by Kathie Smith

The art of seduction is at the fore in Todd Hayne’s Carol. Cultivated right from the opening shot, the strings of the soundtrack swoop you off your feet and carry you into a gritty 1950’s New York City that feels nostalgic regardless of your familiarity with time and or place. Introducing us to the streets, the people, and the hidden spaces found behind windows and through reflections, every detail is manicured and every image is softened with a warm hue. The movie’s éclat is the result of the creative choices and artistic talent behind the production—a multilayered effort inherent in filmmaking, though it is rarely so elevated and pronounced. Production design and art direction by Judy Becker and Jesse Rosenthal, costume design by Sandy Powell, and cinematography by Ed Lachman (wielding a 16mm camera) all contribute to a tactile atmosphere of period perfection. In a word, it’s seductive. And we haven’t even taken the narrative into account.

by Kathie Smith

“The Church thinks in centuries.”  This statement—delivered by a cynical lawyer played by Stanley Tucci in Tom McCarthy’s new movie Spotlight—painfully underscores the apathy that seems to pervade public opinion when it comes to the moral manipulations and power exploitations wielded by the Catholic Church. Everyone claps their hands and says “hallelujah” when the Pope acknowledges global warming but then collectively turns their eyes toward the floor when the Church, time after time, attempts to evade responsibility for the unchecked sexual abuse of children. What else could explain this phenomenon other than the fact that the Roman Catholic Church has carefully honed the art of influence over Western society for nearly 20 centuries?

by Kathie Smith

For the past 15 years—over eight feature films and at least twice that many shorts—Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul has been carefully building a sublime universe where the tangible casually mixes with the abstract, sometimes to the point where those two components begin to merge. A magical boy materializes from a small object; a man shapeshifts into a tiger; vapors—either contained by a ventilation fan or seeping from the jungles—embody the secret loves and fears of people; a mother is an apologetic cannibal; and spirits, in various forms, leisurely appear to commingle with the living. Although abstraction has played a large role in all his narratives, the conceptual pull on Weerasethakul’s languid form of storytelling has become much more powerful since his Palme d’Or winning Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (2010), which was followed by a five year interlude packed with projects, exhibitions and short films (including Mekong Hotel) that quietly exist in spaces unhinged from the conventions of narrative features. Perhaps not without consequence, this period also represents a roiling political atmosphere in Thailand, marked by protests and capped with a military coup that tossed most civil liberties out the window.

by Kathie Smith

In 1965, a failed coup marked a significant shift in power in Indonesia. The country’s first president, Sukamo, was ousted in favor of Major General Suharto, who successfully suppressed the attempted coup with military might. The Indonesian Communist Party was blamed for the crisis, and simmering anti-communist sentiment exploded into a barbaric display of power and violence. Indiscriminate lists of communists were made, young street thugs were recruited as death squads (so the purge would be seen as an act of citizens rather than the military, even though everyone knew better), and, a year later, somewhere between 500,000 to 1 million people were dead. Those responsible for the purge and the gross misconduct of authority still hold power in Indonesia today and are hailed, at least in public, as heroes.

Lagoon Cinema

Director: Joshua Oppenheimer, Anonymous
Producer: Signe Byrge Sørensen

Runtime: 103m.
Genre: Documentary
Country: Denmark/Indonesia/Finland/Norway/UK/Israel/France/USA/Germany/Netherlands
Premiere: August 28, 2014 – Venice Film Festival
US Theatrical Release: July 17, 2015
US Distributor: Drafthouse Films

by Kathie Smith

One of the unfortunate effects of the non-too-clever English title of Thomas Cailley’s Love at First Fight (which completely discards the original French title Les combattants) is the unintentional association with Stan Dragoti’s spoofy 1979 vampire film Love at First Bite. In a perfect world, that accidental reference won’t be a part of your memory bank because the intentions behind the cheeky wordsmithing—to underscore this movie’s comical qualities—couldn’t be more dead on. Although you would never know it from the synopsis (an apathetic young man falls in love with a combative young woman with survivalist ambitions), Love at First Fight is nothing short of a screwball comedy with some 21st century dystopian ethos and mild social commentary thrown in for good measure.

The Film Society of Minneapolis St Paul

Director: Thomas Cailley
Producer: Pierre Guyard
Writers: Thomas Cailley, Claude Le Pape
Cinematographer: David Cailley
Editor: Lilian Corbeille
Music: Philippe Dashaies, Lionel Flairs, Benoit Rault
Cast: Adèle Haenel, Kévin Azaïs, Antoine Laurent, Brigitte Roüan, William Lebghil, Thibaut Berducat, Nicolas Wanczycki, Frédéric Pellegeay, Steve Tientcheu

Runtime: 98m.
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: France
Premiere: May 17, 2014
US Theatrical Release: May 22, 2015
US Distributor: Strand Releasing

by Kathie Smith

Alan Taylor’s Terminator Genisys arrives under a circumstantial cloud, which could quickly turn into a halo depending on box office returns: it’s the fifth chapter in a now iconic cinematic saga that started 30 years ago; it’s wagering a 170 million dollar bet that it can resurrect a franchise that has arguably lost its footing; it claims the return of the actor who will forever be indentified with the series (to the point where he was known as the Governator in his political deviations); it lands in a prophetic moment of its own making—the Internet, drones, unregulated government surveillance, and fierce fighting from numerous rebellious groups worldwide—all on the eve of the day the U.S. declared Independence some 239 years ago, now commonly celebrated with flames and booze. Although these circumstances are specific to Terminator Genisys, they are by no means unique. Nearly every summer blockbuster comes with a certain set of antecedent marketing flares and extratextual information molded, sometimes infelicitously, for a certain amount of success. Given the reservoir of thematic possibilities for Terminator Genisys, it’s completely confounding how its creators could be so lazy and, more to the point, creatively irresponsible with the material. The result is a sad sack of an action film that flirts with using Arnold Schwarzenegger’s robotic charisma only enough to keep you from walking out.

Area Theaters

Director: Alan Taylor
Producers: David Ellison, Dana Goldberg
Writers: Laeta Kalogridis, Patrick Lussier, James Cameron, Gale Anne Hurd
Cinematographer: Kramer Morgenthau
Editor: Roger Barton
Music: Lorne Balfe
Cast: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jason Clark, Emilia Clarke, Jai Courtney, J.K. Simmons, Dayo Okeniyi, Matt Smith, Courtney Vance, Lee Byung-hun

Runtime: 126m.
Genre: Action, Drama
Country: USA
US Theatrical Release: July 1, 2015
US Distributor: Paramount Pictures