100 Words on Alex Ross Perry's Golden Exits (2017)

imdb.com

By Thomas Puhr

Quietly released in early 2018, Alex Ross Perry’s Golden Exits is the type of film that easily gets overlooked this time of year. An ode of sorts to Rohmer, the writer-director’s latest follows the intersecting lives of some New Yorkers, all of whom are connected in some way to visiting Australian, Naomi (Emily Browning). This may be Perry’s “warmest” film to date, but his trademark, acidic dialogue is still on full display. Most rewarding are the subtle parallels that emerge between the older and younger characters, as if the latter are looking at their potential future selves in a mirror. 

100 Words on David Gordon Green's Halloween (2018)

horrorpatch.com

By Thomas Puhr

Despite David Gordon Green’s considerable skills behind the camera and John Carpenter’s stamp of approval, Halloween (2018) cannot escape the clutches of fan service (multiple lines and shots are directly lifted from the 1978 classic). Ironically, the film is most successful during its comedic scenes; cowriter Danny McBride’s touch can be felt in much of the dialogue, especially during a vulgar rat-a-tat between a teenage girl and the little boy she is babysitting. Such moments are more than welcome. After all, Carpenter’s original has its fair share of strange humor. Green and McBride forgot one crucial element, though: genuine scares.

100 Words on Jeremy Saulnier's Hold the Dark (2018)

SkarsJoy

By Thomas Puhr

In his fourth feature film, Jeremy Saulnier applies his interest in elemental storytelling (simple motifs of darkness vs. light, revenge, etc.) to a much larger narrative canvas. Famous wolf tracker Russell Core (an understated Jeffrey Wright) travels to Alaska for a job and is embroiled in a sometimes overstuffed plot that tackles parenthood, Native American identity, mysticism, and war in the Middle East, among other things. Perhaps a bit overambitious for its own good, Hold the Dark (2018) nevertheless has its fair share of mesmerizing sequences, especially a remarkable shootout that showcases all of the director's compositional and tension-building finesse.

100 Words on Joachim Trier's Thelma (2017)

http://roysskriverier.blogspot.com/2018/01/arets-beste-filmer-2017.html

By Thomas Puhr

Joachim Trier’s Thelma (2017) adds a supernatural twist to his usual humanistic technique. It opens intriguingly enough, with a booming, Scanners-esque score by Ola Fløttum and a startling scene in which a father contemplates killing his young daughter, Thelma (played as an adult by Eili Harboe). The girl, we learn, has dangerous powers, which reemerge when she becomes attracted to a college classmate, Anja (Kaya Wilkins). The relationship between these two women is the film’s strongest element, but Trier instead focuses on the origins of Thelma’s psychic powers in the film’s latter half, which spoils some of the premise’s mystique.

Berlin 2018: 100 Words on Evan Johnson, Galen Johnson, and Guy Maddin's Accidence




Photo Credit: Six Shooter Records

By Thomas Puhr

Accidence (2018) immediately demands multiple viewings. Presented as a single shot that merges live action and unobtrusive animation, the short chronicles the goings-on of an array of apartment building tenants whose paths intertwine in unexpected and surreal ways. The stories on dollhouse-like display range from the banal (a man sleeping on his balcony), to the dramatic (a murder), to the bewildering (a man investigating shadows through a window). Maddin, Johnson, and Johnson merge the beginning and end (a clock in the central room proves key) so that the film, like a mesmerizing ambient album, could seemingly repeat itself into eternity.

100 Words on Maurice Haeems' Chimera (2018)

By Thomas Puhr

Like its conflicted protagonist, Maurice Haeems’ Chimera (2018) suffers from a bit of an identity crisis. On the one hand, it is a cerebral piece of speculative science-fiction: Henry Ian Cusick (playing it straight) is Quint, a scientist who freezes his children while searching for a cure to their life-threatening illness. On the other hand, it is a gleefully over-the-top ode to B-movies: Kathleen Quinlan (hamming it up) costars as Masterson, a mysterious woman funding Quint’s experiments in hopes of reviving her husband. Some wild shifts in tone make Chimera uneven yet unpredictable. Its final third packs an undeniable punch.

100 Words on Paul Thomas Anderson's Phantom Thread (2017)

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DQjs9fOWkAAr7y6.jpg

 

By Thomas Puhr

 

Daniel Day-Lewis gives a quietly intense and vulnerable performance as Reynolds Woodcock, an obsessive fashion designer, in what will be his final film. There is much to admire here, from the sumptuous costume design, to a hedonistic, almost surreal New Year’s Eve party, to some beautiful footage of Woodcock’s reckless nighttime drives (Anderson is the uncredited director of photography). The film’s second half, detailing the protagonist’s unconventional relationship with his muse/wife, Alma (Vicky Krieps), is its most engaging, especially when the writer-director dips ever-so-slightly into supernatural territory. Ultimately, like its central character, Phantom Thread remains aesthetically fascinating but emotionally remote.