Tag Archives: New French Extremity

All Movie Reviews, Drama, Like It, Long Reviews (>400 Words)

I Stand Alone (1998) Movie Review

September 26, 2017 Alex Brannan

This review of Gaspar Noe’s I Stand Alone is part of the New French Extremity Retrospective series.

Rage is a palpable force in I Stand Alone, the first feature film from Gaspar Noe. It is a rage against French society. Philippe Nahon’s The Butcher displaces this rage, his inner monologue tearing apart anyone in his path. What results is a protagonist that comes off as sexist, racist, homophobic, and overall nihilistic.

But The Butcher is also a sad man. All he wants is to Continue reading I Stand Alone (1998) Movie Review →

All Movie Reviews, Drama, Indie Films, Long Reviews (>400 Words)

Romance (1999) Movie Review

September 25, 2017 Alex Brannan

This review of Catherine Breillat’s Romance is part of the New French Extremity Retrospective series.

“You don’t deserve my faithfulness”

The complicated sexuality of Romance is problematic. Not entirely so, as the film explores a side of sexuality that is often left unexplored. But the screenplay reduces sexual philosophy to a binary matter. Even when the shoe is on the opposite foot, entering the perspective of Continue reading Romance (1999) Movie Review →

All Movie Reviews, Horror, Like It, Long Reviews (>400 Words)

Frontier(s) (2008) Movie Review

September 18, 2017 Alex Brannan

This review of Xavier Gens’ Frontier(s) is part of the New French Extremity Retrospective series.

Xavier Gens’ Frontier(s) begins similarly to Mathieu Kassovitz’ 1995 drama La Haine. Both begin by mixing real and documentary footage of riots in the streets of France. In both cases they are riots over an intense distrust of the government. For Frontier(s) it is a distrust over a newly elected right-wing government.

In a way, it feels like Gens is trying to pick up where Kassovitz left off, beginning with an Continue reading Frontier(s) (2008) Movie Review →

All Movie Reviews, Drama, Horror, Like It, Long Reviews (>400 Words)

Trouble Every Day (2001) Movie Review

September 11, 2017 Alex Brannan

This review of Claire Denis’ Trouble Every Day is part of the New French Extremity Retrospective series.

Trouble Every Day, the cannibal love story from Claire Denis, has perhaps the quietest opening to a film about cannibals ever. Core (Beatrice Dalle) is picked up on the side of the road by a truck driver, her grateful face soon fading into a fearful desire as she looks at him. We then cut to a man, Leo (Alex Descas), coming across the body of the driver in a field. He sees Core, crouched in fetal position in the underbrush with blood smeared across her mouth, and approaches her. They embrace silently.

And this film belongs to the same movement as Irreversible and High Tension. Who knew?

Trouble Every Day is depicted as a story of Continue reading Trouble Every Day (2001) Movie Review →

All Movie Reviews, Horror, Leave it, Long Reviews (>400 Words)

Inside (2007) Movie Review

September 4, 2017 Alex Brannan

This review of Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury’s Inside is part of the New French Extremity Retrospective series.

Inside begins, as its title suggests, in utero, with the image of a fetus that is about to be ruptured by an unseen car wreck. Four months later, the survivors Sarah (Alysson Paradis) and her unborn child are ready for the impending birth. It is Christmas Eve, and the newly widowed Sarah is despondent about the prospect of her first baby.

An understandable apathy, to be certain. The cruelty of having one of the Continue reading Inside (2007) Movie Review →

All Movie Reviews, Leave it, Long Reviews (>400 Words), Romance

Love (2015) Movie Review

November 15, 2015 Alex Brannan

Gaspar Noe’s Love opens on an intimate sex scene. The couple is splayed on a bed, engaged in fervent foreplay. It is a single, long take of the two. They do not move. They do not speak. They just do. All the while, orchestral music rises and falls to the tempo of their rhythm.

We cut to the man, Murphy (Karl Glusman), waking, the soundtrack a voiceover narration lamenting his current life and the choices that got him there. He was high the night before. He is worried that Continue reading Love (2015) Movie Review →

All Movie Reviews, Comedy, Halloween Horror, Horror, Lists

Top 10 Horror Movies You Haven’t Seen

October 12, 2015 Alex Brannan

October is upon us, and the tidings of the season are centered on one glorious, oh-so-beautiful word: Horror.

To pay homage to the genre that dominates the Halloween season, here are 10 horror films that you may have never heard of. In my opinion, these movies are under the radar and deserve a higher viewership.

Trick ‘r Treat

There are plenty of anthology horror films out there, and some are better than others. What hinders most of them is the jerky narrative structure in which the segments do not have a cohesion to a larger arc. Trick ‘r Treat is different. Taking place in a small residential town, each segment of the film involves characters in the town on the night of Halloween. The characters’ stories overlap with each other, and the viewer is able to see Continue reading Top 10 Horror Movies You Haven’t Seen →