Rise of the Tactless Manipulator: Where’s My Roy Cohn?
By Elias Savada. I wonder if lawyer jokes
By Alexandra Heller-Nicholas. There’s a scene in Ant Timpson’s debut feature Come to Daddy where Elijah Wood’s character, Norval Greenwood, is being verbally abused with such an extraordinarily…
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By Christopher Sharrett. In what follows I am conscious that Todd Phillips’ Joker is another addition by a corporation to its “DC universe,” although it is spoken of…
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A Book Review Essay by Tony Williams. As we move further into the new millennium, we appear to benefit not only from development of new technologies enabling access to…
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A Book Review by Thomas Puhr. Joan Neuberger’s This Thing of Darkness (Cornell University Press, 2019) illustrates, perhaps more than any other cinema studies text I’ve read, the staggering…
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By Yun-hua Chen. Salvodor Simó, the layout artist for Pirates of the Caribbean: Salazar’s Revenge (2017), The Jungle Book (2016) and Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time…
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By Jake Rutkowski. There’s an old Simpsons bit that I often turn to in times of ambivalence: Homer, faced with the prospect of buying a cursed Krusty the…
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By Matthew Fullerton. First Love (Hatsukoi), prolific Japanese director Takashi Miike’s sixtieth film in twenty-four years according to last count, is a wild and fun night-time ride through…
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A Book Review Essay by Tony Williams. This book is the latest production of prolific archivist Derek Sculthorpe. If not, “The Man with the Golden Gun”, this independent…
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By Alexandra Heller-Nicholas. To say that the US premiere of cult filmmaker Richard Stanley’s much-awaited return to feature filmmaking was one of the most buzz-laden events at this…
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“Daredevils of the Red Circle and Other Cliffhangers” is a blog on serials by Geoffrey Mayer, the author of Encyclopedia of American Film Serials (McFarland, 2017). The Hollywood studios, except one, studiously…
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By Alexandra Heller-Nicholas. South African filmmaker Jenna Bass has made somewhat of a splash with her third film, Flatland, as it makes its North American premiere at the…
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Festival Reports
On Programming Content and Context: 73rd Edinburgh International Film Festival in Review »
By Mina Radovic. A lady patiently cleans her house. The yellow lights of Athens peer in through the windows as her husband smokes a cigarette and between puffs complains to her about his…
Read More »Experimentation in NYC: NYFF Shorts 2019 »
By Gary M. Kramer. Two shorts programs at this year’s New York Film Festival are designed to provoke audiences. This is a welcome approach to short films, where the format encourages experimentation. As…
Read More »Crises in Detail: AFI Docs 2019 »
By Gary M. Kramer. At the 2019 AFI Docs Film Festival this year, five provocative shorts and features tackled important topics ranging from the drug crisis and immigration to the creationism debate and…
Read More »Coming of Age with Care: the 21st Maryland Film Festival (2019) »
By Gary M. Kramer. Now in its 21st year, the Maryland Film Festival in Baltimore is a showcase for eclectic independent features, shorts, and documentaries. This year’s program features films both homegrown and far-flung.…
Read More »Portraits and Passions: Tribeca Film Festival 2019 »
By Gary M. Kramer. The Tribeca Film Festival, April 24-May 5, offers a variety of features, shorts, documentaries, television and new media productions from new and established filmmakers. This year’s programs offered some…
Read More »Documenting the Past and Gender: Istanbul Film Festival, 38th Edition »
By N. Buket Cengiz. Held only a couple of days after a social democrat mayor has won the elections in the city after long years, Istanbul Film Festival, organized by Istanbul Foundation for…
Read More »The Weight of the Journey: The 2019 Miami International Film Festival »
By Gary M. Kramer. At this year’s Miami International Film Festival, there are some interesting debuts, some intriguing slow-burn films, and some compelling documentaries. Here is a rundown of a half-dozen titles screening…
Read More »Gods and Penguins: The 2019 DC Independent Film Festival »
By Gary M. Kramer. The DC Independent Film Festival, unspooling March 1-10 in Washington, DC, is celebrating its 20th year in 2019. This year’s program features dozens of features and shorts, along with a…
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Interview
“Cinema is strong and some people are afraid of it”: An Interview with François Ozon »
By Alex Ramon. Speaking with Film International last year, François Ozon asserted that, for him, “the story comes first” when…
Read More »A Hidden Gem: Interview with Trương Minh Quý (Nhà cây / Tree House, 2019) »
By Yun-hua Chen. A hidden gem in the sidebar section “Concorso Cineasti del presente” at Locarno Film Festival, Trương Minh…
Read More »The Method to His Madness: Grady Hendrix and Satanic Panic »
By John Duncan Talbird. Grady Hendrix is a novelist, sometimes-journalist, essayist, and screenwriter. He’s written several horror novels, including…
Read More »A Deep Affect for Regional Genre Films: Aaron Harvey on Into the Ashes »
By Tom Ue. Aaron Harvey is the writer and director of several award-winning feature films including Catch.44 (2011), starring…
Read More »Scoring Films Quickly, with Inspiration: An Interview with Mike Hall »
By David A. Ellis. Fifty-year-old Mike Hall is a film composer who lives in Le Claire Iowa. He grew…
Read More »Joining the Flow: An Interview with Jonathan Rosenbaum »
By Jeremy Carr. On the occasion of two recently published collections – Cinematic Encounters: Interviews and Dialogues (2018) and…
Read More »The Arab Comrades in the Spanish Civil War: Amal Ramsis on You Come from Far Away »
By N. Buket Cengiz. The 12th edition of Documentarist, the sole independent documentary festival in Turkey, was held on 15-20…
Read More »The Immigrant Dream Life: An Interview with Amir Ganjavie on Pendulum »
By Ali Moosavi. Pendulum is the first film made by Amir Ganjavie, an Iranian diaspora film critic (and a Film…
Read More »Dreaming on, Despite Brexit: A Conversation with Sean McAllister »
By N. Buket Cengiz. Documentarist, an independent documentary film festival held in Istanbul since 2007, had the acclaimed British…
Read More »Exposing the Filmmaker: An Interview with Ewa Banaszkiewicz and Mateusz Dymek About My Friend the Polish Girl »
By Alex Ramon. As the place that produced the likes of Wajda, Polański, Kieślowski and Skolimowski, and that, under…
Read More »“If You Don’t Learn from the Greats, You’d Be Stupid”: An Interview with Cinematographer Robin Vidgeon »
By David A. Ellis. Robin Vidgeon BSC born in August 1939 is a retired cinematographer. For many years he…
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