By Tony Williams. The Outer Limits now has a justifiable reputation as one of the great achievements of American science fiction television. However, while this reputation derives from the first season, the second season, apart from a few exceptions, failed to continue the promise of the first and this led […]
What Do You See? Alien in the Mirror: Scarlett Johansson, Jonathan Glazer and Under the Skin by Maureen Foster
Thomas Puhr
February 4, 2020
A Book Review by Thomas Puhr. Recently appearing on both Cahiers du Cinéma’s top 10 of 2010-2019 and Variety’s list of the decade’s most overrated films, Jonathan Glazer’s Under the Skin (2013) remains deeply divisive. Though Maureen Foster acknowledges and embraces its polarizing effect in her superb Alien in the […]
“A Love Letter to Life and Film”: An Interview with Willem Dafoe on My Hindu Friend
January 24, 2020
By Patrick McGilligan. Five years after it was made, My Hindu Friend, directed by Hector Babenco, finally is being shown in limited English-language markets. Fans and scholars familiar with the Argentinian-Brazilian filmmaker’s best-known works – Pixote in 1981, his breakthrough, Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985), Ironweed (1987) and At […]
The Language of Lovecraft: Richard Stanley’s Color Out of Space
January 24, 2020
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 year’s Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas, is an understatement. On one hand this was driven by the enigma of Stanley alone, director […]
More Than You Can Bear: The Cloud-Capped Star (Criterion Collection)
Jeremy Carr
January 23, 2020
By Jeremy Carr. When Montu (Dwiju Bhawal), the youngest of four children in a Bengalese family, returns home after having been injured at work, a neighbor attempts to reassure the beleaguered household by asserting, “God doesn’t give you more than you can bear.” Whatever the truth to this claim, the […]
Post-Soviet Descent into Capitalist Chaos: Alex Gibney’s Citizen K
Michael Sandlin
January 17, 2020
By Michael Sandlin. After narrowly avoiding being nicked by the UK authorities for supposed “document theft” during the filming of his Troubles documentary No Stone Unturned, Alex Gibney is back tear-assing around the world with his camera crew making controversial films. In his latest, Citizen K, his subject is someone […]
Babenco’s Swansong: My Hindu Friend
Ali Moosavi
January 17, 2020
By Ali Moosavi. Death has been a popular theme for filmmakers to explore almost ever since cinema was invented. Some of the films dealing with mortality have contained some autobiographical elements. In Blue (1993) director Derek Jarman, as he was close to death from AIDS complications, made a cinematic diary […]
Marion Davies: Gifted Actress and Impossible Boy
Thomas Gladysz
December 23, 2019
By Thomas Gladysz. I rejoice in this opportunity to record something which today is all but forgotten except for those lucky enough to have seen a few of her pictures: Marion Davies was one of the most delightfully accomplished comediennes in the whole history of the screen. She would have […]
The Best Iranian Films of the Year: A Personal Selection
December 17, 2019
By Ali Moosavi. Among the many Iranian films that I have watched this year, six have stood out for me. If we don’t consider the purely commercial and state-funded films which dominate the screens in Iran, the Achilles heel of most independent Iranian films is their screenplay. If there is one […]
“When There Are No Good Answers”: Barbara Kopple’s Desert One (2019)
Kate Hearst
December 16, 2019
By Kate Hearst. At the New York premiere of Desert One at the DOC/NYC film festival, Barbara Kopple recounted how the History Channel provided her with a list of topics to choose for their “History 100” project. That Kopple decided to make a documentary about the unsuccessful 1980 rescue operation […]