By Jackson Diianni. A landmark of Dumont’s career, and one of modern history’s most incredible films.” Bruno Dumont’s Hadewijch, released 16 years ago, was, until recently, unavailable to stream in the U.S., but has now become available on Amazon Prime, Apple TV and several other services, where it can hopefully […]
Paint It Black – Darkness Visible: The Cinema of Jonathan Glazer
A Book Review by Thomas M. Puhr. Much more than an overview of a filmography; it’s a thoughtful, at-times poetic consideration of how one of today’s most formally daring auteurs grapples with the darkest corners of the human condition….” Seeing Jonathan Glazer’s Under the Skin on the big screen remains […]
A Friend of the Audience, and the Producers – There’s No Going Back: The Life and Work of Jonathan Demme
A Book Review by Ali Moosavi. An illuminating and loving portrait, packed with fascinating behind-the-scenes details….” I first came across Jonathan Demme’s name at college, when I watched Citizens Band (1977) at our local arts movie theatre. I thought this is a true quality independent picture. A few years later […]
What is Left Unsaid: Alexandra Simpson’s No Sleep Till
By William Blick. Despite some tedium, well worth viewing as a quiet study in both resignation and defiance.” More of a visual essay or poem, Alexandra Simpson’s independent film, No Sleep Till (2024) which was made on a shoestring, dazzles with crisp shots of lightning and brilliantly colorful night skies […]
Hardened Idols: Hollywood Boozers, Brawlers and Hard-Luck Cases
A Book Review by Maysaa H. Jaber. Adds a human, sometimes tragic face to those at the heart of moviemaking during the Golden Age.” Laura Wagner’s Hollywood Boozers, Brawlers and Hard-Luck Cases: Fifteen Ill-Fated Actors of the Golden Age (McFarland, 2025) takes readers on a journey of rediscovering the life […]
A Futurist Fascination – Strangelove Country: Science Fiction, Filmosophy, and the Kubrickian Consciousness
A Book Review Essay by Jeremy Carr. A well-researched work of personal scholarship, with an array of sources and citations utilized to substantiate D. Harlan Wilson’s own arguments or to initiate new avenues of thought….” D. Harlan Wilson wastes little time establishing the importance of the science fiction genre to […]
Longing for a Hollywood Ending – Losing the Plot: Film and Feeling in the Modern Novel
A Book Review Essay by Andrew Kolarik. [Author Pardis Dabashi] makes the case that an understanding of modernist authors’ relationship to cinema might allow their works to be read in a different light….” Losing the Plot: Film and Feeling in the Modern Novel (The University of Chicago Press) by Pardis […]
Still Underground: Films That Spill – Beyond the Cinema of Transgression
A Book Review Essay by Johannes Schönherr. German scholar Marie Sophie Beckmann discusses inherent contradictions of the ‘spilling’ of the films into other art forms as well as the ‘spilling’ of the films as ‘contained’ entities (films on video) to a worldwide audience in detail.’” When Nick Zedd, the mastermind […]
Hola Frida, or What to Do When Life Deals You a Bad Hand
By Jenny Paola Ortega Castillo. The narrative may seem like a raw and harsh retelling of the artist’s story; however, Frida’s numerous illnesses are handled with the utmost respect throughout the film…. Art allowed her to process pain, reclaim her missing identity outside of what illness turned her into and […]
A Pivotal Point: Roman Polanski’s An Officer and a Spy (2019)
By William Blick. A slow burn that simmers into a boil…[and] a compelling exploration of antisemitism and miscarriage of justice….” Roman Polanski’s 2019 political thriller An Officer and a Spy, which will see its U.S. premiere at New York’s Film Forum on August 8, recreates the “Dreyfus Affair,” a pivotal […]