THE ACADEMIC HACK.

Writings by Michael Sicinski.

Cinema Scope Magazine: 1999-2024

I. The Common Moviegoer

(the current rankings; recent reviews and reports)

 

Current Reviews on Letterboxd

Obscure Alternatives, my Patreon pay site

 

Films Seen 2024

New Releases Seen 2024 (with vague categorical rankings)

 

Films Seen 2023

New Releases Seen 2023

Films of 2023 ranked precisely -- a Letterboxd list

Feature Films of 2023 ranked -- another Letterboxd list

2023 Toronto International Film Festival coverage (for Cinema Scope)

2023 TIFF Wavelengths report (for Mubi)

2023 Light Matter report (for In Review Online)

2023 Prismatic Ground report (for Film Comment)

 

Films Seen 2022

New Releases Seen 2022

Films of 2022 ranked precisely -- a Letterboxd list

Feature Films of 2022 ranked -- another Letterbox list

2022 Crossroads Festival report for In Review Online

 

2021 / 2020 / 2019 / 2018 / 2017 / 2016 / 2015 / 2014 / 2013 / 2012 / 2011 / 2010 / 2009 / 2008 / 2007 / 2006 / 2005/ 2004 / 2003 / 2002 / 2001 material

 

A General Introduction to What Goes On Here

Some Axioms

Nothing but Top Ten Lists (in progress - 1900-2018; ADDED: Short Fuse [1992])

Notes on Older Films (all future notes will appear on Letterboxd)

 

II. Lines of Light

(experimental film and video, by maker; festival reports)

 

- LAURIE ANDERSON (Heart of a Dog, for the Nashville Scene)

- BRUCE BAILLIE (for the Nashville Scene)

- CRAIG BALDWIN (interview about Mock Up on Mu, for Cinema Scope)

- STEPHANIE BARBER (on shipfilm and Dogs, for Fandor)

- ROBERT BEAVERS (for the Nashville Scene)

- JAMES BENNING 1 (RR, for the Nashville Scene)

- JAMES BENNING 2 (California Trilogy on DVD, for Cineaste)

- JOSHUA BONNETTA (for Cinema Scope)

- LOUISE BOURQUE (for the Images Festival - essay on p. 41)

- STAN BRAKHAGE (for the Nashville Scene)

- STEPHEN BROOMER (Brébeuf, for Broomer essay collection)

- OLIVIA CIUMMO (for Brooklyn Rail)

- SHIRLEY CLARKE (The Connection, for the Nashville Scene)

- MARTHA COLBURN (Messages series, for Ultra Dogme)

- NAZLI DINÇEL (for Cléo)

- NATHANIEL DORSKY (The Return, for Mubi)

- DUKE & BATTERSBY (Here Is Everything, Hallwalls exhibition)

- DZIGA-VERTOV GROUP (for Mubi)

- HEINZ EMIGHOLZ 1(Two Museums, for Reverse Shot)

- HEINZ EMIGHOLZ 2 ("Architecture and Beyond," for Mubi)

- KEVIN JEROME EVERSON 1 (Park Lanes, for Cinema Scope)

- KEVIN JEROME EVERSON 2 (Second Run DVD set, for Cineaste)

- VALIE EXPORT (Touch Cinema and counter-surveillance, for Discourse)

- HARUN FAROCKI (obituary, for RogerEbert.com)

- LUKE FOWLER (for Cinema Scope)

- SU FRIEDRICH (Sink or Swim, on The Cinephiliacs)

- DOMINIC GAGNON (of the North, for Reverse Shot)

- DORA GARCÍA (Segunda vez, for Cinema Scope)

- JA'TOVIA GARY (The Giverny Document, for Cinema Scope)

- DAVID GATTEN 1 (mostly on the Byrd films, for Cinema Scope)

- DAVID GATTEN 2 (The Extravagant Shadows, for Cargo)

- JOHN GIANVITO (interview about Profit Motive and the Whispering Wind, for Cinema Scope)

- PHILIPPE GRANDRIEUX (Meurtrière, for Reverse Shot)

- VINCENT GRENIER (for Moving Image Source)

- KARISSA HAHN (for Fandor)

- CHRISTOPHER HARRIS (for Cinema Scope)

- PHILIP HOFFMAN (All Fall Down, for Cinema Scope)

- MIKE HOOLBOOM (Public Lighting, Hallwalls exhibition)

