By Ali Moosavi. Careless Crime is an unsettling and dazzling achievement, using a real-life crime at the onset of the Iranian Revolution to examine cinema and its relation to reality versus illusion.” With only four feature films under his belt, the Iranian director Shahram Mokri has established himself as a […]
The Vacant Intimacy of One Hour Outcall
By Zoe Kurland. The line is always blurry between niceties and exploitation…. Though deeper exploration of themes of class, race, sex work, or, perhaps most importantly, the personas we craft to gain power, are sidelined in favor of frenetic editing.” T. Arthur Cottam’s One Hour Outcall begins with a smattering […]
She Said, He Said, He Said – Who Cares?: Yuval Adler’s The Secrets We Keep
By Elias Savada. Rapace is out for blood here, but Chris Messina is mostly a nebbish this go-round.” But the end of its tedious 97 minutes, I felt screwed while the cozy God Bless America town at the center of The Secrets We Keep celebrated July 4th, with one family […]
Guilty by Association – The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum (Criterion Collection)
By Jeremy Carr. Even if it’s not a true story, The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum – both Heinrich Böll’s 1974 novel and the 1975 film adaptation written and directed by Volker Schlöndorff and Margarethe von Trotta – can only be, according to Schlöndorff, “understood out of the period.” This […]
Textbook in Disguise – The Psychology of Moviegoing by Ashton D. Trice and Hunter W. Greer
Life is Beautiful (1997) A Book Review by Thomas Puhr. Despite their accessible, often humorous prose, the authors never quite escape the constraints of the dreaded undergraduate textbook.” Why do some viewers flock to the latest gorefest horror movie, while others wouldn’t go if you paid them? What exactly happens […]
The Ruins of Love: Natalie Krinsky’s The Broken Hearts Gallery
By Zoe Kurland. This emotional hoarder’s life works a bit like an Urban Outfitters version of the Christopher Nolan film Memento: each bizarre object reminds Lucy of an important moment in her life, which in turn, informs her sense of self.” In 2012, Taylor Swift released her fourth studio album, […]
Not Much New or Improved – Themes in Latin American Cinema, 2nd Edition, by Keith John Richards
La historia oficial (The Official Story; Luis Puenzo) By Gary M. Kramer. There is not much new or improved in Keith John Richards’ Themes in Latin American Cinema: A Critical Survey (McFarland, 2020), that this 2011 book warranted a second edition. For starters, there are only 4 Bolivian films out […]
World Building Run Amok in Ilya Khrzhanovskiy and Jekaterina Oertel’s DAU. Natasha
By Alexandra Heller-Nicholas. The film that resulted from this production context is very good, even if we may never truly know the truth about the filming environment” At first glance, to call Ilya Khrzhanovskiy and Jekaterina Oertel’s DAU. Natasha ‘epic’ is an understatement: intoxicating performances drive a series of suffocatingly […]
No Sparks: Michael Almereyda’s Tesla
By Elias Savada. Ethan Hawke elevates the role as the lead actor in Tesla, but he never really gets to show much range….” When I last commented on filmmaker Michael Almereyda, it was about the favorable impression I had watching Marjorie Prime (2017), his sci-fi-without-being-science-fictiony examination of artificial intelligence. Boy, […]
Exposé or Diatribe? Eric Merola’s The Andorra Hustle
By Thomas Puhr. The Andorra Hustle exists in a precarious position, torn between being an insightful think-piece and a grating political rant.” Events with far-reaching geopolitical ramifications can originate from the unlikeliest of places, as illustrated in Eric Merola’s The Andorra Hustle (2020). If you have no idea that the […]