The Filmic Five

Your Weekly Film Update By Critic and Film Scholar Jack Hanley

I. Film I Am Loving This Week

While ashamedly late to this visceral, gut-punch of a feature debut, I simply cannot stop thinking about Molly Manning Walker's masterwork HOW TO HAVE SEX- winner of Cannes Un Certain Regard and newly streaming on MUBI.

I will NOT reveal much but to tell you that I LOVED this film- which should be required viewing in every high-school and university. HOW TO HAVE SEX follows a trio of British sixteen-year-old best friends thrust into new relationships, sexual pressures and self-discovery during a post-exams, rite-of-passage holiday abroad at the party resort of Malia in Crete.

This film shares a naturalistic and raw aesthetic with some other masterworks in the Neo-realist coming of age canon- namely FISH TANK and THIRTEEN- and deftly walks the line between sensationalism and moralism with real nuance and pathos. The assuredness of this first-time director is astonishing, and I am literally HAUNTED by the lead performance of Mia McKenna-Bruce.

HOW TO HAVE SEX is NOT a horror film- but my God does it often feel like one. Raw, vital, and timely, I concur with the sentiment of critic Mick LaSalle- "If you have an idealized memory of your teenage years, see this movie to remember what it was actually like." Streaming now on MUBI.

II. Film Podcast I Am Loving This Week

Did you know that Roy Kent has a movie podcast?!

If you are a fan of the lovely and hilarious Brett Goldstein (yes, of Ted Lasso fame), follow him off the pitch and into the theater for his charming comedy interview podcast Films To Be Buried With with Brett Goldstein. Each episode features the bawdy British comedian and cinephile asking film-related questions to a special celebrity guest- and, ahem, EVEN if at times many of the recurring questions are very similar to an earlier film interview series called 20 Questions and a Song Request with Jack Hanley, you simply cannot afford to miss this charming and irreverent series about life, death, and ALL the movies in between.

I ADORE Brett and this brilliant podcast that NEVER fails to bring a smile to my face- whether he is poorly convincing his friend to give SKINAMARINK a chance or asking you to reveal your "troubling boners / worrying wide-ons" sexy film moment. Find Films To Be Buried With everywhere you find your favorite podcasts. His recent episode with William H. Macy was a particularly great one.

III. Throwback Interview I Am Remembering This Week

In preparation for my upcoming film interview podcast The History of YOU In 5 Films, I have been revisiting the archives of an earlier film interview series I created back in 2010 called 20 Questions and a Song Request with Jack Hanley.

The format was simple: one cinephile, twenty film-related questions, and a song of their choice. I was so delighted to revisit the time I sat down with the legendary screen actress and eternal pop icon Mamie Van Doren to talk celluloid feminism, replicants, and the genius of Bjork. Mamie was- and at 93 still is- a national treasure. Check it out here via my other film site, Kinophilia.

20 Questions & A Song Request with Jack Hanley: Mamie Van Doren

As Emerson aptly noted, “…a man may be known by the books he reads”; at Kinophilia, we hold that we are best known, perhaps, by the films…

MediumKINOPHILIA

IV. Criterion Closet Selections I Am Gushing Over This Week

If you have been enjoying the fascinating creative swings of Season 3 of The Bear as much as I have, then you DEFINITELY should check out the most recent guest in the Criterion closet- the marvelous Ayo Edebiri (who directed the standout Season 3 episode "Napkins"). The actor and passionate cinephile shares her love of THIEF (making her my soulmate); praises the work of Juzo Itami (whom she calls “the G.O.A.T.”) and his wife, Nobuko Miyamoto; and talks about the African American surrealist imagery in TO SLEEP WITH ANGER.

V. Film Quote I Am Loving This Week

"Make them laugh, make them cry, and hack to laughter. What do people go to the theatre for? An emotional exercise. I am a servant of the people. I have never forgotten that."- Mary Pickford

That's all for this week. Get out there and watch something AMAZING!

Jack Hanley is a Boulder-based film scholar, podcaster, and critic. He is a programmer with the Chicago Underground Film Festival and Boulder International Film Festival. He is one-half of Blindspotting: A Film Discovery Podcast and Flicker with Jack and Scott on YouTube. Find him at Kinophilia on Medium and at HanleyOnFilm.com