The Leftovers (HBO, 2014-17) A Book Review by Thomas Puhr. While the collection lacks cohesion, the entries are consistently strong when considered in isolation; consequently, Apocalypse TV might work best as a media studies reference tool or even as a springboard into future projects.” Television shows about the apocalypse remain a hot […]
The Slow Burn of Jordan Graham’s Sator
By Elias Savada. Graham plays you with creaking floorboards, flashlights shining in dusty interiors, and just plain gloom.” Fans of last year’s Tenet know that its title connects to the Sator Square, the ancient stone with early Christian contexts. Filmmaker Jordan Graham takes a different (and much lower budget) approach […]
Facts over Glory – Bumpy Road: the Making, Flop, and Revival of Two-Lane Blacktop
A Book Review by Tanja Bresan. Townsend successfully rips out the sentimentally and nostalgia of the counterculture era in which the film is set, serving cold facts…. reading the events [with] a sobering effect.” Sylvia Townsend’s production history Bumpy Road: The Making, Flop and Revival of Two-Lane Blacktop (Mississippi, 2019) […]
A Tragic Icon of Iranian Cinema – Bahram Beyzaie: A Mosaic of Metaphors
By Ali Moosavi. Bahman Maghsoudlou has produced such a comprehensive, yet intimate portrait of this great and tragic icon of the Iranian Cinema.” Ask any scholar of the Iranian Cinema to name the top five Iranian directors from the advent of cinema in Iran till now and Bahram Beyzaie will […]
Creation from Abandonment and Abuse: Nora Unkel’s A Nightmare Wakes
by Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock. Mary Shelley’s nightmare wakes, explains the film, because her life was a waking nightmare.” The events surrounding the birth of Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel Frankenstein are almost as famous as the novel itself. During the rainy summer of 1816, the scandalous Lord Byron played host to […]
Hollow Metacinema from Turkey: The Cemil Show
By Gary M. Kramer. This ambitious Turkish film is often artificial and pretentious.” Screening as part of the International Film Festival Rotterdam, February 4-7, the ambitious Turkish film, The Cemil Show, opens with a black-and-white square frame sequence from the (fictional) B-movie Kabus. Actor Turgay Göral (Basar Alemdar) is carrying […]
Extremism by the Numbers: Kimo Stamboel’s The Queen of Black Magic
By Thomas Puhr. Gorehounds will likely feel they’ve gotten their money’s worth, but some may find a bitter taste – one unrelated to the on-screen viscera – lingering in their mouths.” Although gross-out horror movies often follow a tried-and-true recipe (an isolated setting, a series of increasingly-complex and nauseating special […]
In Another Country: David Perrault’s Savage State
By Thomas Puhr. Too plodding for genre enthusiasts and hackneyed for arthouse devotees, Savage State will likely underwhelm both audiences.” Westerns set during the American Civil War are a dime a dozen, but David Perrault’s Savage State (L’état sauvage, 2019) offers an enticing twist: that of a French family attempting […]
Continuing a Life-Affirming Tradition: Gianni Di Gregorio’s Citizens of the World
By Ali Moosavi. A story with global appeal but one that will especially resonate with those who have reached the pensioner age.” Italy has a rich tradition in producing comedies which have had global appeal, made by some of the best comedy directors that cinema has known. Examples include Mario […]
If They’re Toothmarks, This Must Be Belgium: Harry Kümel’s Daughters of Darkness
By Rod Lott. If “fun” sounds like an odd word to apply to a Belgium-lensed beaut this art-minded, this patient, the slow burner eventually catches enough fire to earn the distinction.” Prematurely celebrating its 50th anniversary with a new 4K restoration courtesy of Blue Underground is 1971’s Daughters of Darkness. […]