- SKY HOPINKA (interview on maƚni, for Mubi)

- PETER HUTTON (obituary / career span, for Cinema Scope)

- KEN JACOBS (on recent 3D films, for Mubi)

- JIM JENNINGS (obituary / career span, for Cinema Scope)

- WILLIAM E. JONES (interview about Tearoom, for Cinema Scope)

- JON JOST (Speaking Directly, for the Nashville Scene)

- SHAMBHAVI KAUL (for Cinema Scope)

- PATRICK KEILLER (Robinson in Ruins, for Cinema Scope)

- LYNN MARIE KIRBY (the Latent Light Excavation series, for Cinema Scope)

- HARMONY KORINE (Trash Humpers with Mike D'Angelo, for the Nashville Scene)

- GEORGE KUCHAR (The Devil's Cleavage / Hold Me While I'm Naked, for the Nashville Scene)

- SALOMÉ LAMAS (Eldorado XXI, for Cinema Scope)

- OWEN LAND (Dialogues, for Cinema Scope)

- MARK LEWIS (Invention and others, for Cinema Scope)

- ROSE LOWDER (Bouquets 11-20, for Mubi)

- MARTÍN / PERANSON (La Última Película, for the Nashville Scene)

- NORMAN McLAREN (Neighbours and Begone Dull Care, for Criterion Channel)

- BILL MORRISON (The Great Flood, for the Nashville Scene)

- PAT O'NEILL (Messages series, for Ultra Dogme)

- JENNI OLSON (The Royal Road, for Cinema Scope)

- ULRIKE OTTINGER (overview, for Cinema Scope)

- PETER BO RAPPMUND (Topophilia, for Cinema Scope)

- JENNIFER TODD REEVES (When It Was Blue, for Cinema Scope)

- DANI RESTACK (Hallwalls exhibition)

- DANI and SHEILAH RESTACK (interview about Strangely Ordinary This Devotion, for Cinema Scope)

- NICOLAS REY (autrement, la Molussie, for Cinema Scope)

- BEN RIVERS 1 (Slow Action, for Gallery TWP / TIFF)

- BEN RIVERS 2 (his short films, for Cinema Scope) (also available in Czech)

- RIVERS / RUSSELL (interview about A Spell to Ward Off the Darkness, for Cinema Scope)

- MICHAEL ROBINSON (for Cinema Scope)

- JAY ROSENBLATT (Phantom Limb / overview, for Fandor)

- CELIA ROWLSON-HALL (Ma, for Mubi)

- BEN RUSSELL (Let Each One Go Where He May, for Cinema Scope)

- LYNNE SACHS (for the Nashville Scene)

- SYLVIA SCHEDELBAUER (for Cinema Scope)

- FERN SILVA (for Cinema Scope)

- MICHAEL SNOW (Wavelength and Heidegger, for Qui Parle)

- PHIL SOLOMON (Crossroad and Rehearsals for Retirement, for Cinema Scope)

- JOSHUA GEN SOLONDZ (overview, for Cinema Scope)

- ERIKO SONODA (for Cinema Scope)

- SCOTT STARK (The Realist, for Mubi)

- DEBORAH STRATMAN (Last Things, for Cinema Scope)

- PAIGE TAUL (Prismatic Ground review, for Ultra Dogme)

- PETER WATKINS (The Freethinker, for Fandor)

- BLAKE WILLIAMS (interview about PROTOTYPE, for Cinema Scope)

- CAVEH ZAHEDI (In the Bathtub of the World and festival politics)

 

-"A Catalogue of Future Mistakes" - Best Experimental Films 2010-2019 (for Mubi)

- Luminous Decades: Fifty Years of Canyon Cinema (for Cargo)

- 2014: The Deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner - Documents of Barbarism (for Mubi)

- 2014 TIFF Wavelengths Preview (for Mubi)

- 2013 TIFF Wavelengths Preview (for Mubi)

- 2013 TIFF Wavelengths: Three Masters (for The Dissolve)

- 2013 Images Festival (for Cinema Scope)

- 2013: The Wrong Man - In Memory of Sunil Tripathi (for Cargo)

- 2012 Ann Arbor Film Festival (for Mubi)

- 2011 TIFF Wavelengths Preview (for Mubi)

- 2010 TIFF Wavelengths Preview (for Mubi)

- 2009 TIFF Wavelengths Preview: Part One and Part Two (for Mubi)

- Google Scholar's selection of my academic and para-academic work

 

 

III. The Funky Diegesis

(longer pieces on narrative cinema, documentaries, &c.)

