Category: Arthouse Spotlight

Mubi Hidden Gem: Three Lives and Only One Death

Mubi Hidden Gem: Three Lives and Only One Death

Posted by | Sep 20, 2017 | , |

Three Lives and Only One Death Raúl Ruiz Fantasy   Synopsis: Four or five Marcello Mastroianni’s have four or five unusual days. Overall: Is it possible to appreciate a puzzle more for its individual pieces than for the picture it makes when you put it all back together? I’m sure there’s an overarching plot in Raúl Ruiz’s Three Lives and Only One Death. At least, you could probably decipher one if you meticulously combed through its two hour runtime of self-reflective whimsy. Unlike many films that revel in their own opacity, there’s an underlying rhythm and purpose at work...

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The Lobster, Love, and Life in the 21st Century

The Lobster, Love, and Life in the 21st Century

Posted by | Jun 16, 2016 | |

NOTE: The following piece may contain spoilers. Standing as the first English language film from Greek writer/director Yorgos Lanthimos, The Lobster is a beguiling and enthralling experience unlike any other. Taking certain implied thematic cues from the absurdist and philosophical literature of German writer Franz Kafka, Lanthimos’ latest directorial effort is as alienating as it is intimate. The characters who populate the dystopia of The Lobster are akin to characters in a fairy tale. Their outward personalities are muted by a world oppressively orchestrated by archaic and utilitarian laws. Everyone must form a couple in the world of The Lobster, and...

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Sing Street Is Incredibly Wild & Charming

Sing Street Is Incredibly Wild & Charming

Posted by | May 8, 2016 | |

Overview: A young musician in the 1980s starts a band in order to impress his crush and escape his difficult life. The Weinstein Company; 2016; Rated PG-13; 106 minutes. Relationships: Sing Street, with Once‘s heart and Begin Again‘s fine tune and budget hits all the right notes, finding that perfect happy-sad (but not bittersweet) blend that its main character, born Conor but dubbed Cosmo, struggles to. The film finds Cosmo in an impoverished Ireland, transferring to a new school and struggling to understand his slowly estranging parents. Armed with nothing but his guitar, he finds a talent for music, the primary catalyst for this...

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Born to Be Blue Offers an Impressive Drama

Born to Be Blue Offers an Impressive Drama

Posted by | May 6, 2016 | |

Overview: A dramatic reimagining of the late return from seminal Jazz trumpeter Chet Baker in 1960s California. Entertainment One; 2016; Rated R; 97 minutes. Let’s Get Lost: With echoes of the real life musician scattered throughout writer-director Robert Budreau’s latest, Born to Be Blue lives up to the grandeur and allusion of its title. Starring Ethan Hawke in the lead role, Baker appears simultaneously innocent and volatile throughout. Despite persistently declaring his intentions to stay off heroin, the notorious recluse often dives back into hard and soft recreational activities. Engaged with some level of dedicated decorum to his latest...

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