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7/10
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Downhill Racer
(1969)
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Sarah Boslaugh
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[Downhill Racer] features lots of abrupt cuts spanning big jumps in time and place, with a minimum of connecting material, while interactions among characters are stripped down to their shortest possible length...
Posted Jan 24, 2026
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8/10
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This Is Spinal Tap
(1984)
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Sarah Boslaugh
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"Treading water in a sea of retarded sexuality and bad poetry," as one reviewer within the film puts it, pretty much sums up the band. The real joke is that they don’t get it.
Posted Jan 17, 2026
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7/10
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Mississippi Masala
(1991)
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Sarah Boslaugh
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[Cinematographer Ed] Lachman distinguished the two worlds of Mississippi Masala—Uganda and Mississippi—through his choice of lenses and film stock...
Posted Jan 03, 2026
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9/10
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The Voice of Hind Rajab
(2025)
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Sarah Boslaugh
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Prepare to have your heart broken in Kaouther Ben Hania’s drama, a marvel of minimalist filmmaking shot with handheld cameras...
Posted Dec 29, 2025
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7/10
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The River
(1951)
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Sarah Boslaugh
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The Technicolor cinematography by Claude Renoir (son of actor Pierre, nephew of director Jean, grandson of painter Pierre-August) is a big part of what makes this film work...
Posted Dec 27, 2025
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6/10
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Spellbound
(1945)
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Sarah Boslaugh
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You can feel the conflict between producer David O. Selznick and director Alfred Hitchcock from the opening credits...
Posted Dec 20, 2025
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8/10
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The Seventh Victim
(1943)
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Sarah Boslaugh
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The great strength of The Seventh Victim lies in its ability to create a mood, from the oily elegance of the Satanists to a terrifying trip on the New York subway and an equally terrifying night walk through Greenwich Village.
Posted Dec 13, 2025
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8/10
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La llorona
(2019)
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Sarah Boslaugh
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Jayro Bustamente’s La Llorona draws on [the] folk tale but infuses it with political meaning (which is made explicit in the song played over the final credits).
Posted Dec 06, 2025
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7/10
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The Uninvited
(1944)
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Sarah Boslaugh
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The Uninvited is the kind of film that offers something for everyone: a tense ghost story, a mystery to be solved, melodramatic action sequences, a lesbian subplot that requires a bit of interpretation to recognize, goofy comic interludes...
Posted Nov 29, 2025
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6/10
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Carl Th. Dreyer: My Metier
(1995)
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Sarah Boslaugh
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...Carl Th. Dreyer: My Metier doesn’t offer a deep analysis of Dreyer’s films or his method, but it can serve as a useful introduction to the man and his work.
Posted Nov 22, 2025
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8/10
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The Tales of Hoffmann
(1951)
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Sarah Boslaugh
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There’s nothing naturalistic about The Tales of Hoffmann—instead, everything is as theatrical and fantastic as it can be, and each section is introduced by turning the pages of a program naming the setting, characters and cast...
Posted Nov 15, 2025
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6/10
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She Runs the World
(2025)
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Sarah Boslaugh
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For the first part of her career, Felix was a professional athlete sponsored by Nike. All her success meant nothing when she tried to renegotiate her contract to include pregnancy protections, however...
Posted Nov 14, 2025
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7/10
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Spare My Bones, Coyote!
(2025)
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Sarah Boslaugh
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...follows the efforts of Marisela and Ely Ortiz [who work] with the volunteer organization Las Aguilas del Desierto (The Eagles of the Desert) whose specialty is finding the bodies of those who perish in the desert and returning them to their families.
Posted Nov 14, 2025
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7/10
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The Track
(2025)
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Sarah Boslaugh
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The young men are engaging and their coach is a model of determination, but you know they’re going up against long odds.
Posted Nov 13, 2025
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7/10
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The Gas Station Attendant
(2025)
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Sarah Boslaugh
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Despite the intensely personal nature of The Gas Station Attendant, Murthy maintains a sense of calm while exploring her past...
Posted Nov 10, 2025
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6/10
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Underland
(2025)
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Sarah Boslaugh
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Underland weaves folk beliefs around its present-day stories, creating a narrative that’s bigger than just the conscious and straightforward human world.
