Jonathan Taylor writes:

I normally avoid the cross fire of film criticism, but must quickly second Wolcott's estimation of the "stupendous" post at The Sheila Variations about Michael Tolkin's 1991 film The Rapture, illustrated with a stunning parade of the faces of Mimi Rogers; as many times as I've seen this film, I was too often too focused on what Tolkin was up to, to realize how much Rogers was doing.

I'd even quibble with Sheila's assessment of the girl who plays Rogers's daughter—or at least of the hair-raising effect of her whiny plea, "Why can't we die now, mommy?" (Just see it. Ditto re: "the pearl.")

I think Gary Indiana somewhere described Tolkin's films as "period movies about the present." That present still remains ours enough to still feel this effect, even as it is now enough the past, to add another layer of significance.