His new film, Nebraska, is his smallest and most nuanced film to date for Alexander Payne. Shot in black-and-white on a micro-budget and populated by mostly unknown performers instead of Hollywood A-listers, the film strives to slow things down and give you something interesting to follow and compare with your own family's generational gaps.
Read MoreFor this writer, Paul Thomas Anderson is a divisive tough sell. His movies, while technically sound and visually sharp, can frequently feel tiresome, bizarre, and vague to me. For many critics and cinephiles, those adjectives make him a courageous, risk-tasking genius instead. Such can be granted, but, with apologies, his nature and results can still make him exactly the former: tiresome, bizarre, and vague. The Master perpetuates that split sentiment.
Read MoreMelancholia is not your your typical science-fiction drama or even a typical family drama. With Lars Von Trier and his track record (Europa, Dogville, Antichrist), we shouldn't be surprised. It's essentially a wedding movie about two very different, yet equally damaged sisters, but it has a lot more going on. What's going on exactly? Well, it's a little foggy and full of issues.
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