By Zoe Kurland. The film is redeemed by its overall heart, precious bouts of whimsy, and, above all, the care given to moments of quiet when the battle recedes into the background.” The year is 1995, and a group of Irish soldiers (the 57th battalion, to be exact) has just […]
The Ghosts of Guilt: On Bryan Bertino’s The Dark and The Wicked
By Zoe Kurland. A true sense of terror hums through the film, though Bertino gives us many clues but few conclusions….” In an early scene in Bryan Bertino’s The Dark and The Wicked, the Straker siblings, Louise (Marin Ireland) and Michael (Michael Abbot Jr.) sit on the porch of their […]
The People vs. Larry: Battling a Downloadable Demon in Come Play
By Rod Lott. If only it could be less silly…. Is there an app for that?” While the invention of the cellphone has forced filmmakers to get more creative in keeping their characters in peril, few have been able to figure out how to use the mobile device as an […]
Essential for Fans, and Even the Accusers: Apropos of Nothing by Woody Allen
Directing Scarlett Johansson (an Allen defender) on the set of Match Point (2005) By Ali Moosavi. Apropos of Nothing is an immensely entertaining, funny, often touching, openly confessional memoir…. It is essential reading for fans of Woody Allen and his films. Even those accusing him of being a pedophile, rapist, […]
Babadook Move Over, There’s a New Monster in Town: Jacob Chase’s Come Play
By Elias Savada. “It’s a fascinating concept, not that it’s terribly original…but one that constantly put me on edge.” I’ve been a fan of Jacob Chase since the Spooky Movie International Horror Film Festival played his short film Copycat five years ago. He also wrote and directed the 5-minute dread-inducing […]
American Decay, Viewed Through A Hometown – Tightrope: Americans Reaching for Hope
By Michael Sandlin. ‘The election of President Reagan in 1980 initiated a mass transfer of wealth and power away from ordinary Americans’ intones Kristof in his voiceover; of course, what Kristof doesn’t tell you is that many of these ‘ordinary’ Americans voted for Reagan, thus essentially voting away their own […]
The Inferno and its Impact: Hideo Sekigawa’s Hiroshima
By Jeremy Carr. A key aspect of Sekigawa’s 1953 docu-drama concerns the related discrimination leveled against victims (of leukemia, the “A-bomb disease”), based largely on ignorance and misinformation, but on a broader level, the film also focuses on the wide-ranging scars left etched upon the Japanese populace.” Hideo Sekigawa’s Hiroshima […]
Wo Wo We Wa!: Pranks, Satire, and Bathroom Humor Endure in Borat Subsequent Moviefilm
By Elias Savada. Forget the news about the Russians doing their worst to screw up the coming election, because we have Uzbekistan’s secret weapon. And there’s nothing Trump, Putin, or all those conservative, right-wing Yankees can do about it. Borat‘s back in town.” Mockumentarians make way for another gatecrashing excursion […]
Frustration in Falfurrias: Lisa Molomot and Jeffrey Bemiss’s Missing in Brooks County
By Elias Savada. The film examines, sometimes in gruesome detail, the unfortunate migrant disappearances and deaths that have occurred in this eponymous region of Texas, about an hour’s drive from the Mexican border….” I’ve watched a lot of documentaries through the years. Among those that make me mad: Blackfish (2013), […]
Destined to Be Forgotten: Mark Williams’s Honest Thief
By Elias Savada. Neeson does the job he’s paid to do, and his gruff role here hits the intended spots and one-liners… but Honest Thief gets too cute for its own unbelievable good.” Want some generic escapist entertainment? All you have to do is catch the latest Liam Neeson framed-man […]