The New Yorker’s Richard Brody Gushes Over Matthew Porterfield—Again
Putty Hill
When New Yorker film writer Richard Brody made up his list of the best films of the ‘00s for his blog last December, he put Baltimore filmmaker Matthew Porterfield in the company of the likes of Jean-Luc Godard, Wes Anderson, and Catherine Breillat by including Porterfield’s 2006 Baltimore-shot independent feature Hamilton among his favorites. Now Brody is enthusing about Porterfield’s new movie Putty Hill, a docu-drama shot here this past summer that recently screened in New York, calling it “extraordinary.”
Porterfield, Brody writes, “invokes, with slight and tender gestures—and with the remarkable, confessional performances he elicits from his young actors—worlds of experience and feeling.” He also praises the collaboration between the director and cinematographer Jeremy Saulnier, comparing it to the legendary collaboration between Godard and cinematographer Raoul Coutard. And then he wonders why Putty Hill isn’t playing the esteemed New Directors/New Films and agitates for a DVD release for Hamilton. Guess he’s a fan.
