Fargo’s third episode is going to be a hard one to top (a surprise considering Hawley’s absence from the writer’s credits). Not only is it a deeply powerful character study “The Law of Non-Contradiction” is also an existential tract as…
TV Review: Fargo 3×01 “The Law of Vacant Places”
Noah Hawley’s Fargo once again opens under the dubious guise of being a “true story,” a subheading, perhaps the most abused in modern entertainment, which seems only to redefine the “truth” than embrace it. Yet, the episode “The Law of…
Movie Review: The Student
The Student, a tiresome proclamation of Russia’s growing fears of religious fundamentalism, feels about as cynically detached as these kinds of films are expected to be. It tells the story of a teen who turns into a Christian ultraist, altering his school’s…
Movie Review: The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Mäki
The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Mäki (shot in classical black-and-white) recalls the old down-and-out boxer stories that enchanted old Hollywood. The myth of uneducated and unsophisticated vagrants, blessed only with the talent of giving and taking a beating,…
Movie Review: After the Storm
Many use the words “deceptively simple” to describe a film which makes what it’s trying to do look easy. However, I don’t think the words apply better to any director than Hirokazu Kore-eda and his invariable slice of the Japanese experience.…
How ‘Logan’ benefits from being a Self-Serious Superhero Movie
Despite contributing to an oversaturated market, Marvel and DC’s never-ending stream of superhero introductions (and reintroductions) cast an unmistakable spell. Last year saw the release of Deadpool, an ironic and cynical response to the superhero genre, as well as the…