Posted Nov 10, 2025
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8/10
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Notorious
(1946)
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Sarah Boslaugh
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Notorious is a technical marvel, as is the case for many of Hitchcock’s films, but the special effects are the kind meant to remain hidden rather than call attention to themselves...
Posted Nov 08, 2025
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8/10
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Remaining Native
(2025)
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Sarah Boslaugh
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Remaining Native succeeds at two different goals: it’s a sensitive appreciation of Native American culture including the continuing impact of the residential schools on that culture. It’s also a great sports movie.
Posted Nov 07, 2025
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8/10
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Tow
(2025)
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Sarah Boslaugh
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The hair and makeup department, led by Sarit Klein and Pamela May, also deserve a shoutout for how realistically the shifts in Amanda’s fortunes can be read on her face.
Posted Nov 07, 2025
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7/10
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WTO/99
(2025)
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Sarah Boslaugh
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The uneven quality of the source material gives the documentary a handmade feel, and that feels true to the protests: there’s no central authority running things...
Posted Nov 07, 2025
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6/10
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Fiend Without a Face
(1958)
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Sarah Boslaugh
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Fiend Without a Face is an enjoyable B-picture and interesting as a window into what was on people’s minds in 1958.
Posted Nov 01, 2025
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7/10
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Ballad of a Soldier
(1959)
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Sarah Boslaugh
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Ballad of a Soldier is less a war film and more a film set in wartime.
Posted Oct 25, 2025
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6/10
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The Summer Book
(2024)
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Sarah Boslaugh
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The pace is unhurried, matching the feel of reading the novel The Summer Book, but the film feels talkier and more heavy-handed, as if it feels the need to deliver life lessons directly to the audience rather than letting them emerge.
Posted Oct 21, 2025
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6/10
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The Hit
(1984)
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Sarah Boslaugh
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Stamp’s performance is the best thing in this film: he’s hilarious as an informer giving testimony, brutal in the flashbacks to his earlier days, and projects nothing but serenity in the present day...
Posted Oct 18, 2025
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9/10
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The Third Man
(1949)
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Sarah Boslaugh
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...The Third Man is a banquet that offers so much of everything that you will never run out of things to enjoy within it, even as you may have already had too much of some other things it offers.
Posted Oct 11, 2025
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7/10
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A Night to Remember
(1958)
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Sarah Boslaugh
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...there’s lot to enjoy in this film, even if it follows mostly expected narrative and emotional lines, and you could do worse if you need a comfort film some evening.
Posted Oct 04, 2025
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7/10
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I Know Where I'm Going!
(1945)
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Sarah Boslaugh
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The big star in I Know Where I’m Going! is the Hebridean landscape, which symbolizes the old values of Britain and a life far from the commercial buzz of mainland cities.
Posted Sep 27, 2025
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8/10
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A Canterbury Tale
(1944)
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Sarah Boslaugh
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One of the stranger yet remarkably powerful [Powell & Pressburger films] is their 1944 A Canterbury Tale, which wasn’t much of a hit with either critics or the public upon first release but has since been recognized as a classic of British cinema.
Posted Sep 20, 2025
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7/10
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Ghost World
(2001)
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Sarah Boslaugh
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The changing point of view is probably the most interesting thing about Ghost World, although it offers many more immediate pleasures as well.
Posted Sep 14, 2025
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8/10
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Trainspotting
(1996)
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Sarah Boslaugh
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Rewatching Trainspotting after almost 30 years, it’s as funny and awful as I remember...
Posted Aug 16, 2025
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6/10
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State of Siege
(1972)
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Sarah Boslaugh
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Like many of Costa-Gavras’ films, State of Siege is presented so plainly that it feels almost like a documentary ...
Posted Aug 09, 2025
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7/10
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The Bridge
(1960)
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Sarah Boslaugh
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...the young men function most importantly as a collective, together representing everyone called to war before they are ready for it.
Posted Aug 02, 2025
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8/10
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Minding the Gap
(2018)
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Sarah Boslaugh
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Minding the Gap is the opposite of a muckraking doc: it maintains a calm demeanor and honors the specificity of each person’s experience.
Posted Jul 27, 2025
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8/10
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Divorce, Italian Style
(1962)
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Sarah Boslaugh
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Germi (who also wrote the screenplay) pulls off the satire effectively and the result is a very funny movie in which you’ll be laughing at the men, who hold a ridiculously favored position in their society, for not realizing how good they have it.
