Suspiria
Luca Guadagnino’s remake of an Italian horror classic “con founds as much as it delights,” said
David Sims in TheAtlantic.com. As in Dario Argento’s 1977 movie, a doe-eyed American
enrolls in a German dance school that turns out to be run by a coven of witches, but this
version toys with “staggeringly big” ideas without resolving them. Because that work’s left to the audience, the new Suspiria “appears destined for the long-lasting cult status already enjoyed by the original.” Dakota Johnson exhibits her usual “affectless charisma” in the lead role, and co-star Tilda
Swinton proves again that she can do anything, said Manohla Dargis in The New York Times.
But as Guadagnino casts about for a message, his 152-minute film “grows ever more distended
and yet more hollow.” But be patient with his slow-drip approach, said Justin Chang in
the Los Angeles Times. “By the time the phantasmagorical finale arrives, you are flooded with blood and viscera, yes, but also something even more unsettling—a sudden onrush of feeling, a deep, overpowering melancholy.”
