Queen of Diamonds

Appropriately opens with a shot of the literal Queen of Diamonds card, one whose meaning seems to vary wildly depending on the site you look it up on but regardless is, on a surface level, relating to luxury of sorts, which is affirmed by the glitter and gold that adorns…

reibureibu

i have to respect how cinematically unthrilling that casino scene was

KYK

In an emotional flatline that hints at sinister undercurrents, a croupier lives an almost wraithlike existence in the outlands of Las Vegas. Nina Menkes's long fixed takes unfold slowly, surreal exteriors that tease the eye and seedy casino interiors, a purgatory of…

cult_vegetables

aka WANDA, Nevada The tree is there, on fire, burning to ashes, and all you know how to do is watch.

matt lynch

“Vegas World” If you go to an art museum, you just stand there and stare. The paintings don’t move or entertain, you stand there with the art and you think about it. There are a lot of long takes in “Queen of Diamonds” and during them I thought about stuff, life, my day,…

Chris Popkoff

“I’m exhausted, I have to go” Flowing sombrely and slowly between increasingly long, static shots, Nina Menkes’ Queen of Diamonds contrasts its dry, alienated imagery of the desert with the glowing colours of an equally bleak casino as it follows the perspective of a…

braden

very cool movie, instant Las Vegas classic. distinctly political tho not succumbing a didactic worldview, instead getting weirder and sadder throughout. long casino sequence in the middle is a total showstopper. endless wheel of capitalism churns. unfortunately this could…

fran hoepfner

The term “Lynchian” tends to get thrown around a lot. Anything that employs surreal imagery or involves a less-than-utopian small town gets the label. But when I see the term “Lynchian” used it always seems to be about aesthetics and never about themes. Lynch’s work, more…

Ben Reiss

An impressionistic tapestry of repetition and unfulfilled anticipation, a film that’s structured like a 77 minute drone song (highly complimentary). Ingeniously edited and rigorously structured, truly remarkable stuff. Menke’s camera focuses on the “filler” within life,…

jeliben