Pocket Cinephile

RIP - Pocket Cinephile (2006-2011)

noreply@blogger.com (Brower) — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 18:05:00 +0000

RIP Sidney Lumet (1924-2011)

noreply@blogger.com (Brower) — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 18:02:00 +0000

Pocket Cinephile @ Film Comment Online

noreply@blogger.com (Brower) — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 18:12:00 +0000

Film Comment excerpted our review of 'True Grit' for this year's Readers' Year End Poll:

True Grit (#5)

The Coens’ reboot is a wholly original experience, and all the hallmarks you expect are there—Deakins’ immaculate vistas, a panoply of perfectly pitched characters, and, most noticeably, a veritable thesaurus full of funny, flowery talk.—Stephen Brower, Santa Monica, CA

Catfish, Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost, 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Brower) — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 00:01:00 +0000

Schulman and Joost's film has come under a great deal of scrutiny regarding it's motives, production, and veracity. The simple fact that the film is a well crafted and eminently watchable exploraton of social media and digtial culture should, frankly, supersede all conjecture.

Cold Weather, Aaron Katz, 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Brower) — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 05:39:00 +0000

Katz's slacker sleuth yarn never gathers enough momentum to stand as a legitimate crime film, and unfortunately fails to develop its core characters enough to buoy the film otherwise.

The Social Network, David Fincher, 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Brower) — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 04:19:00 +0000

Fincher's is a sturdy but wholly unremarkable re-telling of the Facebook saga, with hackneyed plot devices undercutting the director's impressive compositions and Trent Reznor's pitch-perfect score.

Pocket Cinephile on Whit Stillman's Metropolitan

noreply@blogger.com (Brower) — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 17:49:00 +0000

Check out my essay on Metropolitan in the latest FLAUNT Magazine. On stands now!

Green Zone, Paul Greengrass, 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Brower) — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 18:03:00 +0000

Greengrass' film has the strange and perhaps unprecedented distinction of being a revisionist, speculative, investigative action thriller. As such, the film is somewhat less than the sum of its parts and never quite finds a balance between Bourne-inspired action, Syriana-styled geopolitical wrangling, and Hurt Locker-bred veracity.

Exit Through the Gift Shop, Banksy, 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Brower) — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 17:49:00 +0000

Banksy's is-it-or-isn't-it hoax film works only as a curiosity. As a straight documentary it falls woefully short, and, as such, the film retains value only as a (supposed) large scale cultural prank.

Senses of Cinema - World Poll 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Brower) — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 16:11:00 +0000

The fine folks at Senses of Cinema have again incorporated our Top 10 into their annual World Poll. A must read!

Check it out!

The Fighter, David O. Russell, 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Brower) — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 06:55:00 +0000

David O. Russell's tale of boxing and family dysfunction is not quite revelatory, but it doesn't have to be. That his framing of the Irish Micky Ward story is measured, credible, and well made in most every sense of the word makes the film an utter success.

The American, Anton Corbijn, 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Brower) — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 20:06:00 +0000

Corbijn's film is a precise, deliberate, and labyrinthine thriller, recalling closely the classic European crime cinema of Jean-Pierre Melville and Julien Duvivier.

Ne Te Retourne Pas (Don't Look Back), Marina de Van, 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Brower) — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 21:24:00 +0000

Marina de Van's is most specifically anatomical cinema, and while the severe conceit of this, her latest, film doesn't quite work, the director further establishes her place as cinema's most tactile, sensory filmmaker.

Pocket Cinephile's Best of 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Brower) — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 22:13:00 +0000

1. Io sono l'amore (I Am Love), Luca Guadagnino, 2009

Guadagnino's domestic tragedy is at once familiar and endlessly refreshing. Working within the well established framework of a large, monied European family, the director subsumes a barrage of influences (from Ophuls to Roeg to Chabrol, amongst others) into a vision that is, in the end, wholly and masterfully his.

2. Un Prophete (A Prophet), Jacques Audiard, 2009

A sweeping and fully realized prison saga, Un Prophete is Audiard's best film to date by some margin. Tahir Rahim's Malik El Djebena has definite echoes of Henry Hill, and, like Scorsese's protagonist, is that rare character that seems to authentically evolve on screen.

3. Somewhere, Sofia Coppola, 2010

Coppola draws from a cadre of European and Asian influences (think Claire Denis and Tsai Ming Liang) in crafting this intimate and enchanting riff on American alienation.

4. True Grit, Joel & Ethan Coen, 2010

The Coens' reboot of True Grit is a wholly original experience, and all the hallmarks you expect are there - Deakins' immaculate vistas, a panoply of perfectly pitched characters, and, most noticably, a vertiable thesaurus full of funny, flowery talk.

