By Christopher Sharrett. I have commented on this site at length on Cristian Mungiu’s masterpiece Beyond the Hills (2012), and while it deserves thorough revaluation, I will note merely its importance by way of a remark on its Blu-ray release by Criterion. It is worth saying that this is the […]
Bumpy Origins – Solo: A Star Wars Story
May 24, 2018
By Elias Savada, In a galaxy far, far away, veteran multi-hyphenate filmmaker Ron Howard has directed Solo with a sure, reliable hand, cobbling together the second standalone Star Wars Story (following 2016’s Rogue One) for a bumpy journey into thousands of multiplexes. This Han Solo origin story (the first for anyone associated […]
Frustratingly Real: Disobedience
By Janine Gericke. Sebastián Lelio’s Disobedience is a frustrating film. Not because of poor performances or a meandering story, but because it’s so real. Based on the novel by Naomi Alderman, the story centers on two lovers who are pulled apart by their community and religion. The circumstances are heartbreaking, […]
Beyond the Surface: Cinema’s Baroque Flesh by Saige Walton
A Book Review by Jeremy Carr. Through the course of Cinema’s Baroque Flesh: Film, Phenomenology and the Art of Entanglement (Amsterdam University Press, 2016), author Saige Walton promotes several fascinating concepts. The originating contention is that cinema is a medium ideally suited to sensory manipulation and expansion, an evolving process […]
A Beautiful Crash Course – Boom for Real: The Late Teenage Years of Jean-Michel Basquiat
By Janine Gericke. Clocking in at a cool 78 minutes, Sara Driver’s documentary Boom for Real: The Late Teenage Years of Jean-Michel Basquiat is a Basquiat crash course. The film provides insight into the teenager he was and the artist he became. Named after Basquiat’s catchphrase, Boom for Real uses […]
Deadpool 2: Shtick Happens. Again.
By Elias Savada. So, as numerous superhero universes collide in worldwide multiplexes, you might wonder if there is an escalating case of mega-budget overload on the horizon. 20th Century-Fox’s Deadpool 2 arrives three weeks after Disney’s oversized Avengers: Infinity Wars shredded box office records in advance of this weekend’s match-up, which […]
Comic Discoveries – The Marcel Perez Collection: Vol. 2
May 15, 2018
By Jeremy Carr. Marcel Perez certainly isn’t the most renowned name in silent screen comedy. He’s likely not even among its top ten most recognizable figures. But that didn’t stop composer and DVD producer/distributor Ben Model, along with a legion of 153 Kickstarter supporters, from pushing forward a volume of […]
Times Remembered – Junior Bonner: The Making of a Classic with Steve McQueen and Sam Peckinpah in the Summer of 1971 by Jeb Rosebrook with Stuart Rosebrook
A Book Review by Tony Williams. It is frequently true that publishers like Bear Manor Media not only offer the possibility of valuable access to books that are rarely considered by corporate concerns, whether inside or outside academia, but give any reviewer both light relief and pleasure from the heavyweight […]
Beautiful Hopelessness: Lynne Ramsay’s You Were Never Really Here
By Thomas Puhr. On paper, Lynne Ramsay’s breathtaking You Were Never Really Here (2017) sounds like one of Luc Besson’s off-the-cuff side projects, ala Taken (2008) or Colombiana (2011). After a mysterious war veteran, Joe (Joaquin Phoenix, who is only getting better with age), rescues a senator’s abducted daughter from […]
An Insufficient Measure of Novelty: Jim Loach’s Measure of a Man (2018)
May 12, 2018
By Brandon Konecny. There’s a scene in Measure of a Man where Bobby (Blake Cooper) bickers with his sister Michelle (Liana Liberato) after she knocked the scoop off his chocolate-dipped ice cream cone. A shirtless Pete Marino (Luke Benward) interrupts their squabbling and introduces himself to Michelle. This leads to a […]