By Elias Savada. The top-notch female cast isn’t provided a decent blueprint to develop out of the provided stereotypes. The James Bond—Mission: Impossible spin that the actors try to emulate never takes full flight.” Universal Pictures’ The 355, a shiny production of a fairly dull film, is being pushed as […]
The Future of Preservation: ASN Roadshow Edition 2
By Elias Savada. The Association of Moving Image Archivists (AMIA) has supported a wide variety of members from around the globe: ‘archivists, librarians, collectors, curators, students, educators, artists, technologists, researchers, distributors, exhibitors, service providers, consultants, and advocates,’ according to its website.” Yeah, you’re asking yourself, what the F is ASN […]
The Stoic Sadness of Stephen Karam’s The Humans
By Elias Savada. As its lights dim into darkness and its cacophony of building noises rise up, The Humans poses as a survivor’s journey….Karam offers a absorbing approach to how the dead continue to haunt us.” In the lead up to this year’s Thanksgiving holiday, many Americans are finally escaping […]
Stay Hungry: Julie Cohen and Betsy West’s Julia
By Elias Savada. The anecdotes and stories fly by with breathtaking glee, broken up by rare footage of the master at work. The directors keep the talking heads on target as diary entries explore her broadening excitement.” Julia Child always left me smiling. And hungry. She may have died 17 […]
A Not-So-Prodigal Daughter Returns: Spencer King’s Time Now
By Elias Savada. A dirge-worthy film, chock full of familial doom and gloom….If you like despondency and depression, here’s an indie effort that doses it out in large quantities.” Spencer King, the writer and director of Time Now, has crafted a dirge-worthy film, chock full of familial doom and gloom. […]
Wagging the Horses’ Tale — Steven Latham’s The Mustangs: America’s Wild Horses
By Elias Savada. A fine, upstanding look at the breed of feral steeds that have been an iconic symbol for the American West for centuries and, yes, it has a slow-build message. I have never been a horse person. That was my sister, an equestrian who would ride from morning […]
Dune: An Oversized, Delightful Space Opera
By Elias Savada. Sure, it’s loud and possibly confusing for those viewers who haven’t tapped into the 1965 text…. But this go round [for the screen], all cylinders are firing.” Ah, the wide-screen grandeur that is Dune! All that sand makes me relish the epic 70mm moments more than a […]
An Adrenaline-Fueled Race to The Rescue
By Elias Savada. Unfolding with military precision, enhanced by a steady, determined pacing…. We can be an ingenious species. When bad things happen, there are any number of special people who come up with solutions to seemingly unsolvable, life-threatening problems. The crippled Apollo 13 spacecraft is often called mankind’s greatest feat of improvised […]
A Bond Finale, Directed by a Yankee: No Time to Die
By Elias Savada. In other words, nothing new. Same slick package, different psychopathic enemy.” Are you ready to put your troubles aside and hopefully not worry about the semi-masked fool sitting a few seats away from you in the multiplex (for 163 minutes, a Bond record) as you watch Daniel […]
Lay Down Your Souls – Venom: Let There Be Carnage
By Elias Savada. A frothy, silly flick, full of gory hijinks and dumbster fun. Let the slapstick continue.” I wonder if anyone at Columbia Pictures, the studio that has that small chunk of the other Marvel action figures that Disney hasn’t encased, remembers that it was also the movie company […]