by Coeli Carr | Feb 19, 2014
The stunningly self-involved central figure in the Romanian movie Child’s Pose is Cornelia Keneres (Luminita Gheorghiu), the latest in a long line of cinematic devouring mothers who operate from terrifying, chthonic depths when unable to control offspring who’ve had... 
by Coeli Carr | Jan 24, 2014
In the opening moments of the Chilean movie Gloria, the titular character, divorced for a decade and who’s pushing the older side of middle-age, is at an demographically appropriate nightclub in Santiago. With drink in hand, she’s unashamedly fishing for a man. But... by Coeli Carr | Jan 20, 2014
There’s something extraordinarily self-contained about the non-descript, scrawny-pined beach and parking lot in Alain Guiraudie’s Stranger by the Lake. The area’s caché – it’s an enclave for gay-cruising – is revealed quickly. However, this French lakeside... 
by Coeli Carr | Dec 26, 2013
At the heart of August: Osage County, directed by John Wells, is an ugly metaphor for what ails the Weston family. We learn soon enough that Violet (Meryl Streep), the clan’s matriarch and Lunar symbol, is terminally ill with cancer of the mouth, the body part which... 
by Coeli Carr | Dec 26, 2013
For many people, daydreams are the most grandiose source of faux reality they’ll ever experience. In The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, starring and directed by Ben Stiller, Walter has garnered considerable expertise in the art of Neptunian, zoned-out escapism which... 
by Coeli Carr | Dec 26, 2013
Based on the true story of crooked broker Jordan Belfort, Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street is a three-hour evocation of the revelry-filled Roman festival known as the Saturnalia. At some point during that ancient manic carnival, the head reveler was put to... 