Blu-ray Reviews: Under the Skin, Nymphomaniac, Volumes I and II, and Criterion 2x: Picnic at Hanging Rock and Red River

by Tony Dayoub

I'm playing catch-up with some of the Blu-rays I've been asked to review recently. So here's a selection of summer releases that's kind of evenly divided between experimental narratives and a couple of classics from the Criterion Collection. (One could argue that Picnic at Hanging Rock belongs in both categories.) Keep in mind the 50% off Criterion sale at Barnes and Noble is in its last week (it ends on 7/28).

(Except where listed, all screen captures are my own. Click on each photo to see it in its actual size.)

NYFF11 Movie Review: Melancholia

by Tony Dayoub

As the end of the world approaches, sensible Claire (Charlotte Gainsbourg) sits with her sister Justine (Kirsten Dunst) fretting about the way they should meet their doom. "You want us to all be together on the terrace, singing a song, surrounded by candles?" Justine asks. "You want to know what I think of your idea? It's shit. We should all meet at the toilet."

"Sometimes I really hate you," says Claire.

I'm not being glib when I say that Lars von Trier's apocalyptic Melancholia essentially boils down to this scene. It's suspenseful, laced with acrid black humor, and it explores the way each of us might face our own mortality — albeit in rather extreme circumstances — through one of the most realistic depictions of a relationship between two sisters I've yet to see onscreen. Von Trier being who he is — half-genius, half-overgrown prankster — Melancholia is reflective of both his propensity for staging gorgeous cinematic tableaux (like the ones depicted in a couple of these stills) and his tendency for capturing realism through improvisation and inappropriate humor.

NYFF09 Movie Review: Antichrist

by Tony Dayoub



There have been movies that continue to intrude on my psyche weeks after first having seen them. Movies that despite my initial negative opinion so surprised me with their subtle way of insinuating themselves into my thoughts that I couldn't help but reassess them. But there's rarely anything subtle about Lars von Trier's Antichrist. The film is like a bully that bludgeons you into submission when it really doesn't need to. Lars von Trier is known for his desire to take risks. Sometimes they pay off, like in the wonderful theatrical staging of Dogville (2003). But Antichrist betrays its director's lack of confidence in his own proven ability to move you.