By Jonathan Monovich. Dupieux’s Daaaaaalí! understands that to make a faithful film about Dalí it should lack convention.” Though Salvador Dalí’s paintings are far more famous than his contributions to cinema, Dalí’s peculiar signature left an indelible mark on film history as well. Dalí and Luis Buñuel’s collaboration, Un chien […]
“Old as Dirt”: Common Ground
By Jonathan Monovich. The kind of film that leaves you invigorated, full of energy, and wanting to fight the good fight.” In Joshua and Rebecca Tickell’s well-informed documentary, Kiss the Ground (2020), Woody Harrelson spoke of a solution “as old as dirt” that may help prevent humanity’s demise. The solution […]
The Grand and the Personal – King Vidor in Focus: On the Filmmaker’s Artistry and Vision
A Book Review by William Blick. Informative, erudite, and comprehensive in several ways, with exhaustively precise details of Vidor’s career.” When I opened the pages of Kevin Stoehr and Cullen Gallagher’s new book, King Vidor in Focus (McFarland, 2024), I was immediately drawn to Vidor’s “Creed and Pledge” in the […]
Kevin Smith’s “Reel Life”: The 4:30 Movie
By Jonathan Monovich. The 4:30 Movie pridefully asserts its fandom.” In The 4:30 Movie, Brian’s (Austin Zajur) life – like that of his friends Burny (Nicholas Cirillo) and Belly (Reed Northrup) – revolves around his time spent at his local theater, Atlantic Cinemas, where he dreams of becoming a filmmaker. […]
Skeletons in the Basement: Daniel Lasker’s Hidden Within (2023)
By Thomas M. Puhr. I hope we get more Zimbabwean horror movies in the future, and that they’re much better than this one.” It gives me no pleasure to announce that Daniel Lasker’s Hidden Within (2023) is a disaster. Made in Zimbabwe, the actor’s feature directorial debut concerns people and […]
Walking Over Time and Space: Lisandro Alonso’s Eureka (2023)
By Andrew Montiveo. Alonso has much to say with Eureka – about indigenous cultures, capitalism, history, and progress…. While the filmmaker seems intent on challenging his audience visually, this very challenge complicates his stated goal of amplifying indigenous voices.” Lisandro Alonso’s Eureka (2023) is a film that resists easy categorization. […]
All the Fear Looking Back at You – Us: The Complete Annotated Screenplay
A Book Review by Matthew Sorrento. The supplementary footnotes included in Us: The Complete Annotated Screenplay should launch more needed commentary, showing that a scholarly monograph on the film is already overdue….” In his very informative and enjoyable 2008 autobiography, X Films, Alex Cox finishes a discussion of his cult […]
Clawing the Surface: Mary Dauterman’s Booger
By William Blick. A visceral metaphor for grief in an impressive low-budget indie debut…..” Mary Dauterman’s first feature length film, Booger, comes across as a cinematic exercise of sorts, i.e., a visceral metaphor for grief in an impressive low-budget indie debut. Not quite gory or suspenseful enough to satisfy the hardcore/ […]
When a Hero Exploits: Sana Na N’Hada’s Nome (2023)
By Yun-hua Chen. A profoundly enlightening film from Angola that delves into the essence of independence, the sacrifices it demands, and the transformative power of cinema.” Selected for the “Rizome” program at IndieLisboa, a section that highlights relevant current issues, Nome, an Angolan film directed by Sana Na N’Hada, is […]
Red Rooms: The Strategic Antipathy and Empathy of Emotional Contagions
By David Ryan. Writer-director Pascal Plante connects the complicated mechanisms of justice, social contagions, and psychological complexity to explore two dominant themes: the film contrasts the courtroom’s brightly lit (and tightly-controlled) semiotics with the digital world’s illicit market economy.” Red Rooms or Les Chambres Rouges (2023) focuses on the questionable […]