By Elias Savada. Wanna watch a train wreck? Sienna Miller plays one in Jake Scott’s third feature. For the first half-hour of this blue-collar salute to misguided motherhood (and the remorse that follows in the wake of a parent’s “worst nightmare” scenario), Miller plays Deb Callahan, an angry, immature 31-year-old […]
A Device to Remember: Halston
Dana Weidman
June 9, 2019
By Dana Weidman. Halston, the new documentary from director Frédéric Tcheng (Dior and I) starts with a credit stating that the “following film is documentary. However, the narrator is a fictional character.” In the opening, Tcheng uses news clips to build a brief history of the iconic dress designer’s rise […]
Kal-El Spelled Badly Is Brightburn
Elias Savada
June 3, 2019
By Elias Savada. Here’s a twist on one of those what if comic book, sci-fi scenarios. What if an alien baby (conveniently human in form) crashes to Earth and becomes an evil superhero. A real vindictive one. His small, single occupancy spacecraft arrives not in Superman’s adopted hometown of Smallville, […]
The De Palma Basics: Domino
Ali Moosavi
June 2, 2019
By Ali Moosavi. I have been an ardent Brian De Palma fan ever since watching Phantom of the Paradise at the cinemas in 1974. That was 45 years ago; he was a 33-year-old director making his eighth feature film in six years and I was a teenage movie fan. Flash […]
“Brooksie” Revisited: Beggars of Life (1928) from Kino Lorber and Beggars of Life: A Companion to the 1928 Film by Thomas Gladysz
Tony Williams
May 30, 2019
A Film/Book Review by Tony Williams. While we eagerly await the Criterion release of The Sound of Music with audio-commentary by Quentin Tarantino, joking aside, it is pleasurable to see Kino-Lorber’s latest contribution to a prestigious film repertoire needing release to a wider audience rather than already seen “usual suspects.” […]
Scholar, Lawyer, Catcher, Spy: The Spy Behind Home Plate
May 29, 2019
By Elias Savada. I can’t take credit for creating that tagline, but it is a perfect John Le Carré allusion. It’s from author Nicholas Dawidoff (who appears in this film), who used it as a title for a 1992 article for Sports Illustrated about a most unusual renaissance man. Aviva Kempner, […]
Beyond the “Post-Western” – Marlina: A Murderer in Four Acts
Matthew Sorrento
May 29, 2019
By Matthew Sorrento. Marlina begins with a scenario all too familiar: the title character, recently widowed, is now an object of desire (her body and fortune) for local men. One immediately arrives to her home as if ready to take ownership. Accusing her of sleeping around since her husband’s death, […]
Pondering the Ponderous: Malick’s A Hidden Life (Cannes 2019)
Ali Moosavi
May 28, 2019
By Ali Moosavi. My relationship with Terence Malick films has been love and hate. Watching Badlands (1973) back in the 70s was like a breath of fresh air; a film that, for me, has aged extremely well. Then the experience of watching a 70mm version of Days of Heaven (1978) in […]
Look and Listen: Portrait of a Lady on Fire (Cannes 2019)
Ali Moosavi
May 28, 2019
By Ali Moosavi. Somehow I had not seen any of Celine Sciamma’s films until watching Portrait of a Lady on Fire at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, where it was in the main completion section. The beginning of the film can serve as a lesson for any budding screenwriter in […]
Screening Communities: Negotiating Narratives of Empire, Nation, and the Cold War in Hong Kong Cinema by Jing Jing Chang
Tony Williams
May 24, 2019
A Book Review by Tony Williams. Hong Kong cinema studies has received detailed coverage over the decades in works written about specific periods and studios such as Shaw Bros and Cathay in addition to focus on various directors and stars. Since the beginning of the Hong Kong Film Festival (1976- […]