Reviews

I place the fault primarily on the script, but the direction and editing could have been big problems too. Characters just change completely from one scene to the next with no explanation as to why they are suddenly behaving completely differently. Maybe they edited out the transitional arcs for time. I don't know. Also, Jared Leto seemed to be acting in a different, much campier film than the rest of the cast. I think I would have preferred Leto's movie. And my God, there has to be another actor in Hollywood to cast other than Adam Driver. He's a decadent actor but does he have to be in every single movie?

Don't listen to all the bad reviews here from people probably pissed they had to look at a naked man. This is a brilliant, original film about the nature of identity - how much is indelible and how much is fluid? - with a blistering lead performance from Tom Mercier, who has the look and charisma of a young Tom Hardy. This is the first of Lapid's films I've seen but will look forward to seeing more.

This is strong stuff, the greatest film about faith and the lack of it ever made. Gunnar Björnstrand, so perfect in so many Bergman films, gives the performance of a lifetime here. Ingrid Thulin is also unforgettable. This film hit me like a ton of bricks. It obviously deeply affected Paul Schrader as well, as he remade it as First Reformed, which is excellent too, if not quite to the level of this. There are a lot of Bergman films I would give ten stars to, but this is certainly among his greatest achievements.

Cronenberg's body horror has never been better displayed than with Dead Ringers. It's deliciously creepy from beginning to end, and features the single greatest performance of Jeremy Irons' career, as both of the Mantle brothers. Probably not a great date film, though.

The Silence, like many of Bergman's films, is a punch to the gut. It can be difficult to watch because what it has to say about the human condition is not pretty, but the honesty is undeniable. I gave this one 9 stars instead of 10 because it doesn't quite reach the heights of The Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries or Persona, but it comes so damn close. The performances are so totally naked and vulnerable, it becomes difficult to think of them as acting. Another in a long string of unforgettable Bergman masterpieces.

It's easy to see why this film shocked so many viewers when it came out in the 70s. It's a very frankly told story of erotic obsession and sexual dysfunction. It has an honesty about sex that we were unused to seeing then and are probably even more unused to seeing now. Sex is a subject that is usually dealt with luridly instead of honestly. Quite a few filmmakers in the 70s, particularly Italian auteurs, we're attempting to grapple with sex as subject matter, with a bold honestly simply unheard of at the time and still very rare. The relationship, though shocking, is brilliantly dissected, and the performances from Dirk Bogarde and Charlotte Rampling are incredibly brave and vulnerable. There has never been anything else remotely like The Night Porter.

William Klein's biting satire of the ugly American as superhero Mr. Freedom. It's definitely got a 60s sensibility but the subject matter is as contemporary as today's news. It becomes a little unfocused in the second half but it's a wild ride nonetheless. A real bonus is the appearance of Serge Gainsbourg as Mr. Drugstore. Warning though- if you politically lean to the right, this one might not be for you.

Fellini's later works often get a bad rap as being overindulgent, but I think that seriously misses the point. Fellini was creating these wild fantasias to work out his dreams and obsessions. One of the themes he consistently retuned to was the price of erotic longing, and that theme has never been tackled better than in this film. Fellini's Casanova, as portrayed by Donald Sutherland, is a pathetic figure, vain and narcissistic, with little understanding of how is viewed from the outside. He quests after erotic conquest as if that meant something outside of his own obsessions. Fellini was clearly commenting on himself here with the unflinching eye he used to dissect himself throughout his career. A powerful work by a true genius with a career best performance from Sutherland.

One of my all-time favorite war films. Americans might have trouble with it as it doesn't show us in the best possible light, but it is probably very close to the truth. It demonstrates better than any film I've seen how terrible and dispiriting life can be for a defeated population. Marcello Mastroianni gives another of his trademark world-weary but compassionate performances as the liaison between the American and Italian armies.