When I moved to Boston for college I remember hearing about a weird law that precluded more than four women from sharing the same residence. The story went that as soon as a house hit that magic female number it was deemed a brothel. It was something that people laughed about. What an absurd and antiquated…
Wings of Desire starts with a man jotting down the story of a universal child who didn’t know it was a child. Titles come up as if they were scratched up on a blackboard. An eye looks up into the sky and the camera fades into a slowly moving aerial shot from above the tenements of Berlin. An angel with fading wings…
For so long, one of my greatest dreams as a fan of film was to attend the Sundance Film Festival. As I plunged headlong into my film obsession, I pillaged the catalog rental section of my local video store…
There are a few constants in Guillermo del Toro films: beautiful set and costume designs, stunning cinematography and colorful characters. There is no denying that the set and costume design in Crimson Peak is breath-taking but unfortunately those are the high points that come from this film. Good news for those that love a good costume drama, bad…
When all is said and done, a rom-com by any other name (or description) is still a rom-com. Sleeping With Other People, Leslye Headland’s second film – after the raunch-filled, women-centered comedy, Bachelorette – plays the genre subversion game…
Directed by Anatole Litvak and set in the romantic streets of Paris, Goodbye, Again (1961) illustrates the deeply complex nature of love and courtship in the lives of uncertain, constantly changing people—flawed humans with multiple dimensions and qualities. Quite easily the strongest aspect of the film is character depth…
Casablanca is the greatest Hollywood movie ever made. I say that not discounting Citizen Kane, quite possibly the greatest film ever made, because Citizen Kane was made outside the studio system by a second tier studio. At the risk of sounding even more hyperbolic, Casablanca is a perfect movie.
The words “remarkable,” “extraordinary,” and “assured” are often – too often in our hyperbole-driven culture – thrown around when a writer-director (a filmmaker by another name) debuts a film that excels where others merely succeed (i.e., competently), but they’re no less true, simply because they’re accurate descriptors…
There are two modern American filmmakers who have inspired my love of film and filmmaking, two completely disparate directors whose combined works somehow fuse to define my emotional, thematic, and stylistic preferences. The first and foremost, in a “revelation” that will come as no surprise to frequent Next Projection readers, is Martin Scorsese. In terms of style, thematic mastery, and pushing the medium forward by constantly and rigorously …
Tanu Weds Manu Returns is the sequel to Tanu Weds Manu (2011) directed by Anand L. Rai of Ranjhnaa fame. Kangana Ranut’s stellar performance as a double role has cemented her reputation as one the few outstanding actresses out of the current crop in Bollywood.