Betsy Sherman
While it has its highlights, The Family limits our frame of reference to other movies, rather than anything resembling real life.
Fuse film critic Betsy Sherman has written a series of haiku inspired by an all-night marathon of film noir screenings.
Amanda Seyfried gives a sensitive performance as Linda Lovelace; Peter Sarsgaard is chilling as Chuck Traynor, the abusive husband who saw her as sex-object and potential money-making machine.
This entertaining and provocative work, made in 1981 by the now 85-year-old director, fits into his oeuvre as a complement to his best known movie among American art-film fans, 1974’s Céline and Julie Go Boating.
Director Refn’s craftsmanship isn’t in doubt here, just whether this deadening story was worth all the effort.
Director Sachs calls “Your Day is My Night” a “hybrid documentary,” with real-life stories told by middle-aged and elderly Chinese immigrants presented in a honed, often theatrical, style rather than as verité oral histories.
“The Heat” plays with clichés from a long line of mismatched buddy cop comedies, and it’s as good as any in the genre’s pantheon.
Despite all the irritating behavior exhibited by both spouses in “Journey to Italy,” the film is ultimately a work of great compassion.
“The Iran Job” is an engrossing documentary that cannily integrates basketball and a look at Iranian street life in the months leading up to and including the Green Movement protests.
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