By - Gareth Jones For fans of deadpan Finnish humor, Aki Kaurismäki, class romance stories Few filmmakers have had such a consistent and distinctive career as Aki Kaurismäki.  For over 40 years he has been entertaining audiences with his dark, Finnish stories of pain and suffering blended magically with his deadpan humor.  He has many influences (Jean-Luc Godard, Robert Bresson, Buster Keaton), but he makes distinctive Finnish films.  His career […]

By - Gareth Jones For fans of Peter Weir, War films, Mel Gibson early work, Australian history It is astonishing that there had not been a major film about the events at Gallipoli and the contributions of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (or ANZAC for short)  to World War I before Peter Weir’s film in 1981.  It is considered one of the most important moments in Australian history […]

By - Gareth Jones For fans of fantastically absurd and surreal cinema, feminist and adult themes, Emma Stone, Yorgos Lanthimos I finally saw Poor Things and went in with high expectations.  It has been sweeping the awards with Emma Stone getting the prize for her full-bodied, accomplished, and moving performance.  It is a tour-de-force and will most likely result in her second Oscar.  I was mesmerized by her portrayal of […]

By - Gareth Jones For fans of slow bank robbery films, philosophical life questioning films, Argentinian cinema The Delinquents is Rodrigo Moreno’s seventh feature film and it is one of the most accomplished, confident films I have seen in some time.  He is part of an incredible group of filmmakers from Argentina making challenging and important cinema.  This film asks the audience to have patience, but the audience is generously […]

By - Gareth Jones For fans of Christian Petzold, modern angst with a bit of romance, meta-conversation about the apocalypse With ten feature length films and several made for television films, Christian Petzold has established himself as one of the premier German directors working today.  He is consistent in his output and critics and audiences have built up expectations of his work.  Afire is a brilliant continuation of this ascent […]

By - Gareth Jones For fans of Chilean film and history, stunning black/white cinematography, genre-bending cinema Pablo Larrain is a force to be reckoned with as a writer/director and as a producer.  He may now be Chile’s greatest filmmaker.  He has written and directed multiple films with the great Gael Garcia Bernal including No, Neruda, and 2019’s Ema.  He has also turned his vision to female icons in the United […]

By - Gareth Jones For fans of modern British horror stories, portmanteau horror films, Martin Freeman I must admit, I am susceptible to the portmanteau or anthology horror film sub-genre.  Last week on Sleep In Cinema we talked about Tales from the Hood, a fantastic version that took the sub-genre and wonderfully constructed it through a black lens.  Earlier examples include 1945’s Dead of Night, 1963’s Black Sabbath, all iterations […]

By - Gareth Jones Released as a pseudo-documentary two years before The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and cited as a direct influence on The Blair Witch Project, the legacy of The Legend of Boggy Creek is a triumph of ingenuity, persistence, and marketing.  It is still worth a watch, especially as a precedent for so many other films from mocumentaries like Incident at Loch Ness or fake documentary/horror films like the […]

By - Gareth Jones For fans of Alfred Hitckcock, early sound films, Edmund Gwenn Released in 1930, The Skin Game was Alfred Hitchcock’s fourth feature film in the still new sound era of film.  For multiple reasons I had not watched this film yet. I watched the majority of his films as an undergraduate, and when I worked at the old Foothill Video store, I tried to watch all of […]