From a certain point of view, every movie is a documentary. No matter their subjects, films are snapshots of the place and time they are made, and of people in them, captured forever. When we look back at old movies, we’re getting a window into what life was like in an earlier era, even if the film … Read more
The world of fast food is largely defined by the menu items that people return to year after year, decade after decade. McDonald’s Big Mac. Popeye’s Chicken Sandwich. Taco Bell’s Crunchwrap Supreme. Those are the things that keep loyalists coming back. But in an effort to lure in new customers, fast food chains constantly introduce new items … Read more
As a general rule, one should never be surprised when Hollywood makes a sequel of anything. If a film makes a large enough profit, Hollywood will find a way to produce a sequel. Even if the main character dies in the first film, or there’s no logical reason to continue the story beyond the first movie’s ending, or the first … Read more
Food is more than food. It’s memories. Eating the foods you used to love as a kid can bring you back to that time and place when you first had them. (Eating the foods you used to hate as a kid can help you realize how dumb you used to be, which is also valuable. … Read more
The ’90s were a strange and glorious time. The stock market was up. The internet made a weird series of mechanical noises every time you turned it on by accessing it via your phone. Cell phones were the size of bricks. And grocery stores were filled with foods never before dreamed of in human history. Some … Read more
Few things in this world hold a more powerful connection to memory than food. The smell of a familiar dish or snack alone can bring you back to childhood. Case in point: I don’t even need to taste what’s inside; just a look at a Kellogg’s Fun Pak — the plastic-wrapped assortment of eight mini boxes of cereal — and … Read more
The opening shot, which goes on for quite a while, is key. The point of view is that of a pair of eyes looking up from the ground, into the bare branches of a forest’s trees and the clear sky above them. It’s a moving shot. Those who recollect Carl Theodor Dreyer’s “Vampyr,” and the … Read more
“Evil Does Not Exist” had its world premiere at last year’s Venice Film Festival, where it competed for the Golden Lion and won the Grand Jury Prize; during its tour of the international festival circuit, the film also traveled to Toronto, London, and New York, where Hamaguchi visited the Criterion offices and sat with his … Read more
The official Evil Does Not Exist trailer for the upcoming environmental drama, which hails from Drive My Car filmmaker Ryusuke Hamaguchi, has been released. The film had its world premiere at the 2023 Venice International Film Festival. In the video, a Tokyo company plans to construct a glamping site near a small village, which threatens … Read more
Lea Seydoux is typically excellent as Gabrielle, partnered here with George MacKay as Louis. They play what TIFF describes as “star-crossed lovers,” seen at various points in history as a Gabrielle in the future undergoes a process that is designed to eliminate hampering emotions still lingering from past lives. So Gabrielle revisits past versions of … Read more