By Thomas Puhr. Embodies the most grating qualities of the message movie. Calling this supernatural allegory on-the-nose would be giving it far too much credit.” Most, if not all, films convey a message – implicit or explicit – but some are a message; that is, they have little reason to […]
A Not-So-Prodigal Daughter Returns: Spencer King’s Time Now
By Elias Savada. A dirge-worthy film, chock full of familial doom and gloom….If you like despondency and depression, here’s an indie effort that doses it out in large quantities.” Spencer King, the writer and director of Time Now, has crafted a dirge-worthy film, chock full of familial doom and gloom. […]
Wagging the Horses’ Tale — Steven Latham’s The Mustangs: America’s Wild Horses
By Elias Savada. A fine, upstanding look at the breed of feral steeds that have been an iconic symbol for the American West for centuries and, yes, it has a slow-build message. I have never been a horse person. That was my sister, an equestrian who would ride from morning […]
Lessons from a Master – Hayao Miyazaki (DelMonico Books)
A Book Review by Thomas Puhr. Like the exhibition itself, the publication is first and foremost a celebration of the singular writer-director.” My first Hayao Miyazaki film – 1989’s Kiki’s Delivery Service – was like nothing I’d (wrongly) come to expect from animation: by turns contemplative and silly, wistful and innocent, it felt closer in spirit […]
Dune: An Oversized, Delightful Space Opera
By Elias Savada. Sure, it’s loud and possibly confusing for those viewers who haven’t tapped into the 1965 text…. But this go round [for the screen], all cylinders are firing.” Ah, the wide-screen grandeur that is Dune! All that sand makes me relish the epic 70mm moments more than a […]
King Hu’s Cinematic Sublime: Raining in the Mountain (1979)
By Tony Williams. The spiritual is always a marginal element in Hu’s films that deal with the eruption of violent forces attempting to dominate others before some temporary victory occurs, leaving the survivors to live and fight another day….” This is the last of Eureka’s King Hu DVDs available for […]
An Adrenaline-Fueled Race to The Rescue
By Elias Savada. Unfolding with military precision, enhanced by a steady, determined pacing…. We can be an ingenious species. When bad things happen, there are any number of special people who come up with solutions to seemingly unsolvable, life-threatening problems. The crippled Apollo 13 spacecraft is often called mankind’s greatest feat of improvised […]
A Bond Finale, Directed by a Yankee: No Time to Die
By Elias Savada. In other words, nothing new. Same slick package, different psychopathic enemy.” Are you ready to put your troubles aside and hopefully not worry about the semi-masked fool sitting a few seats away from you in the multiplex (for 163 minutes, a Bond record) as you watch Daniel […]
Documenting Personal History in Belgrade: Marko Grba Singh on Rampart
By Yun-hua Chen. The idea of the film didn’t stem from the footage, but from the apartment. My parents decided to sell it, and it was empty for several months. I have lived there for 25 years, and once per month I would go there…. And then I realized that […]
“Stories About Heroes Travel Faster Than Bullets”: Jean Luc Herbulot’s Saloum (TIFF 2021)
By Alexandra Heller-Nicholas. 84 minutes of pure African genre mayhem, with little interest in pausing long enough for you to catch your breath….with this Senegalese western-action-horror hybrid Herbulot is here to sure as hell make you recognize [the historical context] on a sensory, emotional level.” Strap in; Jean Luc Herbulot’s […]