Holy Motors: Holy Shit!

Holy Motors: Holy Shit!

We’re never given a single hint of where Mr. Oscar came from or where he’s going, or really what it is his performances are even for. Every time we think we’re getting a sincere glimpse into his life, we realize it’s just another performance. The limo he’s shuffled around in is the only nucleus of stability we’re given for understanding Oscar and Celine, and I even hesitate to say we can trust these moments in the film.

Boyhood Calling

Boyhood Calling

Probably the closest I’ve come to feeling resolved about this issue of aging was in the ecstatic yet devastated state I found myself in walking out of the movie theatres after watching Richard Linklater’s latest and most ambitious film to date, Boyhood.

This is the closest cinema has come to reconciling narratives with the unpredictable and often anti-climactic nature of real life.

Russian Ark

Russian Ark

December 23, 2001 is the last chance for Russian director Alexander Sokurov. Holed up inside St. Petersburg’s State Hermitage Museum, an exhausted camera crew, two thousands actors in period costume, and three orchestras are waiting for the signal to start. This is the one fact that everyone who has heard of “Russian Ark” knows even before watching it: this movie was filmed entirely in one take. Using a Steadicam to stabilize the shot, the whole 96-minute movie was filmed and saved, uncompressed, onto a hard disk. No cuts, no transitions; this is the most realistic movie I’ve seen.