My Heart’s Memory Turns To You: Derek Jarman’s Blue
More last testament than love letter, Derek Jarman’s 1993 experimental film Blue was as unique and challenging then as it continues to be today. More radio play than movie, it’s 79 minutes of an entirely blue saturated screen, over which two interwoven stories braid together to weave a story of Jarman’s recollected, daydreamed, restless experiences of living with AIDS in 1990s London, and the adventures of blue itself as a color and a character. Punctuated throughout are the ghostly names of Jarman’s former friends and lovers already lost to the disease.
My One & Only Love: Leaving Las Vegas
Every time I go to Las Vegas, usually for work to spend time in a light-locked, soulless conference room listening to the obvious masquerading as professional advice, I think the same thing. That there’s a deep, longing melancholy to the place. A sadness behind the bright neon lights of the strip, the omnipresent din of the casinos, and the faces of those who’ve come to Sin City seemingly to let loose and get away from it all. Far from the oasis in the desert in promises, the city aches with loss. An unfulfilled hope of gambled pleasure, and drawn like moths to the flame by the flashing billboards, and where darkness never truly descends, we wander around in the half-light neon glow of the desperate attempts to separate us from our time and money.
Thor... Love and Bad Writing Decisions
Every now and then, there comes a certain kind of movie. A movie that makes you laugh, that makes you cry, and that makes you shake with excitement, enjoyment, and fear. Most of us love that movie, when it comes along. Unfortunately for my audience, this is not the movie I will be reviewing.
Trying to Empathize With The Whale
The dissipating buzz surrounding The Whale (2022) was inevitable considering that its only major attraction post its film festival run were the names attached, namely those of the director, Darren Aronofsky, and star, Brendan Fraser. Although their star power can be felt in this film, it is not nearly enough to make The Whale seem like anything more than it is: a typical Oscar-baity, A24, indie “think-piece.”
Zbigniew Rybczyński's Orchestra
Today everyone lives in a high-definition world of 4k streaming, 1080p resolution graphics, and the seemingly endless technological horizon of greater and greater picture clarity. Zbigniew Rybczyński’s 1990 hour-long art film, The Orchestra is not this.