Posted Jul 19, 2025
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8/10
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Shallow Grave
(1995)
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Sarah Boslaugh
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Few things are less fun than finding out you’re not as smart as you think you are, and when a character played by Peter Mullan is after you, you can guess the outcome won’t be pleasant.
Posted Jul 12, 2025
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6/10
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Basquiat
(1996)
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Sarah Boslaugh
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[Basquiat] is most definitely a Julian Schnabel film and also a portrait of someone who may or may not be similar in character and manner to the painter Jean-Michel Basquiat.
Posted Jul 05, 2025
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7/10
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Shanghai Express
(1932)
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Sarah Boslaugh
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Shanghai Express is the kind of film you watch with an understanding of the conventions of the time when it was made (and of course, that business is business), or you’re better off giving it a miss.
Posted Jun 28, 2025
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7/10
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Blithe Spirit
(1945)
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Sarah Boslaugh
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From her first appearance, Rutherford injects a sense of anarchy into the staid drawing-room world of the Condomines like a grey-haired girl scout full of enthusiasms and up for just about anything.
Posted Jun 28, 2025
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8/10
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Drugstore Cowboy
(1989)
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Sarah Boslaugh
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If you have the least bit of teenage rebelliousness left in your soul it’s hard to not be on their side, at least at the start of the film when everyone seems to be having a good time.
Posted Jun 28, 2025
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6/10
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The Daytrippers
(1996)
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Sarah Boslaugh
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...a pleasant little film, nicely put together on a low budget...
Posted Jun 07, 2025
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7/10
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Party Girl
(1995)
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Sarah Boslaugh
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Mary is all about living in the moment and is not ready to take anything seriously, as revealed by her entertaining, in rapid succession, her prospects of succeeding as a designer, an actor, a writer, and an investment banker.
Posted Jun 01, 2025
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7/10
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Sally!
(2024)
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Sarah Boslaugh
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Gearhart’s omission from Milk is also a metaphor for her life story: she did so much, and brought about so much change, and yet her name is not well known today. Hopefully Sally! can go some distance in correcting that state of affairs.
Posted Jun 01, 2025
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9/10
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The Night of the Hunter
(1955)
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Sarah Boslaugh
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The Night of the Hunter wouldn’t work without the Expressionist-tinged cinematography of Stanley Cortez, who creates just the right degree of visual unreality to combine the fable-like story with the realistic surroundings in which it takes place.
Posted Jun 01, 2025
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7/10
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Bulletproof: A Lesbian's Guide to Surviving the Plot
(2024)
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Sarah Boslaugh
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The first thing I have to say about Bulletproof is that it’s a lot of fun to watch—even if you didn’t grow up watching TV...
Posted May 29, 2025
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6/10
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Visions of Eight
(1973)
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Sarah Boslaugh
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Another very 1970s trait of Visions of Eight is the assumption that sports are for men, with women segregated into one segment that has its own biases.
Posted May 24, 2025
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8/10
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Beau travail
(1999)
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Sarah Boslaugh
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...an intensely beautiful film, full of intensely fit men performing physical training that is as carefully choreographed as a formal ballet...
Posted May 17, 2025
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8/10
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Elevator to the Gallows
(1958)
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Sarah Boslaugh
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It’s as if Malle is saying that, while the characters crave everything modern, they’re not quite up to handling it.
Posted May 10, 2025
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8/10
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A Face in the Crowd
(1957)
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Sarah Boslaugh
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A Face in the Crowd is as much a critique of the power of mass media, and of the susceptibility of the American public to messages delivered via it, as it is the dissection of one character who found a new career exploiting it
Posted May 03, 2025
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6/10
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Janis Ian: Breaking Silence
(2024)
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Sarah Boslaugh
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There’s a lot to enjoy in this documentary, although it’s also overly long at 114 minutes, and includes way too many re-enactments...
Posted Apr 29, 2025
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8/10
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Chan Is Missing
(1982)
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Sarah Boslaugh
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Style, not story, is the real reason for watching Chan Is Missing. It’s shot with many references to film noir while also ironically salting in some Charlie Chan-like aphorisms.
Posted Apr 27, 2025
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