Snobbin: Beautiful Trash in the Pop Culture Gutter

At times beautiful, at others devastating, Blue Heron is an accomplished study of how mental health challenges change a family. Sophy Romvari explores the limits of memory, how we process trauma, and the realization that solutions might slip through our fingers. Her twists and tonal shifts are masterful. Sasha's (Eylul Guven) childhood memories of her brother, Jeremy, (Edik Beddoes) demonstrate the limits of human connection, but the way Romvari traces the threads that hold her family together hold out hope for much more. In telling the story of a brother's mental breakdown and his family's futile attempts to help him, Romvari, strives to create a space for healing. She shifts characters and memories within her narrative, so that she can show the difficulties of understanding other people and how they navigate the world. Blue Heron points out the failings of the mental health industry while ultimately showing that some problems might  be unsolvable. From her vantage point...

With a script by Samuel Fuller, this hardboiled Douglas Sirk noir does not disappoint if you like crisp dialogue, tight pacing, and disillusioned characters.

Joan Micklin Silver's breezy "hit" comedy relies more on the societal expectations for human connection than the fairy tale "will they, won't they" of the average rom com.

Jack Lemmon plays bamboozled straight man to Walter Matthau's audacious and award-winning turn as ambulance chasing lawyer, "Whiplash" Willie Gingrich, as they bargain for a huge settlement. Another Wilder gem that engages and surprises; however, the film doesn't allow Lemmon to let loose as much as I'd like.

Sight and Sound 2021 #93. Senegalese magic realism meets the French New Wave in the guise of a lover's journey.

I watched another film from the 2022 Sight and Sound Critics' poll: # 52, Chantal Akerman's 1976 documentary, where she reads letters from her mother in Belgium over footage of her new home, New York City. The distance between them feels more palpable with each letter.