By Elias Savada. Harold Jackson III is a very focused, and quite talented, individual. He does just about everything in Unarmed Man, his latest feature: executive producer, producer, director, writer, director of photography. He handles all chores well, as he has done for most of his career as a DC-based filmmaker, […]
Almodovar Most Personal: Pain and Glory (Cannes 2019)
Ali Moosavi
May 20, 2019
By Ali Moosavi. Pain and Glory is Pedro Almodovar at his most personal and confessional, in the same vein as Bad Education (2004). Salvador Mallo (Antonio Banderas) is a writer-director who has not worked for a number of years. One of his old films has been restored, and he has […]
Martial Art: Zhang Yimou’s Shadow
Jeremy Carr
May 17, 2019
By Jeremy Carr. Zhang Yimou has had a remarkable career, one distinguished by its approximate division into two distinct phases. There were first his mostly regional dramas, intimate, relatively moderate titles like his 1987 debut, Red Sorghum, 1990’s Ju Dou, and 1999’s The Road Home, still perhaps his best film. […]
Dystopias in Disguise: Aniara
May 17, 2019
By John Duncan Talbird. In 1956, Swedish author Harry Martinson wrote an epic poem called Aniara. It tells the story of the eponymous transportation ship which, on the way to Mars, loses control of its steering and hurtles off-course through outer space carrying three thousand people. The author went onto win […]
Life During Wartime: Ingmar Bergman’s Shame (Criterion Collection)
May 15, 2019
By Jeremy Carr. Save for the broad categories of drama or comedy, Ingmar Bergman isn’t a name often associated with genre filmmaking. His 1968 feature, Hour of the Wolf, could possibly be categorized as a horror film — it surely has its horrific moments and images — but even there, […]
Universalizing a Movement – The Berlin School and Its Global Contexts: A Transnational Art Cinema
Thomas Puhr
May 9, 2019
A Book Review by Thomas Puhr. As its title of this collection makes clear, The Berlin School and Its Global Contexts: A Transnational Art Cinema (Wayne State University Press, 2018, edited by Marco Abel and Jaimey Fisher) looks far beyond the small group of German filmmakers behind the movement’s origins. While […]
Hours of Artistry and Independence: Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Happy Hour
May 8, 2019
By Matthew Fullerton. In a 1981 essay, the film critic Alan Booth (1946-1993) recognized independent directors as the strength of Japanese cinema. Tragically, he also noted how independent film in his adopted Japan was threatened by formula, largely resulting from the influence of corporate decision-making. For the next decade or […]
Long Walk to Freedom: The Silence of Others
Michael Sandlin
May 6, 2019
By Michael Sandlin. Despite its low-budget workmanlike feel, this documentary from Emmy-winning directors Almudena Carracedo and Robert Bahar – and produced by Spanish directorial titan Pedro Almodovar – just may be one of the most socio-historically significant European documentaries of recent years. Although it may not have the depth and […]
Taming a Wild Man: Matteo Garrone’s Dogman
Thomas Puhr
May 6, 2019
By Thomas Puhr. He is a slight man: short and hunched, as if perpetually carrying a heavy load. His head and eyes constantly dart around, almost bug-like. Only when with his dogs, or spending a few days with his estranged daughter, does he seem slightly less on edge. This unease […]
Trick and Treat: Penny Lane’s Hail Satan?
Elias Savada
April 29, 2019
By Elias Savada. Never has a Penny Lane film been this funny. An academic-now-turned-full-professional-documentary-filmmaker, she has provided a window into the weird and wonderful for the last half-dozen or so years with her handful of features and several compelling shorts. She loves to take unusual relics of our planet and […]