 

- ALEJANDRO ADAMS - Amity (cs)

- MAREN ADE - Everyone Else (mubi)

- WES ANDERSON - Fantastic Mr. Fox (cs)

- MICHAEL APTED - The "Up" films (fandor)

- THOMAS ARSLAN 1 - In The Shadows (reverse shot)

- THOMAS ARSLAN 2 - Gold (fandor)

- JEANNE BALIBAR - Wonders in the Suburbs (mubi)

- ANNA BILLER - The Love Witch (cs)

- BERTRAND BONELLO - overview (reverse shot)

- BONG JOON-HO - Snowpiercer (cs)

- ANDREW BUJALSKI - Computer Chess (nash)

- JANE CAMPION 1 - Top of the Lake (cs)

- JANE CAMPION 2 - The Power of the Dog (cs)

- DAMIEN CHAZELLE- Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench (nash)

- DENIS CÔTÉ - Vic + Flo Saw a Bear (cs)

- TERENCE DAVIES - The Deep Blue Sea (cs)

- MANOEL DE OLIVEIRA 1 - The Strange Case of Angelica (cs)

- LAV DIAZ - A Lullaby to the Sorrowful Mystery (cs)

- MATI DIOP - short films (criterion)

- BRUNO DUMONT 1 - Li'l Quinquin (cs)

- BRUNO DUMONT 2 - Camille Claudel 1915 (cs)

- RICHARD DUTCHER - overview (cs)

- ELOY ENCISO - Arraianos (reverse shot)

- JEAN EUSTACHE - overview (cs)

- ASGHAR FARHADI - A Separation (cs)

- RAINER WERNER FASSBINDER - World on a Wire (nash)

- PASCALE FERRAN - Lady Chatterly (cineaste)

- ROBERT GARDNER - Forest of Bliss (fandor)

- ALEKSEI GERMAN - Hard to Be a God (reverse shot)

- NIKOLAUS GEYRHALTER 1 - Abendland and Danube Hospital (mubi)

- NIKOLAUS GEYRHALTER 2 - Homo Sapiens (village voice)

- NIKOLAUS GEYRHALTER 3 - Over The Years (mubi)

- PETER GREENAWAY - A Zed & Two Noughts / overview (reverse shot)

- ALAIN GUIRAUDIE - overview (thessaloniki film festival)

- DEBRA GRANIK - Winter's Bone (cargo)

- VALESKA GRISEBACH - Longing (mubi)

- GROUPE DZIGA-VERTOV - overview (mubi)

- PAUL HAGGIS - most of my review of Crash (cineaste)

- HAMAGUCHI RYUSUKE - Happy Hour (cs)

- MAHAMET-SALEH HAROUN - A Screaming Man (cs)

- MARY HARRON - The Notorious Bettie Page (cineaste)

- HAL HARTLEY 1 - interview about Ned Rifle (filmmaker mag)

- HAL HARTLEY 2 - overview (metrograph)

- TODD HAYNES - Mildred Pierce (nash)

- AMY HECKERLING - Vamps (cs)

- THOMAS HEISE - overview / Heimat is a Space in Time (cs)

- BENJAMIN HEISENBERG - The Robber (cs)

- CHRISTOPH HOCHHÄUSLER - The City Below (reverse shot)

- AGNIESZKA HOLLAND - Burning Bush (fandor)

- HONG SANG-SOO - A Tale of Cinema (cs)

- SOPHIE HYDE - 52 Tuesdays (fandor)

- SPIKE JONZE - Where the Wild Things Are (cs)

- MANI KAUL - obituary / Duvidha (cs)

- AKI KAURISMÄKI - Le Havre (criterion) (also available in Greek)

- ABBAS KIAROSTAMI - Certified Copy (mubi)

- ULRICH KÖHLER 1 - In My Room (cs)

- ULRICH KÖHLER 2 - Bungalow (mubi)

- ULRICH KÖHLER / HENNER WINCKLER - A Voluntary Year (mubi)

- JUHO KUOSMANEN - The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Mäki (mubi)

- PABLO LARRAÍN - No (nash)

- DAVID LYNCH - Twin Peaks: The Return (filmmaker mag)