5. The Ghost Writer, Roman Polanski, 2010

Polanski's latest is an unfussy, efficient, and effective mystery. Much like Brad Anderson and his similarly classicist Transsiberian, Polanski draws from Hitchcock, Reed, et al to create an eminently watchable yarn.

6. Inspector Bellamy, Claude Chabrol, 2009

The most consistently great director of the French New Wave delivers yet another dignified, engaging, and well-made movie with this, his last film. Set against the tacit backdrop of a procedural, the film is ultimately more a twilight years examination of things left unsaid, and, as such, respresents a fitting and graceful coda for one of cinema's best filmographys.

7. The American, Anton Corbijn, 2010

Corbijn's film is a precise, deliberate, and labyrinthine thriller, recalling closely the classic European crime cinema of Jean-Pierre Melville and Julien Duvivier.

8. The Kids Are All Right, Lisa Cholodenko, 2010

Lisa Cholodenko's latest film is, on its face, a solid but unremarkable film. That it, much like the director's previous work, is a witty, approachable, sexy, and well-acted film for adults, however, might just be remarkable enough.

9. Fish Tank, Andrea Arnold, 2009

While a bit overlong, Arnold's grimy, sub-working class distillation of the Lolita trope is, ultimately, an engaging piece of cinema. Katie Jarvis' Mia rings true as an outwardly defiant, inwardly naive youth and the ever-solid Michael Fassbender is at once disarming and unsettling as the lecherous Connor.

10. White Material, Claire Denis, 2009

Arguably the most commanding screen presence of her generation, Isabelle Huppert positively dominates Denis' fractured tale of civil and cultural unrest in contemporary Africa.

Somewhere, Sofia Coppola, 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Brower) — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 22:08:00 +0000

Coppola draws from a cadre of European and Asian influences (think Claire Denis and Tsai Ming Liang) in crafting this intimate and enchanting riff on American alienation.

True Grit, Joel & Ethan Coen, 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Brower) — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 06:54:00 +0000

The Coens' reboot of True Grit is a wholly original experience, and all the hallmarks you expect are there - Deakins' immaculate vistas, a panoply of perfectly pitched characters, and, most noticably, a vertiable thesaurus full of funny, flowery talk.

Carlos, Olivier Assayas, 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Brower) — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 20:24:00 +0000

Assayas' monomanical assassin has a clear (and specific) antecedent in David Lean's Lawrence of Arabia, and while the director nearly matches Lean in scope and sprawl, his film unfortunately lacks any of the narrative drive, tension, and precision of that masterpiece.

Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, Oliver Stone, 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Brower) — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 17:35:00 +0000

Stone's sequel is as overblown and on-the-nose as one might expect, but, much like the first film, manages to land in that all too vacant space populated by sufficiently trashy, eminently watchable adult dramas.

White Material, Claire Denis, 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Brower) — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 01:49:00 +0000

Arguably the most commanding screen presence of her generation, Isabelle Huppert positively dominates Denis' fractured tale of civil and cultural unrest in contemporary Africa.

The Town, Ben Affleck, 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Brower) — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 22:28:00 +0000

Affleck's blue collar caper yarn is sturdy, if a bit aimless. The director goes a long way to establish the film's Boston bona fides, and ultimately that intense localization is overwhelming and somewhat tiresome.

Les Herbes Folles (Wild Grass), Alain Resnais, 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Brower) — Sat, 11 Dec 2010 04:22:00 +0000

Reminiscent at times of Ian McEwan's stalker/fate
story 'Enduring Love,' Resnais' film is an often odd and briefly remarkable contemporary meditation on fantasy, obsession, and aging.

All Good Things, Andrew Jarecki, 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Brower) — Sun, 05 Dec 2010 01:07:00 +0000

Jarecki's domestic disturbance is the kind of workmanlike adult yarn that barely exists anymore. And while the film's merits are certainly (and at best) modest, one does miss the era where this film might have shared a cineplex with Presumed Innocent, Sleeping with the Enemy, and the like.

Please Give, Nicole Holofcener, 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Brower) — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 16:07:00 +0000

With Please Give, as with her 2006 feature Friends with Money, Holofcener presents a world that is too cold, guilt-ridden, and insular to offer any relatable point of view for the viewer. The director's ear for whip smart dialogue and her acumen for crafting loaded scenarios are very much intact, but can't ultimately overcome the film's abject cynicism.

Winter's Bone, Debra Granik, 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Brower) — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 15:59:00 +0000

Granik's backwoods yarn devotes no small amount of effort to getting the nuances of Ozarks poverty just right. Unfortunately, the narrative unfolding against that vivid backdrop is in most every other way too slight.

Monsters, Gareth Edwards, 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Brower) — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 03:52:00 +0000

Much like Shane Carruth's micro-budget marvel Primer, what's most impressive in Edwards' solid sci-fi road movie is the depth, logic, and veracity of the world the director has crafted.