight, Alexander Payne’s The Descendants almost dares you to take it seriously. Its glib direct-address voice-over narration, its sitcom-like...

NYFF: Simon Curtis's "My Week with Marilyn"

robbiefreeling — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 06:40:13 GMT

As Andy Warhol well understood, Marilyn Monroe was a particularly modern type of celebrity, better known as an image than any character she played. His screenprinted portraits of her traded on her...

NYFF: Mia Hansen-Love's "Goodbye First Love"

robbiefreeling — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 14:12:42 GMT

Goodbye First Love, the third feature from Cahiers du cinéma critic turned filmmaker Mia Hansen-Love, resembles her last, The Father of My Children, in several key ways. While the two films tell very...

Monday Hangover: The Thing

robbiefreeling — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 12:12:00 GMT

Monday Hangover: The Thing By Adam Nayman and Michael Nordine “You’ve gotta be fuckin’ kidding me.” It’s too easy, maybe, to invoke David Clennon’s great, bug-eyed exclamation in the 1982 version of...

NYFF: Jafar Panahi's "This Is Not a Film"

robbiefreeling — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 06:56:09 GMT

Jafar Panahi is in danger of being reduced to a cause. Arrested in 2010 on nebulous charges that he was engaged in making a propaganda film attacking the Iranian government, Panahi was sentenced to...

NYFF: Santiago Mitre's "The Student"

robbiefreeling — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 11:43:45 GMT

Since May, massive demonstrations led by both university and high school students demanding greater educational equality and a complete deprivatization of higher education have swept across Chile....

NYFF: Gerardo Naranjo's "Miss Bala"

robbiefreeling — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 07:03:59 GMT

Up until now, Mexican director Gerardo Naranjo’s movies have seemed more devoted to energy than content. Earlier efforts like I’m Gonna Explode were brash and callow little things, translating the...

NYFF: Pedro Almodóvar's "The Skin I Live In"

robbiefreeling — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 09:17:57 GMT

Only Pedro Almodóvar circa 2011 could so effectively neuter an outré scenario like the one at the center of his new film, The Skin I Live In. Conscientious reviewers will feel the need to tiptoe...

NYFF: Sean Durkin's "Martha Marcy May Marlene"

robbiefreeling — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 13:36:18 GMT

Reverse Shot Talkies #31: Alma Har'el

robbiefreeling — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 10:57:46 GMT

Reverse Shot Talkies #31: Alma Har'el from Reverse Shot on Vimeo. Host Eric Hynes and filmmaker Alma Har'el (of the stunning, singular doc-musical BOMBAY BEACH) stroll past the skateboarders and...