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The Exceptional Horror of “Hereditary”
Ari Aster’s Hereditary opens simply: the white letters of Ellen Graham’s obituary blazing on a inky background. The matriarch is survived by her daughter Annie, an artist who creates miniature dioramas of her everyday life. We see one of her miniatures now: a cut-out model of her home in the forest. As we zoom in, we focus on a bedroom belonging to her teenage son Peter. Slowly, the miniature room fills the screen until the facsimile becomes reality and Peter’s father walks in to wake him for his grandmother’s funeral. From this point forward the line between reality and fantasy, between the actual and the imagined, will remain blurred.
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Structural Perfection in “Avengers: Infinity War”
In Avengers: Infinity War, Joe and Anthony Russo accomplish many small miracles on the way towards crafting one of the most interesting films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Though previous iterations of the Flagship Get-Together Movie have buckled under the weight of too many characters with too much to do (Avengers: Age of Ultron and Captain America: Civil War, especially), Infinity War deftly isolates characters into distinct groups, thereby localizing their stories, goals, and actions. Furthermore, though practically every film in the MCU brandishes a makeshift villain, Infinity War finally gives us Thanos, a three-dimensional and fascinating villain with a cabal of sadistic and distinct generals. The action set pieces are all up to the same high standard that we have come to expect from the MCU, and the new interactions between old characters add some nice spice to the film. Avengers: Infinity War shouldn’t work; it should be too big, too busy, and too safe, bursting for the seems with one too many formulaic superhero movie tropes. Instead, it is the perfect distillation of what the MCU should be: fun heroes, terrifying villains, and high stakes.
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Hot Docs 2018: The Cleaners
Check out my post on The Cleaners over at Cinema Axis.
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Hot Docs 2018: Mr Fish: Cartooning from the Deep End
Check out my quick review of Mr Fish over on Cinema Axis.
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Hot Docs 2018: Golden Dawn Girls
Check out my quick review on Golden Dawn Girls over on Cinema Axis.
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Hot Docs 2018: 306 Hollywood
Check out my quick review of 306 Hollywood over on Cinema Axis.
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Hot Docs 2018: Laila at the Bridge
Check out my quick post on Laila at the Bridge over at Cinema Axis.
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Hot Docs 2018: What Walaa Wants
Check out my quick review of What Walaa Wants over on Cinema Axis.
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State of the Blog – The First Quarter of 2018
The first quarter of 2018 is squarely in the books, and a State of the Blog post here on Plot and Theme is long overdue. If you do not recall from earlier, I decided to move these from a monthly basis towards a quarterly basis, which basically just means that there’s way more to talk about. First, I’ll delve into the cool flicks that I saw early this year. Then, I’ll detail the neat things to look forward to over the next quarter (so, through June). Finally, we’ll go over some bookkeeping here on the blog.
Let’s go.
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It’s Finally Time for a “Top Ten Movies of 2017” List
It’s finally time for me to reveal my Top Ten Movies of 2017 here on Plot and Theme. I know, everyone settle down. Now, in previous years this piece has come out sometime around the middle of January, as I hastily throw together a Top Ten list ASAP. Usually, this means that a few films that graced the coastal elites in the latter half of December don’t get consideration because they don’t show in whatever Podunk I am currently populating. By waiting a few months into the next year, I get to add more sweet flicks to my list, plus I was able to watch some of the older films a few more times. It should turn out well.
Film Criticism and Fiction Writing by Derek Jacobs
