...or at least all the reviews I published this week. The only film of note covered below, however, is Raphael Alvarez and Tatiana Issa's documentary Dzi Croquettes, an affectionate look back at the eponymous cabaret/performance art dance troupe that emerged from Brazil in the 1970s.
It's been far too long since I collected links to my latest reviews, so here's a belated round-up of my work for the last two weeks. Although it's probably too late now to catch up with it, by far the best of the below-mentioned films is Patrick Wang's In the Family, which sneaked in for a short run at New York's Quad Cinema and deserves far wider recognition.
Though not exactly a "new" release, Jeff Nichols' Take Shelter, the subject of my recently posted "webtakes" review for Cineaste Magazine, is one of the year's finest - and may still be playing at a theater near you. At any rate it's far preferable to The Rum Diary, Bruce Robinson's unsatisfying attempt to further mine the Hunter S. Thompson legacy for cinematic fun and profit.
...in the exciting world of film criticism, but some are more so, thanks to the weight of institutional authority. Such is the case with one of the most embarrassing movie reviews I've ever read, David DeWitt's inane take on Oliver Laxe's You All Are Captains for the New York Times, which, among its other sins, seems not to understand the work in question one jot.
Although my previous post seemed to announce an end to my New York Film Festival coverage, a pair of last minute assignments for The L Magazine means I get to weigh in on two more items, Alexander Payne's surprisingly decent The Descendants and the dreadful silent film pastiche The Artist.
As this year's New York Film Festival nears its close, my last batch of reviews has been posted. While not covering any masterpieces such as The Turin Horse (see previous entry), this set of pieces spotlights at least one very worthwhile film.
This year's New York Film Festival kicks off tomorrow, opening with a screening of Roman Polanski's Carnage. While the latest offering from the Chinatown director is not among those films I covered in my first set of reviews, several of the fest's finest entries are, most notably Béla Tarr's latest masterpiece, The Turin Horse. Also, as usual, I wrote the introduction for Slant Magazine's comprehensive coverage of the event.
