The Year in Review:
The Best of Film in 2015, Part 4
December 21, 2015
Ten films to write home about in 2015, plus ten discoveries and revelations.
Archives by Contributor » Tim Wong
The Year in Review:
The Year in Review: What’s New? Plus, Discoveries and Revelations in 2014
December 22, 2014
Thoughts on how (and how not) to be a cinephile in New Zealand. Also, the year in unknown pleasures.
The long, friendly shadow of My Neighbor Totoro
November 4, 2014
On the lineage and legacy of Hayao Miyazaki’s most enduring film. Plus, Isao Takahata and a new Studio Ghibli showcase.
Post-Festival Report 2014:
Cold in July
September 16, 2014
Last words on the New Zealand International Film Festival for 2014.
Marion Davies and Show People
August 10, 2014
Notes on the queen of silent comedy and her role in King Vidor’s hilarious Hollywood satire.
Mid-Festival Report 2014:
The Shock of the New
August 7, 2014
At the New Zealand International Film Festival: double images, cinema as a frontier in Under the Skin and Manakamana, and respecting Hard to Be a God.
Misfits of Science: The Congress, Snowpiercer, Jodorowsky’s Dune
July 28, 2014
At the New Zealand International Film Festival: new films by Ari Folman and Bong Joon-ho, and one gone but not forgotten by Alejandro Jodorowsky.
Life as a House: Exhibition
July 27, 2014
Joanna Hogg’s penetrating new film—her best yet—explores a ménage a trois between husband, wife and house.
Burden of Dreams:
Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter
July 24, 2014
On the supreme sadness and power of escapism in the Zellner Brothers’ strange tale of an obsessive personal quest.
Master of the Universe:
The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness
July 22, 2014
Documenting the “cursed dreams” of Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki and the future of his Studio Ghibli legacy.
Past Lives: Beloved Sisters, Reaching for the Moon, Story of My Death
July 14, 2014
At the New Zealand International Film Festival: a trio of period dramas contemplate desire, aesthetic pleasure, and intellectual history in transition.
Carnival of Souls:
Fish & Cat, Of Horses and Men
July 7, 2014
At the New Zealand International Film Festival: death, calamity, and comic fatalism by way of Iran and Iceland.
The World in Miniature: This is New Zealand & South Seas Adventure
April 29, 2014
Highlighting New Zealand’s landscape and culture through an elaborate three-camera filming process, two memorable widescreen spectacles—one from Hollywood, the other homegrown, both thought lost for decades—can now finally be revisited on DVD.
Black Moon (1975)
April 18, 2014
Previously at the Wellington Film Society: Louis Malle’s one-of-a-kind surrealist experiment.
Dutch angles and The Third Man, plus film preservationist Grover Crisp
April 12, 2014
At this year’s Autumn Events, a slanted look at Carol Reed’s archetypal film noir, plus a few questions for a world expert in film restoration.
Reconsidering Funny Face:
An Illustrated Essay
April 2, 2014
On the fashionable/unfashionable style of Stanley Donen’s 1957 musical. Plus, a digression on Rouben Mamoulian’s neglected Silk Stockings.
Bringing Up Baby (1938)
April 1, 2014
Previously at the Wellington Film Society: Howard Hawks’s riot act.
Physical Evidence: Lost & Found: American Treasures from the New Zealand Film Archive
November 19, 2013
New to DVD: John Ford, Alfred Hitchcock, plus other silent era discoveries from New Zealand’s nitrate treasure trove.
Breaking Bad’s bad habits
October 14, 2013
When plot takes precedence over all else. Plus, its much-needed antithesis, Rectify.
The Joyless Street (1925)
September 10, 2013
Previously at the Wellington Film Society: G.W. Pabst’s Weimar Republic landmark accompanied by the Joyless Orchestra.