News From Home Is Another Reminder of Chantal Akerman's Brilliance as a Filmmaker

Here's a first; there apparently isn't any poster for News From Home, this cover to a DVD containing Notes From Home, among other Chantal Akerman works, will have to do.

News From Home is not a traditional motion picture. There is no overarching narrative to be found here. It simply consists of footage of various New York City locales, which are usually captured via extended single-takes, set to audio of the film's director, Chantal Akerman, reading aloud letters that her mother has written to her. Such letters concern Chantal's mother talking to her daughter about how much she and her husband miss Chantal as well as everything that's going on back in Chantal's home of Brussels, Belgium. Babies are born, marriages are formed, tragedies strike the family, all the while the footage on-screen makes it clear that New York City keeps going along. This world is one of relentless business that waits for no human being.

Roma Is A Showcase For Impressive Camerawork And A Similarly Superb Performance From Yalitza Aparicio

For his 21st century directorial efforts, Alfonso Cuaron has gone big in scale. He's helmed films about time-traveling wizards, a post-apocalyptic chase movie and also a struggle for survival in the vacuum of space. Though all of these films were heavily character-driven, they spared no expense in communicating the grandeur of the situations its protagonists had become entangled in. Though his newest movie, Roma, has its fair share of scenes depicting events like wildfires or revolts that are large-in-scale, this is a more intimate affair compared to what Cuaron has done in his 21st-century filmmaking career, one informed by his own personal childhood rather than fantasy worlds concocted by J.K. Rowling.

Hold the Dark Is A Shallow And Tedious Journey Into The Cold Wilderness

MILD SPOILERS AHEAD 

I kept waiting and waiting for Hold the Dark to suddenly click into place for me, but that moment never came. Writer Macon Blair and director Jeremy Saulnier (the latter being the director behind one of 2016's best movies, Green Room) have delivered a feature that only gets more and more inert as it goes on as one gradually realizes that the slow-burn restrained atmosphere of the whole movie isn't going nowhere. Oh to go back to the start of the movie, when I still had hopes for this one realizing its potential. The beginning of Hold the Dark is easily the strongest part of the whole feature, as we're introduced to Russell Core (Jeffrey Wright), an author who is contacted by Alaska resident Medora (Riley Keough) to help her find her son who was recently taken by wolves.

The Phenomenal A Ghost Story Is Hauntingly Ambitious And Beautiful

Let it be said right up front; A Ghost Story will not be for everyone. It's a blatantly unconventional borderline experimental movie with little in the way of actual dialogue and even less in the way of onscreen explanations for how various parts of its story function. I honestly can't believe it's playing at my local Cinemark a venue where I'm sure it'll be received with plenty of audiences going "What the hell was that?" once the lights go up. But for me personally, A Ghost Story almost feels like it was tailor made for me and my sensibilities, particularly my mind and the way it constantly obsesses over wistfulness for locations and memories of the past. I'm fascinated by those elements of yesteryear and how they impact me and those are the kind of ideas A Ghost Story, as a film, is fixated on too.

Let's All Go Pay A Visit To (Deep Breath) Jeanne Dielman, 23, Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles

Sight & Sound Voyage Entry #6
Placement On Sight & Sound 50 Best Movies List: #35 (Tied with Psycho, Satantango and Metropolis)

Part of the reason why I wanted to go through all 50 films on Sight & Sounds 50 Best Movies list was because I wanted to get a better grasp on world cinema and the various filmmakers behind some of the most acclaimed motion pictures of all-time. I may be a proud film geek, but there are too many blind spots in my cinema knowledge to count and getting through this list would be a great way to do just that.  Plus, it would expose me to all kinds of movies made in a style that I was completely unfamiliar with, which, of course, is a way to segue into my newest review in this series, which covers the 1975 motion picture Jeanne Dielman, 23, Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles.