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Revisit: Mulholland Drive
David Lynch’s filmography is filled with protagonists vying for control over their own story. In Eraserhead and Lost Highway the protagonist serves as an obvious example when he states that “I like to...
View ArticleDifret
The neorealist drama Difret is an old-fashioned message picture about the Ethiopian practice of abducting child-brides. 14-year old Hirut (Tizita Hagere) lives a few hours from the Ethiopian capital of...
View ArticleTokyo Tribe
Cult status can hardly exist today in the age of the internet. While fans of cult phenomena have long told everyone who will listen about the object of such feverish adoration, the internet makes...
View ArticleOur Brand Is Crisis
In a semi-recent interview on Adam Kempenaar’s movie podcast “Filmspotting,” director David Gordon Green professed to emulating British filmmaker Alan Parker (Evita, Pink Floyd – The Wall)....
View ArticleOeuvre: Craven: A Nightmare on Elm Street
The parameters of the slasher film are so narrow that at this point it’s entirely possible that there are more parodies of the genre than straightforward demonstrations of it. What does it say about...
View ArticleLove
Love is a many-splendored thing. Not only is it the most sexually explicit film of the last decade (the characters speak more through their bodies than anything else), it’s also piercingly tender. In...
View ArticleThe Wonders
“The law? Who’s going to find out here?” Wolfgang (Sam Louwyck) contemplates a transgression that his eldest daughter, Gelsomina (Maria Alexandra Lungu), reminds him is illegal. In the mildly engaging,...
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Revisit: Gates of Heaven
Our foremost documentary directors have to start somewhere, right? Even if Errol Morris’ subjects have become more famous or extraordinary than the people we meet in his 1978 debut, Gates of Heaven,...
View ArticleHard Labor
Marco Dutra and Juliana Rojas’ Hard Labor is being sold as horror, but chalk that up to clueless distributors, who shelved it for four years after its 2011 Cannes premiere: the film is first and...
View ArticleThe Diplomat
From the early ‘60s right up until his death in 2010 at age 69, Richard Holbrooke was a fixture in the world of international politics. It started with his work in the Foreign Service in Vietnam,...
View ArticleFrom the Vaults of Streaming Hell: Wing Commander
In this day and age when the bulk of big budget movies are comic book and various other “geeky” pop-culture adaptions, it takes a lot to make a video game adaptation fade from collective memory. It...
View ArticleBrooklyn
Brooklyn, the 2009 novel by Colm Tóibín, is great. It’s the sort of book anyone can pick up and enjoy. Set in 1951, it tells of a young woman’s immigration to the States and the subtle transition she...
View ArticleOeuvre: Craven: The Hills Have Eyes Part II
While Wes Craven may possess a sterling legacy as a master of horror, his actual output is as up-and-down as the rocky California terrain used in his 1977 cult film The Hills Have Eyes. Though far...
View ArticleSpotlight
2015 is the year of Tom McCarthy. In about a month’s time, when year-end lists begin popping up, no other name is likelier to appear – on both best and worst lists. Back in March, the acclaimed...
View ArticleTrumbo
Bryan Cranston, despite spending years on TV and in movies, is something of an overnight success. Before Breaking Bad became a bona fide phenomenon, he was highly visible but mostly anonymous, an actor...
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Rediscover: Vernon, Florida
Errol Morris’ first documentary, Gates of Heaven, may feature smaller scale subjects than his future films, but it is also the most soulful of his oeuvre, a somber and humorous meditation on life,...
View ArticleIn Jackson Heights
Boasting citizens from dozens of different countries, with over 140 languages spoken within its borders, Queens is often touted as the most diverse place on earth. Much of this diversity stems off the...
View ArticleWrecker
An ordinary case of road rage escalates into a horrific chase. This is the simple plot of a masterful TV movie, director Steven Spielberg’s Duel (1971), a tense, well-acted and expertly edited model of...
View ArticleHoly Hell! Before Sunrise Turns 20
When it debuted at Sundance in 1995, no one — including director and cowriter Richard Linklater — knew Before Sunrise would be the start of a larger cinematic endeavor. The film, at once deeply...
View ArticleOeuvre: Craven: Deadly Friend
If it feels like two different movies combined into one, that’s because it is. In 1985, Wes Craven wanted to make a love story. It was supposed to be about a boy and girl who are good and the adults...
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