Crisp Criticism - "Phantom Thread", "Song to Song", "Princess Cyd", "Wonderstruck"

by

Julien Faddoul

Phantom Thread ***

A renowned dressmaker in 1950's London, has his fastidious life disrupted by a young, strong-willed woman who becomes his muse and lover.

Unsettling, accentuated, circuitously recounted (as if it were some kind of affected biopic) depiction of both the benevolence and the non-conformity of intimate relationships. Despite the setting, it’s clearly its director’s most personal film yet, and one with equal measure prickly distress and stunning humanity.

wd – Paul Thomas Anderson

pd – Mark Tildesley

m – Johnny Greenwood

ed – Dylan Tichenor

cos – Mark Bridges

p – Megan Ellison, Paul Thomas Anderson, JoAnne Sellar, Daniel Lupi

Cast: Daniel Day-Lewis, Vicky Krieps, Lesley Manville, Richard Graham, Harriet Samson Harris, Camilla Rutherford, Jane Perry

Song to Song **

Two intersecting love triangles: Obsession and betrayal amongst musicians in Austin, TX.

Malick’s fourth piece in his tetralogy of semi-autobiographical dissections, with this one working as a companion to the previous Knight of Cups (2016). While that film was stale and vacuous, the result this time is far more potent, rendering the music scene of Austin, Texas as the Garden of Eden and its doomed love affair as one between Adam, Eve and The Devil. Typically, the craft on display is immaculate, in particular the sound design.

wd – Terrence Malick

ph – Emmanuel Lubezki

pd – Jack Fisk

ed – Brian Berdan A.J. Edwards Keith Fraase

cos – Jacqueline West

p – Nicolas Gonda, Sarah Green, Ken Kao

Cast: Michael Fassbender, Ryan Gosling, Rooney Mara, Natalie Portman, Cate Blanchett, Holly Hunter, Val Kilmer, Bérénice Marlohe, Heather Kafka, Austin Amelio, Tom Sturridge, Dora Madison, Angela Bettis, Callie Hernandez, Linda Emond, Patti Smith, Lykke Li, Savannah Welch, Brady Coleman, Natalie Makenna, Dana Falconberry, Olivia Grace Applegate, Louanne Stephens, Richard Dillard, Nina Varano, Batan Silva

Princess Cyd **

Eager to escape her small town life, a 16-year-old soccer girl visits her novelist aunt in Chicago over the summer. While there, she falls for a girl who works in a coffee shop.

Low-key, sometimes to a fault, but acute and well-acted female drama about people in various states of transition.

wd – Stephen Cone

ph – Zoe White

pd – Amanda Brinton

m – Heather McIntosh

ed – Christopher Gotschall

cos – Kate Grube

p – Grace Hahn, Stephen Cone, Bryan Hart

Cast: Rebecca Spence, Jessie Pinnick, Malic White, James Vincent Meredith, Matthew Quattrocki, Tyler Ross

Wonderstruck ***

The story of a young deaf boy in the Midwest in the 1970s is told simultaneously with a tale about a young deaf girl in New York from fifty years prior as they both seek the same mysterious connection.

An endeavor for its intellective director to adapt a children’s book makes for one idiosyncratic experience. Like all his films, it is about finding your way to the people who understand you; visuals, music and performance are all unquestionably striking.

d – Todd Haynes

w – Brian Selznick   (Based on the Book by Brian Selznick)

ph – Edward Lachman

pd – Mark Friedberg

m – Carter Burwell

ed – Affonso Gonçalves

cos – Sandy Powell

p – Christine Vachon, Pamela Koffler, John Sloss

Cast: Oakes Fegley, Millicent Simmonds, Julianne Moore, Michelle Williams, Jaden Michael, Cory Michael Smith, Tom Noonan, Amy Hargreaves, James Urbaniak