By Moira Sullivan. Eastern Boys, directed by Robin Campillo, won best film in the 70th Venice Film Festival’s Orizzonti section. The film offers a complex and provocative narrative about a young gang of East European undocumented immigrants who plunder a middle-aged man (Olivier Rabourdin) after he tries to pick up one of […]
A Teacher
September 10, 2013
By Wheeler Winston Dixon. Hannah Fidell’s debut feature A Teacher has been getting something of a critical drubbing in the media since it opened on Friday September 6 in Manhattan; and yet it seems to me that the movie is remarkably successful in a small, quiet way. I also notice […]
Repo Man (1984)
September 10, 2013
By Brandon Konecny. As a child of the nineties, I narrowly evaded much of the cultural sterility of the preceding decade. Sure, we had the unfortunate instances of the “Macarena” and Yugoslav Wars (as well as the profound ineffectiveness of the industrial world to respond appropriately); but after watching Alex […]
Nosferatu (1922)
September 6, 2013
By Cleaver Patterson. Some films have, since their first release, entered into the realms of mythical cinema. Whether due to their technical achievements, performances or simply by dint of that inexplicable quality that makes the film viewing experience magical, these movies have outlived their contemporaries to become the stuff of […]
The Symbolic, the Sublime, and Slavoj Žižek’s Theory of Film (2012)
September 4, 2013
A Book Review by Brandon Konecny. Slavoj Žižek is by far one of the most prominent intellectuals active today, gaining much of his popularity from his frequent engagement with popular culture, expansive bibliography, and endlessly entertaining lectures. To the chagrin of figures like David Bordwell, the Slovenian philosopher—perhaps the small […]
The World’s End (2013)
September 3, 2013
By Jacob Mertens. In film, there are any number of ways the world can end: zombies wreak havoc across the globe, colossal monsters terrorize earth from an inter-dimensional riff in our ocean’s depths, the biblical apocalypse forces mid-grade celebrities to bunker down in James Franco’s house and whine incessantly about […]
We’re the Millers (2013)
September 2, 2013
By Cleaver Patterson. There will always be drawbacks for any actor appearing in a film alongside Jennifer Aniston, the main one being that you shall inevitably have to take second-billing to everyone’s favorite friend. Director Rawson Marshall Thurber’s new comedy We’re the Millers may co-star successful funny man Jason Sudeikis, […]
Blue-Eyed Soulless: the Morgan Spurlock Sellout
August 30, 2013
By Matthew Sorrento. Morgan Spurlock is one of very few documentarians who seem to find constant work. (Others include Alex Gibney, who must have struck Oscar gold with Taxi to the Dark Side, and obviously, Michael Moore.) With his sizable skill, Spurlock has benefited from his onscreen charisma, which he […]
Blue Jasmine, and the Curious Career of Woody Allen
August 29, 2013
By Wheeler Winston Dixon. Woody Allen’s latest, Blue Jasmine, has received mixed reviews from the daily critics, who don’t seem to know quite what to make of it. It’s one of Allen’s most serious films to date, and one of his most unforgiving, both of itself, and of society as […]
The Go Doc Project (2013)
August 28, 2013
By Mark James. The Go Doc Project, a new collaboration between writer/director Cory Krueckeberg and lead Tanner Cohen (they worked together previously on the 2008 Were the World Mine), sets up its stakes quickly. Cohen plays Doc, a Columbia near-graduate with a vlog and a ticket to Iowa where he’ll […]