Pulling Focus: The Wild Bunch (1969)

The Wild Bunch (1969)

“[The Wild Bunch] is what happens when outlaws go to Mexico.” – Sam Peckinpah   If they move, kill ’em! Sam Peckinpah’s breakout picture is an outlaw epic that’s, in purely cinematic terms, a viciously graceful spectacle. With quick, startling cuts, slow motion splatter, multi-angle coverage, inventive sound design, superb cinematography and intricately arranged action […]

9 Reasons Why “The Handmaiden” is Park Chan-wook’s Best Film Since “Oldboy”

Park Chan-wook’s return to S. Korea from Hollywood, where he directed “Stoker”, also signaled his return to masterpieces, with “The Handmaiden” reaching the standards of his best films, like “Oldboy”. His passage from Hollywood did not have the same success his previous works had; however, Park seems to have implemented the aesthetics usually associated with […]

Pulling Focus: Morvern Callar (2002)

Morvern Callar (2002)

With Lynne Ramsay’s miraculous Morvern Callar we are continually someplace else. In the cinema, outside of the cinema, in and out of time, passionately and profoundly in the reality of experience and most certainly in tactile transcendency. A film of startling beauty and immense intellect, Morvern Callar may, for some viewers, bypass any immediate emotional […]