Maria: Pablo Larrain’s final piece of his triptych lets the audience in on the realization that each woman we’ve seen—from 2016’s Jackie to now—has been delivering their own mad scene inside prisons not of their own designs. 
In the case of Maria Callas, film and celebrity blend to form her own unique landscape where reality and the drama of opera assemble her life before her eyes. Angelina Jolie’s face is the conduit of memory and accesses a deep stillness I’ve…

I have my nitpicks—the choreography reeeally didn’t do it for me 75% of the time (except “What Is This Feeling” she ate), I think the film could’ve been a total knockout if we did some trimming for the sake of brevity—but who am I kidding? This was my favorite musical for my whole teenage-hood. 13 year old Michael would’ve been shitting himself seeing this. 

I felt transported right back to when I first heard the cast album and saw the…

Criterion Challenge 2025
51. A film by a director whose work you have not seen before (Truffaut)

Jules: Catherine never does anything halfway. She's an irresistible force that can't be stopped. Her harmony is never shaken because... she knows she is always innocent.
Jim: You speak of her as if she was a queen.
Jules: She is a queen. Let me be frank. She's not especially beautiful or intelligent or sincere... but she is a real woman. And that is…