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Avengers: Infinity War
In 2008, Marvel Studios took the gamble of the century. They released Iron Man, featuring a virtually unknown character outside the comic book world and starring an actor with a checkered past and little box office success in Robert Downey Jr. Raising the stakes even higher, prior to the release of Iron Man, Marvel committed…
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Soundtracks: The New Music of Religion
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Mother!
Darren Aronofsky’s Mother! abounds with religious metaphors as well as social commentary via cryptic symbolism impossible to definitively decipher. A mishmash of surreal imagery combines with increasingly compounding absurdity that drives our extremely visceral experience and nearly plot-less depiction of a woman’s gradual psychological unraveling as she struggles to restore her idyllic rustic house after…
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Apologia for Malick
Not that Terrence Malick needs a defense, but it seems that he has taken some heat from the forum of critics (including some of our own) as of late. This is understandable; Malick films tend to move against the grain of traditional narrative and shooting style. Anything we are unaccustomed to or unacquainted with, that…
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Kubo and the Two Strings
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Stevie
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Synecdoche, New York
The act of creation, if we are truly image bearers of the Divine, is deeply imprinted on our very being. Few films explore the consuming, and neurotic compulsion that is the creative process as deeply (and terrifyingly) as Synecdoche, New York. The 2002 Charlie Kaufman movie follows Caden Cotard, one of Philip Seymour Hoffman’s most…
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Her
The film opens with a man’s voice. It’s a sincere voice, affectionate, sensual yet caring. The camera slowly pans over the man’s face, and he’s reading an intimate letter, a letter that (we assume) is written to the person he loves. The man’s words are tender and earnest, and it is instantly familiar and soothing…
