Black Panther
“This never gets old,” T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman) T’Challa a.k.a. superhero Black Panther states the line as we the audience get a first proper look at Wakanda. Its capital city is something out of television series GHOST IN THE SHELL (not the terrible recent movie), though without the dystopian vibes. We are in the present, yet the metropolis looks as if it has been brought back from a utopian future. The rest of the world pays no heed, believing the kingdom to be a developing nonentity. The country uses STAR TREK-style visual cloaking. The camouflage has provided two purposes for thousands of years: To stop envious nations attempting to war, and to prevent outsiders from stealing their technology. Wakanda is the world’s most powerful state, yet remains hidden. The pessimistic foreign policy is understandable when studying the carnage wrought by empires. BLACK PANTHER is about optimistic change. [To read more, click here.] |
Loveless
“Do you think the world is about to end?” Boris (Aleksey Rozin) Atmospheric. Gripping. Charged. Deeply despondent. Five for five from director Andrey Zvyagintsev, who must now be considered in the top tier of directors working today. His films are a coruscating analysis of Russian society. Michael Haneke has done it for Austria. Jafar Panahi for Iran. Ken Loach the U.K. Every country needs a Zvyagintsev/Haneke/Panahi/Loach. True patriotism, like any genuine love, is not about blind devotion, but wanting the object of your affection to be the best it can be. To reflect on your community without veering into kitchen sink dramas, and instead delivering heightened, compelling cinema is a skill. [To read more, click here.] |
Roman J. Israel, Esq.
“I’m tired of doing the impossible for the ungrateful,” Roman Israel (Denzel Washington) Disappointing from the director of NIGHTCRAWLER – a film that felt like it was akin to its protagonist, an unusual beast stalking. Moral goodness was absent, just the sociopathic and those in the way. Not disheartening, the film shows the world for what it can be. When investment bankers are destroying other business entities and economies purely for greedy selfish gain, are they not exhibiting the same traits? NIGHTCRAWLER is a bleak mirror held up to the world. Thus Dan Gilroy’s sophomore feature was hugely anticipated. Teaming up with Denzel Washington for a legal project, the mouth salivated at the prospect. Unfortunately, the resultant film is bizarre, but not in a good way. It is muddled, but at least ambitiously so. [To read more, click here.] |