By Elias Savada. From this long ago shoot in Kasten’s home town of Baltimore, the film reveals itself to be a nimble, fleet (73 minutes) and well-crafted entry.” Mix a touch of Sam Raimi low-budget horror with bizzarro inspiration from sleazemeister John Waters and what do you get? Perhaps The […]
Miranda July’s Latest Tonic: Kajillionaire
By Elias Savada. There are ample moments of lunacy and sentiment in Kajillionaire that will provide so crackling good amusement and uplift.” Miranda July’s new film is all about hard knock lives. The Dyne family – three dubious tricksters – are trying to make it through day by dreary day […]
She Said, He Said, He Said – Who Cares?: Yuval Adler’s The Secrets We Keep
By Elias Savada. Rapace is out for blood here, but Chris Messina is mostly a nebbish this go-round.” But the end of its tedious 97 minutes, I felt screwed while the cozy God Bless America town at the center of The Secrets We Keep celebrated July 4th, with one family […]
No Sparks: Michael Almereyda’s Tesla
By Elias Savada. Ethan Hawke elevates the role as the lead actor in Tesla, but he never really gets to show much range….” When I last commented on filmmaker Michael Almereyda, it was about the favorable impression I had watching Marjorie Prime (2017), his sci-fi-without-being-science-fictiony examination of artificial intelligence. Boy, […]
Dickens, With Added Wit: Armando Ianucci’s Recipe for The Personal History of David Copperfield
By Elias Savada. Bold, delightful, and eternally optimistic, The Personal History of David Copperfield is very clever indeed, without a hint of Victorian stuffiness.” It’s been filmed, telefeatured, and serialized for tv more than a dozen times, but the new version of the Charles Dickens classic from director Armando Ianucci gives it […]
Hey Guys, Where Have You Been? Bill & Ted Face the Music
By Elias Savada. Here’s an inane and silly tonic, one that might lift people’s souls in these sad times. Like Santa Claus coming down the chimney at Christmas, Bill & Ted Face the Music offers a crazed, intoxicating gift” It’s been nearly three decades since Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter […]
Last Stop for the Train to Busan: Yeon Sang-ho’s Peninsula
By Elias Savada. All the things that made the original so great are lacking in its new CGI-heavy follow-up. Its heart is still pumping with adrenaline, though” You know the saying. If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. The problem with South Korean fillmmaker Yeon Sang-ho’s new zombie […]
Aliens and Raging Hormones Meet in Egor Abramenko’s Sputnik
By Elias Savada. Be warned – Sputnik‘s creature most likely did not come in peace.” When I was a child, I was fascinated by those first artificial satellites launched into orbit around our planet. For those caught up on world history, the Russians were the trailblazers, in October 1957, with […]
Saving Man’s (and Woman’s) Best Friends: Jesse Alk’s Pariah Dog
By Elias Savada. Pariah Dog highlights Alk’s ability as an extremely gifted, poetic, and even counter-culture filmmaker who has fashioned a labor of love for his debut feature.” A hazy dusk is arriving in Kolkata in West Bengal, India (the most far eastern part of the country, on the border […]
These Kids Are Alright: Boys State
By Elias Savada. Politics these days are more decisive than ever. A day doesn’t go by without “someone” threatening to bring down the system of government another notch into a seemingly bottomless abyss. Maybe our future leaders will have a better understanding in the years ahead, although I often wonder […]