Review

By Janine Gericke. Korean writer and director Hong Sangsoo’s new film The Day He Arrives follows a former filmmaker and now professor, Seongjun, who seems to be stuck in every sense of the word. It’s a stark film that shows how tedious and repetitive life can sometimes feel. Seongjun arrives in Seoul for a brief […]

By William Frasca. It’s no surprise that Marvel’s Avengers would be a success, but after its opening weekend in the US taking in over $200 million, and shattering the top box office record of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, the new question is what can these superhero […]

By Jacob Mertens. The muted wail of sirens fills the air and a languid spotlight scrolls over the wall, penetrating the tattered guts of a rundown Victorian house. Men lie on the floor dead or dying, blood pooling over the floor boards as other men pace over their prostrated bodies. […]

By Jacob Mertens. A SWAT team skulks up a staircase in a rundown tenement, shrouded in the unnatural glow of dim fluorescents. Their movements are precise and silent, and they strain their ears for the faintest sound. Loud speakers are attached to the stairwell and the hallways, begging for a […]

By Janine Gericke. On March 24, 25, 31 and April 1, 2012, the San Francisco Silent Film Festival proudly presented Abel Gance’s five and a half hour epic Napoléon at Oakland’s Paramount Theatre presented by film historian and preservationist Kevin Brownlow, along with the British Film Institute, American Zoetrope, the Film Preserve, and Photoplay Productions. Brownlow’s love of this film began in the 1950s, when […]

By Celluloid Liberation Front. Outside the gentrified humanism for ‘members only’ and the gated communities of meritocracy, in the suburbs of a neglected humanity is Le Havre, the latest film by Aki Kaurismäki. When European stars could not fly yet they would sail to Hollywood from the port of Le […]

By Jacob Mertens. The concept of celebrity and fame has existed for ages. As a society, we seek to hold individuals up as an ideal, something tangible and attainable. We try to live vicariously through another’s natural talent and beauty, we construct an image of grace and vulnerability, and we […]

By Joseph Wright. Gritty and ruthless are not adjectives that I had ever associated with Matthew McConaughey following his work in Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (2009) and Failure to Launch (2006), however, they hardly do the actor justice regarding his performance as Mick Haller in The Lincoln Lawyer. The film […]

By Jacob Mertens. Stop me if you have heard this story before: a group of teenagers head to a remote cabin in the woods, trading pithy comedic dialogue as a menacing score drifts in and out. The men and women on screen are young, carefree, and about die increasingly gruesome […]

By Steven Harrison Gibbs. “With great power there must also come — great responsibility.” This maxim, first delivered via narration in Marvel Comics’ Amazing Fantasy #15 (the August, 1962 issue in which Spider-Man made his debut), is perhaps the most widely recognized quote in comic book history. For half a […]