- LECH MAJEWSKI - The Mill and the Cross (nash)

- GABRIEL MASCARO - August Winds (reverse shot)

- STEVE MCQUEEN - The Small Axe films (cs)

- AVI MOGRABI - Between Fences / overview (mubi)

- MIKE OTT - Littlerock (cs)

- NICOLÁS PEREDA - overview (reverse shot)

- ALEX ROSS PERRY - interview about The Color Wheel (cs)

- CHRISTIAN PETZOLD - Jerichow (cs)

- MAURICE PIALAT - A nos amours. (av club)

- JOAQUIN PINTO - What Now? Remind Me (fandor)

- LAURA POITRAS - The Oath (nash)

- MATTHEW PORTERFIELD - Putty Hill (cargo)

- CRISTI PUIU 1 - Three Interpretation Exercises (fandor)

- CRISTI PUIU 2 - Aurora (fandor)

- MOHAMMAD RASOULOF - overview (cs)

- SATYAJIT RAY - The Home and the World (reverse shot)

- KELLY REICHARDT 1 - Wendy & Lucy (cineaste)

- KELLY REICHARDT 2 - River of Grass (av club)

- ALAIN RESNAIS - Wild Grass (nash)

- BOOTS RILEY - Sorry to Bother You (nash)

- JACQUES RIVETTE - The Duchess of Langeais (cineaste)

- GIANFRANCO ROSI - Sacro GRA (cs)

- FRANK V. ROSS - Tiger Tail in Blue (cs)

- JEAN ROUCH - overview (mubi)

- DAN SALLITT - The Unspeakable Act (cs)

- ANGELA SCHANELEC - overview (mubi)

- SHIN SANG-OK - A Flower in Hell (reverse shot)

- AKIHIKO SHIOTA - Wet Woman in the Wind (mubi)

- ABDERRAHMANE SISSAKO - Bamako (cs)

- ALEXANDER SOKUROV - Alexandra (cs)

- TODD SOLONDZ 1 - Life During Wartime (nash)

- TODD SOLONDZ 2 - Dark Horse (nash)

- TODD SOLONDZ 3 - Wiener-Dog / interview (filmmaker mag)

- PAOLO SORRENTINO - overview (cs)

- MARIA SPETH - Mr. Bachmann and His Class (cs)

- JAN SVANKMAJER - Lunacy (cs)

- TERESA VILLAVERDE - Colo (reverse shot)

- LARS VON TRIER 1 - Nymphomaniac (cs)

- LARS VON TRIER 2 - The Kingdon (cs)

- THE WACHOWSKIS / TYKWER - Cloud Atlas (cs)

- KÔJI WAKAMATSU - United Red Army (fandor)

- FREDERICK WISEMAN - At Berkeley (fandor)

- YASMIN AHMAD - overview (reverse shot)

- YING LIANG - When Night Falls (cs)

- RAMON ZÜRCHER - The Strange Little Cat (cs)

- ANDREI ZVYAGINTSEV - Elena (reverse shot)

 

- All my work for Cinema Scope

- All my work for Mubi

- All my work for the Nashville Scene

 

IV: Show and Tell

(notes on my film programming work)

 

-Full List Here (in progress)

 

V. F*** It! We'll Do It Live!

(podcasts, q&a's, video stuff)

 

-Q&A with Ja'Tovia Gary for the 2019 Houston Cinema Arts Festival

-discussion with Sky Hopinka and Simon Liu (HCAF summer 2020 presentation)

-Peter Labuza made me sound less stuttery on The Cinephiliacs

-I blather like an idiot about NYFF Currents on the Cannes I Kick It? podcast

-I joined the gentlemen of Filmspotting to discuss political resistance in cinema.

-I was really out of it when I appeared on Craig D. Lindsey's muhf***in podcast.

 

VI. Viewer Mail (contact me here)

 

     

NOTE: I am the sole copyright holder of all written materials published on this site.  Materials previously published elsewhere which are reprinted, partially or in full, on this site are under copyright through agreement between myself and the original publishers.  In other words, don't plagiarize me.  I am not a big proponent of "intellectual property" and I am actually in favor of a certain amount of theft.  But if you are going to steal: (a) steal from better than me; and (b) steal creatively.  Also, despite my institutional affiliations, I am the sole party responsible for material posted on this website.  Also, note to family members -- sorry about all the swearing.