1968, Los Angeles. It’s a time and place that was recently brought back to life in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. It was also the year the French filmmaking couple Agnes Varda and Jacques Demy both shot films in Los Angeles. Demy’s Model Shop has been cited as inspiration for Tarantino’s film. But it in a way, I find Varda’s Lions Love to be the more interesting look at the city in this crucial year. Certainly, as a counter-culture counterpoint to Tarantino’s film, it offers a lot to consider. I wrote about it over at Aquarium Drunkard.

aquarium drunkardSean EricksonJanuary 6, 2022film criticism, film review, movies, Lions Love, Agnes VardaComment

Doctor Death @ Aquarium Drunkard

Just in time for the holidays, a brilliant 30-year-old home movie that proves there is no minimum age requirement to producing feats of cinematic wonderment. Head over to Aquarium Drunkard and have a look at my love letter to the post-apocalyptic mini epic that is 1989’s Doctor Death.

aquarium drunkardSean EricksonDecember 2, 2021movies, Doctor Death, film reviewComment

Berlinale Film Festival 2021, Industry Event, Final Day

Final day of the online press screenings includes a mesmerizing Vietnamese fever dream, a dreary Swiss drama, and a lovingly melancholic animated short. Plus, some final thoughts on this First Round of 2021’s two part Berlinale Film Festival.

Berlinale Film Festival 2021, Industry Event, Day 3

Day Three of the Berlinale Industry Event online screenings includes a look at Céline Sciamma’s PETITE MAMAN, Alexandre Koberidze’s WHAT DO WE SEE WHEN WE LOOK AT THE SKY?, Soi Cheang’s cops vs serial killer movie LIMBO, and another trip to Hungary in Benedek Fliegauf’s FOREST - I SEE YOU EVERYWHERE.

Berlinale Film Festival 2021, Industry Event, Day 1

Altogether, around 150 at-home screenings were made available to the press. We had five days to watch them. I was able to watch 22 of them. This is Part One.

Damsel (or, the 68th Berlin International Film Festival Pt. 3; or, Let's Give Some Love to the Farce)

Robert Pattinson has supposedly called the movie a "slapstick western," but I have a hunch he may have intended something closer to a "western farce." These terms tend to get mixed up because they often coexist. It's common for a farce to contain some slapstick elements as a way of reinforcing the chaotic and unpredictable nature of the genre (or the spirit of the story being told), but Damsel isn't much of a slapstick anything. It's not a Three Stooges western. It is quite silly, clever and violent at times, but at its heart it is a tragedy -- one that is both funny and sad, sometimes within the same scene. And I think that's a big reason why it makes for a very successful farce.

Berlinale 2018, Berlinale, film festivalsSean EricksonMarch 22, 2018movie review, damsel, Robert Pattinson, Mia Wasikowska, film, film review, movieComment

Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far on Foot (or, the 68th Berlin International Film Festival Pt. 2)

Perhaps it's a good sign as to just how much I liked his latest, the recovery tale called Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far on Foot, but I'm now eager to catch up with Restless and Land of Trees (as with Finding Forrester, I still have a hard time finding interest to see Promised Land).

Isle of Dogs (or, the 68th Berlin International Film Festival, Pt. 1)

Anderson has created his own Roald Dahl-type fable this time. Or, to be more precise, his own The Little Prince. While the Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's classic is about a pilot who crash lands in the desert and meets a little boy from another planet, Isle of Dogs is about a boy who crash lands on an island and meets five dogs who agree to help him find his beloved Spots. In case the hat tip wasn't implicit, the dogs call the mysterious fallen boy, the "Little Pilot."

Alien: Covenant (2017)

Is it possible for an Alien movie to still offer surprises? If you've been following the trajectory of these movies for the past few decades, you'd be forgiven for considering the series exhausted. And while I'm willing to admit that lowered expectations may influence my appraisal, it doesn't diminish the fact that Alien: Covenant is by far the best of the last thirty years. But not only that, it's a terrifically twisted horror movie that stands rather well on its own.

Something NewSean EricksonJune 16, 2017Alien: Covenant, Ridley Scott, Michael Fassbender, movies, movie review, movie, film, film reviewComment

Free Fire (2017)

What Ben Wheatley's Free Fire does have is a gleeful bloodlust and rambunctious charm that carries it surprisingly far.

Something NewSean EricksonMay 6, 2017Free Fire, Ben Wheatley, movies, Armie Hammer, Brie Larson, violence, movie review, film review, filmComment

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