Film Journal

 The Card Counter (2021).  Another beautifully realized story of isolation, depression and attempts at redemption by writer/director Paul Schrader.  Like most of Schrader's movies this is Bressonian in its minimalist style (I highly recommend Schrader's book Transcendental Style in Film: Ozu, Bresson, Dreyer) and impressively played by Oscar Isaac, Tiffany Haddish and Tye Sheridan in ugly casinos all over the country, with Isaac and Sheridan sharing painful memories of American soldiers torturing prisoners while the two plan ways to deal with the worst of the torturers. 

Afternoon of a Faun: Tanaquil Le Clerq (2013).  Nancy Buirski's film, originally done for the American Masters series on PBS) chronicles follows the life of NYC Ballet star and Balanchine's fourth wife through her dedication to ballet and her bout with polio at the age of 27, after which she would never walk again and devoted her life to teaching and philanthropy.  There is not enough film of La Clerq dancing but what is available is lovely, especially Jerome Robbins's Afternoon of a Faun and the last movement of Balanchine's Western Symphony, in both of which she is partnered with Jacques d'Amboise.

Frederick Wiseman's Boxing Gym (2010).  Another fascinating documentary by Wiseman, with no narration or identification of those who appear except, in this case, owner Richard Lord of Lord's gym in Austin, Texas.  There's a lot of training detail, especially the importance of footwork, reminding one of Wiseman's films about The Paris Opera Ballet and American Ballet Theatre.  The gym is open to all sexes and all ages and we get a number of interesting discussions about why people are there, almost all of whom do not intend to become professionals.  

Denis Villeneuve's Sicario (2015).  Another film about American agencies battling the Mexican drug cartel, with the usual theme of how one has to be as ruthless as the gangs in order to bring them down.  There is one effectively choreographed gun battle at a traffic jam on the Mexico/U.S. border but otherwise it is mostly confusion about who is doing what to whom and why.  Villeneuve went on to do the new version of Dune while writer Taylor Sheridan is now working mostly in television (Yellowstone and 1883).