Popular reviews

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  Review by Sally Jane Black 2

  About ten different stories are tangled into this brief feature, and they all feel undertold. In some ways, it's frustrating, because the story was compelling, and in other ways, it adds to the magic of the overall story we see. This latter makes this flaw feel intentional, and therefore, easily forgivable. It is in pursuit of something a little whimsical and surreal and different, and the filmmakers show the visual competence that shines through in Losing Ground, wielding the colors of their costumes against the walls of green around them or capturing a look a touch a shake or using the walls and doorways to frame people so they look trapped or just... being aware that what we see is important.

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  Review by Maria ★★★★

  This was such a strange, fun and fascinating film. Both haunting and haunted, it tells the (fairy)tale of three brothers, down on their financial luck, who get hired to fix up a kooky old woman's house. There's a lot more going on, of course, and Kathleen Collins had a great hand.

  Both this and Losing Ground are leaving Criterion at the end of the month & both are very much worth your time.

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  Review by dnealx6 ★★★★

  The ghosts that haunt and the ghosts that help and the ghosts that do neither and both

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  Review by Andampers ★★★½ 2

  A story of three brothers. Jose is the cute one. Felipe is superstitious, a meathead. Victor, the eldest, is both ringleader and peace maker. They are haunted, in a companionate way, by their father, played by the roving camera, to which the brothers make occasional direct address.

  They were raised in a graveyard with a handmade sign. They have pizza and beer but not next months rent. So an old sunburned Irish widow ("a spooky nun") hires them to renovate her house so that she can have one last ball before she dies. She speaks mysteriously, has funny ideas about lunch (sinful) and ginger ale (mid day refreshment (?), seasoned by ice (???)) and an awkward sense of what makes…

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  Review by Elisha Luckett ★★★★

  “My sons, nuns are never armed with love and compassion. However, you will be safe here for a while. And you have never even been safe before.”

  Kathleen Collins has held a special place for me this year, ever since I watched Losing Ground in June. I finished her beautifully bittersweet book of short stories, Whatever Happened to Interracial Love?, a week or so ago and I loved it. I'm also halfway through Notes from a Black Woman's Diary, and it's my recommendation that you buy both. 

  Needless to say, tonally this film feels as if it could be plucked straight from the pages of either of her anthologies, even though its source material belongs to her lover at the…

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  Review by Rock Hyrax 2

  Already a film and screenwriting professor before she began writing and directing for herself, Kathleen Collins emerged with a fully-formed sensibility with this odd, playful decaying-hudson-valley ghost story. It's an utter tragedy that she died so young and never had a chance to make anything after this and Losing Ground.

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  Review by Mister All Sunday ★★★★½

  "All of my friends are dead".

  It's not as technically sound or narratively focused as Losing Ground. But my god, this made me so irrationally emotional in a way that I can't explain. There's something here about the passage of time and about acting on one's desires, but I'm not entirely sure what. Hopefully my thoughts will be more coherent on a rewatch.

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  Review by truett ★★

  Another one of those movies that I accidentally found on the criterion channel searching for something different. Uh this was strange.
  Really short and actually has a particularly interesting concept. With the dad ghost and talking directly to him. But that idea sorta gets forgotten in the middle. Also the first scene sets the tone right away. It got me interested in a minute. Creative cinematography and fun soundtrack! Malloy was a strange character though. The three brothers just messing around was amusing for the most part. Uh but I didn’t get much from this at all. Didn’t feel like a movie.

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  Review by Filipe Furtado ★★★½

  Immigrant lives and the impossible space between their past and assimilation. Collins great eye and room he gave her characters are very rewarding and I like how this moves in a manner that is expected thematically without never feeling like it is just covering known territory.

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  Review by Greg ★★★½

  A fleeting moment of childish spirits, The Cruz Brothers and Miss Malloy explores the generational differences of the young and unmotivated, and the elderly yearning of being desired.

  Kathleen Collins' amateurish filmmaking style is displayed here, rife with poignant scenes and acts in tandem with the tender, yet introspective, writing she did as well. The film is brimming with life-affirming quotations, questions, and contemplations; we are assured that a masterful writer is at the forefront of conveying their message here.

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  Review by Tyler ★★★½

  the camera as a ghost... what a concept!

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  Review by 🖤

  i wish all movies included people who communicate with ghosts