REVIEW: L’inconnu du lac [Stranger by the Lake] [2013]

“I won’t get tired so fast” Lust is a powerful drug that makes us do stupid things. We mistake it for love, brainwashing ourselves into thinking truths about the object of our affection don’t matter because what you have together is special. Did he treat his ex badly? Is he a jerk unwilling to see his obvious faults yet too much of a fairy tale embodiment of absolute beauty for you to care? How far would you go to be with you’re infatuation once he smiles at you? How much…

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REVIEW: Dans la maison [In the House] [2012]

“What’s a perfect family’s house like?” What happens inside one’s home is sacred. Your skeletons are exposed, carefully manufactured façades rest for the night, and pent up frustrations boil to the surface in a cathartic outburst of unchecked emotion and fatigued spirit. This is why voyeurism has such a psychologically sensual appeal in its incomparable way of satisfying one’s desires, fantasies, and curiosity. When our lives hit a rut of dull monotony we find ourselves searching for outside entertainment—through books, movies, videogames, hobbies, or that unavoidable satisfaction of stumbling upon…

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REVIEW: לבנון [Lebanon] [2009]

“Man is steel. The tank is only iron.” The First Lebanon War began in June 1982 when the Government of Israel launched a military operation against the PLO and their Syrian and Muslim Lebanese allies. Rather than tell that story in a broad, war epic way, writer director Samuel Maoz decided to encapsulate the fear, horror, and chaos by creating a story around an Israeli foursome on a simple mission, the tank support for a platoon dispatched to search a hostile town. לבנון [Lebanon] ends up being the Rear Window…

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REVIEW: Rear Window [1954]

“Call it female intuition” After seeing Alfred Hitchcock’s classic Rear Window for the second time, I am even more convinced that the broo-haha surrounding Disturbia and its ripping it off was uncalled for. Besides the premise of a person confined to their window and therefore seeing what they think is a murder, the two could not be more different. This film is one that will never age, whether it be story, acting, or sheer inventiveness in its execution. Only Hitchcock could build the suspense as high as he does for…

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REVIEW: Disturbia [2007]

“Coffee and donuts” I understand that the new movie Disturbia is about a person who is unable to leave his room and must look out the window for entertainment. During his peeping sessions, he finds that his neighbor might be a killer and by doing so, tries to get everyone around him to help find out the truth. That premise, and that premise alone, is the ONLY thing that likens this movie to Alfred Hitchcock’s masterpiece of tension and technical genius, Rear Window. Director D.J. Caruso has taken this script,…

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