Confrontational provocateur Lars von Trier has, over a prolific filmmaking career now bridging nearly four decades, amassed an admirable, distinct, powerful, and frequently polarizing body of work. The Danish born firebrand is recognized, even by his detractors, for his numerous technical innovations, his willingness to experiment, and his fondness for upending genre conventions. Von Trier […]
Author: Shane Scott-Travis
Pulling Focus: Monty Python’s Life of Brian (1979)
“I think along with the rest of the English nation that [Life of Brian] is the best Python film… It’s the only film we ever made that was proximately a good story. It’s also about things that are very important.” – John Cleese “He’s not the Messiah, he’s a very naughty boy!” It’s rather […]
Pulling Focus: Akira (1988)
“An impressive achievement, often suggesting a weird expressionist blend of 2001, The Warriors, Blade Runner and Forbidden Planet… [Akira] is a towering achievement of imagination and the detail of each frame is a miracle of film artistry.” – Geoff Andrew, Time Out Come, Armageddon! Come! An uncontested landmark of animation, Katsuhiro Ōtomo’s classic Akira […]
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All 21 David Cronenberg Movies Ranked From Worst To Best
“Cronenberg is better than all the rest of us combined.” – John Carpenter Originally dismissed as an audacious genre director of challenging and stomach-turning horror schlock and subversion, David Cronenberg’s career has spanned some fifty odd years wherein he’s moved from the status of pariah to internationally acclaimed master “Film for film,” writes film critic […]
Pulling Focus: Spirited Away (2001)
“Miyazaki has been crafting films more lusciously illustrated and rapturously imaginative than almost anything else on the silver screen.” – Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine Come sail away Most assuredly there is no one else making animated films like auteur-director Hayao Miyazaki. Born in Tokyo in 1941, the personal universe he presents onscreen is absolutely […]
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8 Reasons Why “The Grand Budapest Hotel” is Wes Anderson’s Best Movie
Gossamer-like, lovely and wistful, The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) thrums with the dual dispositions of the sublime Golden Age director Ernst Lubitsch and the jam-packed chapter and verse of Stefan Zweig. In this calorie-rich and joyously effete film from writer-director Wes Anderson one will find his most exhaustive and exuberant picture to date. The Grand […]