Skip to Content

Limping, Lisping and Lobstering: Escaping Yorgos Lanthimos’ Hotel of Purity

Back when Greek auteur Yorgos Lanthimos first clambered barefaced upon the international stage with his daring Dogtooth, quite a few hastened to mention its striking resemblance to Arturo Ripstein’s similarly self-contained The Castle of Purity, made some 35 years earlier. In the wake of his first English-language effort The Lobster, one might even go further and compare all that Lanthimos has done thus far to Ripstein’s film: the …

Read More about Limping, Lisping and Lobstering: Escaping Yorgos Lanthimos’ Hotel of Purity

The Definitive ‘What the F**k?’ Movies: 30-21

30. Conspirators of Pleasure (1996) Directed by: Jan Švankmajer We’ve already seen two films from Jan Švankmajeron the list, but this elaborate movie about a number of separate, but connected people takes the cake. Conspirators of Pleasure follows six people, each with their own incredibly unsettling fetish. A letter carrier ingests dough balls every night before …

Read More about The Definitive ‘What the F**k?’ Movies: 30-21

‘Alps’ is a rigorous puzzle that exudes cold conviction

Alps Directed by Giorgios Lanthimos Written by Giorgios Lanthimos and Efthymis Filippou Greece, 2012 Was there ever really a way that director Giorgos Lanthimos could top his controversial and divisive Dogtooth? His latest film, Alps, suggests perhaps not, but the Greek master of the unconventional and the bizarre has once again crafted up another formal experiment …

Read More about ‘Alps’ is a rigorous puzzle that exudes cold conviction

Videocast: Front Row Center Episode 1a: ‘Incendies’ (Road to the Oscars)

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Front Row Center, the new videocast from Sound on Sight. That’s right, for the first time ever, we’ve put our faces where our mouths are. Wait, that can’t be right. Anyway, in our first installment, we take on an appropriately patriotic subject: Justine and Simon discuss Canada’s (Quebec’s, really) entry …

Read More about Videocast: Front Row Center Episode 1a: ‘Incendies’ (Road to the Oscars)

Best Films of 2010 – Part 2

#20 – Valhalla Rising Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn Nicolas Winding Refn, who made the underrated Bronson in England and the striking Pusher series in Denmark creates a brutal, yet thoughtful, re-envisioning of the Viking saga. This Malick/Jodorowsky hybrid is one of the best looking films in recent memory. Its breathtaking digital photography across the …

Read More about Best Films of 2010 – Part 2

The 100 Best Films of the Decade: 2000 – 2009 (part 5)

59- Capturing the Friedmans (2003) Directed by Andrew Jarecki Genre: Documentary On the surface, the Friedmans were a typical 1980s American family until on one Thanksgiving Day, when that happy façade came to a crashing halt. After the local police discovered the dad had engaged in the buying and selling of child pornography, they questioned …

Read More about The 100 Best Films of the Decade: 2000 – 2009 (part 5)