Reporting from the Denver Film Festival. When it comes to cinematic landscapes, few are as iconic—or at least as mined—as Monument Valley. Located in northern Arizona, home to the Navajo Nation, Monument Valley was placed in the geography of cinema … Continue reading THE TAKING
Reporting from the Denver Film Festival. Rysûke Hamaguchi’s cinematic adaptation of Haruki Murakami’s short story, “Drive My Car,” opens with another Murakami short story, also taken from the collections Men Without Women. The story is “Scheherazade,” about a social worker’s weekly … Continue reading DRIVE MY CAR (ドライブ・マイ・カー)
Somewhere deep in the Oregonian woods, a creature lurks. The origins of the beast are not known, though a retired sheriff suspects it to be ancient and long-dormant. Why it decided to show up in 2019 is anybody’s guess, but … Continue reading ANTLERS
Eloise (Thomasin McKenzie) lives for the 1960s. The clothes she wears, the music she listens to, even the movie posters on her bedroom wall scream Swingin’ Sixties. That’s when style mattered, when London was the center of the universe, and … Continue reading LAST NIGHT IN SOHO
1984’s Dune is a mess. Universal Pictures released it, Dino De Laurentiis produced it, and David Lynch directed it based on Frank Herbert’s 1965 sci-fi novel. It was supposed to be a mega-hit, a blockbuster to rival Star Wars with multiple installments. But it … Continue reading DUNE
Wes Anderson’s cinematic style did not appear fully formed. It took a few movies over five years before Anderson locked in on formal compositions, planimetric framing, cuts along the 90-degree axis, diorama-esque interiors, Richard Scarry-like landscapes, idiosyncratic dialogue, peculiar characters, … Continue reading THE FRENCH DISPATCH
The spice exists on only one planet in the entire universe: A desolate, dry planet with vast deserts. Hidden away within the rocks of these deserts are a people known as the Fremen, who have long held a prophecy that … Continue reading DUNE: PART ONE
Why do you want to know about my son?Because he killed mine. Somewhere in Idaho, four adults sit around a table in the backroom of an Episcopalian church. They are Gail (Martha Plimpton) and Jay (Jason Isaacs), Linda (Ann Dowd) … Continue reading MASS
Located in the Baltic Sea, just off the southeast coast of Sweden, the island of Fårö is about 44 square miles and is home to a few hundred residents. It’s a beautiful island, full of limestone rocks and deep green … Continue reading BERGMAN ISLAND
Michael J. Cinema 
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