Unlike most enigmatic movies that feel manipulatively vague in order to simplistically drum up the audience’s interest with an artificially confounding plot (the mystery often intentionally masks – through superficially bolstering – a throwaway story in a classic example of style over substance), the structure of Buster’s Mal Heart is not only justified by, but also imperative to cinematically conveying the title character’s reconceptualization of reality.
There’s no way to tame the glorious strange of Amat Escalante’s The Untamed.
João Pedro Rodrigues’ The Ornithologist tries to create a spiritual landscape increasingly detached from logical reality.
Masterpiece Theatre, Winston-Churchill edition!
Aisling Walsh’s Maudie features two of 2017’s best performances by two of the most woefully unheralded performers of their generations (with weirdly-similar last names): Ethan Hawke and Sally Hawkins.
Like weaker Happy Madison fare – with an excessively-lengthy runtime to boot – the humor of Ken Marino’s How to Be A Latin Lover is not rooted in the characters, who’re treated as mere pawns to facilitate stale gags.
Vanessa Gould’s Obit is a documentary about the oft-forgotten people who document other people’s lives: obituary writers for the New York Times.
Paolo Virzì’s Like Crazy (not to be confused with Drake Doremus’ Like Crazy from a few years back. R.I.P. Anton Yelchin) is a lighter, less substantive — and far inferior — mixture of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and Thelma & Louise that too often feels like a vanity project for the goddess Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, who’s admittedly ace here (if you’re unfamiliar with her work, check out Human Capital).
Terence Davis’ A Quiet Passion is a quietly-radical biopic.
A ludicrously rose-colored — literally in regards to the stunning visuals, figuratively in terms of the irritating narration’s writing, delivered by John Krasinski (cash that check!) — cinematic depiction of nature.
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