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 […]
Possessor and the Tortured Soul of Brandon Cronenberg
By Elias Savada. This is a brutal horror film and not for youngsters, no matter how much it succeeds in its weird Freaky Friday way.” Recently, business visionary Elon Musk talked about one of his latest science projects, a Neuralink brain implant to “supercharge human communication.” Except there’s already a […]
Sad and Blue, Shiny and New: Daria Woszek’s Marygoround (Maryjki) (2020)
By Alex Ramon. The film by and large succeeds in putting “women’s different experience” centre screen.” “A passionate lover will fulfil your deepest desires. This week the world is yours. You will be the queen of your life. Don’t be afraid to be daring…” The recitation of a florid horoscope, […]
Remember When I Killed You, Darling? Darren Lynn Bousman’s Death of Me
By Thomas Puhr. Wicker Man retreads can be a lot of fun…. but Bousman lacks the compositional sophistication of an Ari Aster or the confrontational gender politics of a LaBute.” A husband and wife vacationing in Thailand wake up bruised, muddied, and lacking any memory of how they got back […]