When it is not weird and dark, its gaudiness might annoy, but there is a method to the madness as Coppola pulls every trick in the cinematographic and editing handbook to deliver a studio movie that no one would probably dare try to make in this vein again.
Prefiguring the likes of ‘Funny Games’ and ‘Cache’, Haneke’s second feature is a challenging and disturbing work on media violence and its psychological ramifications.
David Lynch tries too hard to be David Lynch in this atmospherically dense but superficial mystery-horror film.
A mix of fiction and reality, and memory and imagination as Shyam Benegal weaves a complex drama full of literary qualities, but somehow isn’t compelling enough to get into.
Extraordinary docu-fictive filmmaking by Kiarostami as the second part of his ‘Koker’ trilogy brings us to the aftermath of the devastating 1990 Manjil-Rudbar earthquake via a skillfully deceptive meta-cinematic device.
This culturally vibrant but slowly-paced drama lacks the emotional pull that Zhang Yimou’s earlier films are famous for.
Schrader’s terrific work here treads familiar thematic ground as his ‘Taxi Driver’, but make no mistake, this character study on guilt and salvation is stylistically a different animal.
Straub and Huillet take ancient Sophocles’ famous Greek tragedy, as interpreted by Brecht, and give it an austere ‘filmed theatre’ treatment that is minimalist, esoteric and occasionally forceful.
A Japanese man and a Hong Kong schoolgirl try to find meaning in their lonely existence as they are faced with uncertainties of the future in this thoughtful and introspective drama.
Still one of Tsai’s very best, this is a solid feature debut that grapples with the ennui of ‘90s youth listlessness with stylistic aplomb.
