By Brandon Konecny. As we gear up for Academy Awards, it’s important to note the countries not taking part in this all-too-American enterprise. There are the usual absentees, such as Belarus, Tajikistan, Bhutan, and Armenia; but then there are the countries we were certain would submit something. In this case, […]
The 2015 DOKU.ARTS Festival
January 15, 2016
By Yun-hua Chen. DOKU.ARTS, after its seven-year residence in Amsterdam and Brazil, returned to Berlin and has stayed here since 2012. The event focuses on documentaries exploring art and artists, some of which, such as Saving Mes Aynak and The Chinese Mayor this year, follow the project in a longitudinal […]
Rereading The Wire: police procedural, social games and the magic of blood
By Rajko Radović. Blood has been shed on the asphalt at night. We see it in close-up as thin red lines spreading in all directions into the darkness and the ghetto, and then the blood becomes what it really is in the cult American series The Wire – pulsating wires […]
Fragments of the Past in Pastoral: To Die in the Country
January 7, 2016
By Giuseppe Sedia. In a certain way, Shûji Terayama never reached a point in his career when he felt the need to retrace his childhood. More truly, his multidisciplinary body of work, taken as whole, can be considered as an uninterrupted meditation on his past. Nevertheless, the Japanese cineaste never adopted a […]
Madam Secretary: The Happy Family in Time of War
By Christopher Sharrett. When I first took note of the television series Madam Secretary (2014-), I assumed it was a sort of promotional piece for Hillary Clinton. It may indeed be this, but its connection to the real world is more substantial and significant, telling us a great deal, if […]
The 2015 European Union Film Showcase
December 21, 2015
By Gary M. Kramer. The American Film Institute’s annual European Union Film Showcase screened December 1-20 at the AFI Theater in Silver Spring, Maryland. This year’s program, the festival’s 28th, opened with Spanish filmmaker Fernando León de Aranoa’s comedy-drama A Perfect Day, set in the Balkans, and closed with Radu […]
Larry Cohen: The Stuff of Gods and Monsters (2015)
December 7, 2015
A Book Review by Tony Williams. Those fortunate enough to have met or interviewed Larry Cohen are always amazed by his detailed answers to questions as well as his unique knowledge of American cinema and history. Michael Doyle’s Bear Manor Press publication is the most detailed compilation of interview material […]
Room: Woman and the Domestic Household
December 7, 2015
By Christopher Sharrett. Lenny Abrahamson’s Room, adapted from a recent novel by Emma Donoghue, is a “true crime” thriller of important resonance. Its story concerns a now-common and atrocious crime: a woman is kidnapped by a rapist and kept prisoner, a permanent sex slave. Joy Newsome (Brie Larson) is locked […]
The Shooting and Ride in the Whirlwind: Titles that Don’t Lie (and a Jack Nicholson who Doesn’t Flip Out! – Yet)
November 18, 2015
By Jude Warne. The Shooting and Ride in the Whirlwind (both 1966), recently released as a joint Blu-ray set via The Criterion Collection, are two Monte Hellman Westerns that are as nondescript as their titles suggest them to be. And, much like the title of Hellman’s road picture, the Criterion-released […]
The Visual Desolation of Denis Villeneuve’s Sicario
November 9, 2015
By Kyle Huffman. “Cinema is a matter of what’s in the frame and what’s out of the frame.” This seemingly direct estimation of the art form by legendary filmmaker Martin Scorsese defines movies as utilizing first and foremost one sense: the visual. The portrait design of the silver screen traditionally […]