A Book Review by Dávid Szőke. A fascinating study that examines themes mostly, but not exclusively, central to feminist visual representations, without losing sight of the paradoxes that shade contemporary approaches to Polanski’s work in the light of the #meToo movement.” “We are clay […] and nothing is real for […]
What’s the “Something”?: Pierre Földes’ Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman (2022)
By Thomas M. Puhr. Based on six Haruki Murakami short stories, writer-director Pierre Földes’ feature debut is an invigorating curiosity, a much-needed reminder of the emotional depths to which animation can take us.” “What you see with your eyes is not necessarily real,” a character reflects in Blind Willow, Sleeping […]
Fame with a Tarnish: Mickey Reece’s Country Gold (2022)
By Jonathan Monovich. Chips away at complex meaning and eventually strikes it, despite the occasional distracting surrealism.” Country Gold begins in a reverse Wizard of Oz fashion, transitioning from color to black-and-white. The story starts with Troyal Brux (Mickey Reece), a playful take on Garth Brooks, professing his idolization of […]
Low Cost, High Reward – Blumhouse Productions: The New House of Horror
A Book Review by Thomas M. Puhr. It’s this nebulous balancing act between artistic risk and bottom-line business that makes such companies so fascinating, and books like this one so illuminating.” Not a week seems to go by without a new horror movie bearing the Blumhouse logo making the rounds, […]
Borzage in the Beginning: 1922’s Back Pay and The Valley of Silent Men
By Jeremy Carr. Two 1922 Borzage features are now available on Blu-ray/DVD, thanks to the laudable efforts of Undercrank Productions and the Library of Congress.” The arrival of any Frank Borzage film on DVD or Blu-ray is a noteworthy occasion. But when there are two packaged together and they are […]
Bargaining with the Devil: Bill Skarsgard and Landon Liboiron’s Soul of a Man
By Dávid Szőke. Eerily beautiful in recapturing the early Gothic film.” Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “Bon-Bon” (1832) is a grotesque retelling of man’s futile endeavor to tempt immortality by making a Faustian contract with the devil. Set in a French wine cellar, the original story pulls the reader into […]
A Dramatic Tribute to a Lost Reality: The Silent Enemy (1930)
By Jeremy Carr. Apparently supporting the film’s well-intentioned attempt at accuracy, Chief Chauncey Yellow Robe, in a sound prologue to this otherwise silent 1930 film, thus urges viewers to not see those performing in the film as actors, but to consider that what is shown ‘is as it always has […]
A Culture of Violence, with Questions Unanswered: Teodora Ana Miha’s La Civil
By Yun-hua Chen. A compelling portrait of not only a society plagued by violence, and one that conditions its members to be indifferent, irresponsive, and numb.” In Northern Mexico, Cielo’s (Arcelia Ramírez) day starts like any mundane morning. Her daughter Laura lovingly makes her up, jokingly self-compliments their beauty (“like […]
Stirring, if Incomplete: Patricio Guzman’s My Imaginary Country
By Anees Aref. Even if doesn’t quite cover the full breadth of recent Chilean history, Patricio Guzman’s My Imaginary Country does powerfully capture the yearning and communal passion that drives the revolution to this day.” Released in the fall of 2022 and now available on DVD, My Imaginary Country is […]
“Starting with a Lie to Gather Unity” – Abbas Kiarostami: Interviews
A Book Review by Ali Moosavi. The collection, edited by Monika Raesch, is really two books under one cover – an extensive critical introduction to Kiarostami, authored by Raesch, and roughly 100 pages of interviews in which the filmmaker proves to be surprisingly open and eminently quotable.” Though the renowned […]