Tag: independent film

Film by Ezekiel Yu
Read More
A still from Christopher Nolan's "Memento" (2000), depicting a shirtless Guy Pearce with an expression of shock during a telephone call, as analyzed and reviewed by poet and film critic Ezekiel Yu for the automachination literary magazine.

WHERE WAS I? Analyzing Christopher Nolan’s “Memento” (2000)

If Christopher Nolan’s debut “Following” (1998) is the blueprint to his filmography, laying out all his thematic concerns and technical flourishes (albeit in primitive form) from the jump, then its follow-up “Memento” (2000) might very well be the culmination, as all those elements seem to find their ideal narrative manifestation in the nigh-experimental crime drama about a man with a traumatic brain injury who cannot form new memories.

It also remains Nolan’s best film, and while more recent generations have become enamored with the likes of his “Batman Trilogy” and sci-fi epic “Interstellar”, it is “Memento” that will stand the test of time; if simply by virtue of its status as a film school mainstay, if not for its popular standing, fickle as such standings can be.

This is not, I admit, the most controversial claim. One cannot say that “Memento” is an underrate” work, though one may be able to say that Nolan’s more popular fare has decidedly overshadowed his earlier accomplishment(s) in the public eye. I’m willing to bet that a not insignificant number of those flocking into 70mm IMAX screenings of “The Odyssey” have never even heard of, much less seen, his first two features. And of those who have, how many would likewise claim that “Memento” tops the oeuvre? I’ve only ever met a handful of self-professed Nolan admirers who have done so, despite its stature as an independent film classic. […]

Film by Ezekiel Yu
Read More
A shot of a black man standing in front of an elevator in Jim Jarmusch's "The Limits of Control", with the text of the film title.

La vida no vale nada: On Jim Jarmusch’s “The Limits of Control” (2009)

I remember watching Jim Jarmusch’s film The Dead Don’t Die when it was first released, and being thoroughly unimpressed, even slightly insulted. I understood that Jarmusch was a “name” to cinephiles the world over (especially here in the States), and that he had a kind of maverick, too-cool-for-school appeal, so I was definitely intrigued by what seemed to be a deconstructed zombie flick. Turns out, the movie was rather dull, way too devil-may-care for my taste, and—perhaps the worst sin—dreadfully unfunny. A lot of off-kilter conversations going nowhere and oddball characters doing oddball things and Bill Murray deadpanning for nearly two hours.

It’s possible I’m remembering it uncharitably, since it came out in 2019 (which might as well be an eternity ago), but all the same, it has since been my only brush with Jarmusch. I know that Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai is worth watching and perhaps a couple others—The Dead Don’t Die, however, was enough to put me off Jarmusch’s filmography for a good long while. He is certainly a name but there are other names, and other films, and life is much too short to survey every single one. […]

Film by Jessica Schneider
Read More
A stylized shot of Paterson and the Japanese traveler who loves Williams Carlos Williams, as featured in Jim Jarmusch's "Paterson".

As Is: Reviewing Jim Jarmusch’s “Paterson” (2016)

Jim Jarmusch’s Paterson is a film about a week in the life of a bus driver named Paterson who lives in Paterson, New Jersey, and writes poems. We witness his routine, his aversion to change, the overheard conversations, his life with his wannabe artist wife (Laura, played by Golshifteh Farahani), his English bulldog, and that’s about all. What makes this film interesting, however, is the everydayness of his life, and while we’re at it, that his poems are not doggerel, but simply bland. Granted, this banality ultimately works as a strength because this isn’t a film about a great, neglected writer working a ‘regular job,’ but rather, a regular guy who happens to write regular poems. 

Set in the birthplace of William Carlos Williams, Paterson goes about his daily routine (he is so stuck in his ways that he doesn’t even want a smartphone), while his ‘artsy’ wife remains home. Ironically, the two could not be more different, as she seems to jump from passion to passion depending on the day. From starting her own cupcake business, to painting, interior decorating, guitar playing, she doesn’t seem to know what she wants but is rather content cheering on her husband. (She purchases a guitar online with DVD instructions in the hopes of being the next Tammy Wynette or Patsy Cline, and the guitar also happens to match her outfit.) Convinced that Paterson is a great poet, she encourages him to publish his poems, or at minimum, make copies. (He promises her that he’ll make copies by the weekend, but unfortunately, their English bulldog, Marvin, chews up his notebook.) […]

Film by Marc Magill
Read More
A screenshot of the Safdie Brothers' "Heaven Knows What", featuring the two main characters in a delicate moment.

Long Concrete: On The Safdie Brothers’ “Heaven Knows What” (2015)

It used to be that films about NY tweens getting high and fucking each other were all too predictable, a paint-by-numbers indie movie. In those days it was a romantic ideal – scattered souls, moving against the flow of conformity and savings-accounts living for hedonistic pursuits, like a mangy Tropic of Cancer. Eventually Cannes and the rest of the festival circuit moved inexorably onwards in pursuit of the contemporary. But those addicts remained in the streets and parks of NYC, now not only destitute, but culturally unfashionable.

Arielle Holmes was a homeless user when she encountered Josh Safdie. Before Josh’s and his brother’s sleeper hit Good Time or their breakout Uncut Gems, they were fresh from a couple of flops and a reasonably successful sports documentary. In the course of casting what would become Uncut Gems in the Diamond District of Manhattan, they met Holmes soliciting change. They got talking, and they saw potential in her adroit way of describing her experience. The decision to not only adapt her life but also cast her is a brave move, and somehow ends up avoiding exploitation.

The most direct comparison for Heaven Knows What is the Harmony Korine movie Kids, the most well-known of this archetype of subject. It’s undeniable that Heaven is a continuation of something that Kids started – the aromantic treatment of New York as a setting, a voyeuristic sense of glimpsing into fringe experience. However, Kids faced issues of glorifying the kind of momentary satisfactions that the addict lifestyle could offer, whereas Heaven Knows What feels like a spoonful of reality caramelised on a skillet. Kids draped itself in a trendy cultural subversiveness and had a fashionable cast of ne’er-do-wells, Heaven Knows What is anything but trendy, and its cast is dishrag ratty. Holmes is the eye-of-the-storm, implacable in some scenes and then gurning and twisted in others, she’s a weathervane for the downward momentum and a superb player. […]