By Elias Savada. Bill Nye and Neil deGrasse Tyson, please step aside…at least for 91 minutes…and allow the world to shine a light on a man unknown to most of us, but who wholeheartedly deserves our attention and admiration. He’s not your big name science guy and probably doesn’t contemplate […]
The Clown in the Mirror: Todd Phillips’ Joker
Jake Rutkowski
October 4, 2019
By Jake Rutkowski. There’s an old Simpsons bit that I often turn to in times of ambivalence: Homer, faced with the prospect of buying a cursed Krusty the Clown doll, weighs the pros and cons as outlined by the mysterious shopkeeper (a racist caricature recalling Keye Luke in Gremlins [1984]). […]
Redemption through Chaos: Takashi Miike’s First Love (2019)
Matthew Fullerton
October 4, 2019
By Matthew Fullerton. First Love (Hatsukoi), prolific Japanese director Takashi Miike’s sixtieth film in twenty-four years according to last count, is a wild and fun night-time ride through an urban war between Japanese and Chinese gangsters. Although First Love marks a full-fledged return for Miike to the Asian mafia genre, […]
Handsomely Treating Dirty Deeds: Where’s My Roy Cohn?
Michael Sandlin
October 3, 2019
By Michael Sandlin. Since 2016, documentaries about influential far-right sociopaths have been on the uptick, having become almost an industry within an industry: Roger Stone, Roger Ailes, Steve Bannon, and Donald Trump have all been subjects of this recent outburst of nonfictional cinematic activism. All of the aforementioned far-right figures […]
Rise of the Tactless Manipulator: Where’s My Roy Cohn?
Elias Savada
October 3, 2019
By Elias Savada. I wonder if lawyer jokes were invented for Roy M. Cohn, the notorious attorney at the center of this perfectly timed documentary about the man who spent decades causing mayhem in the legal profession and creating turmoil for many who crossed his path during the last half […]
Synchronic Is Kangaroo Shit Loony
Elias Savada
October 2, 2019
By Elias Savada. H.G. Wells, move over. In the century-and-a-quarter since his science fiction novella popularized the notion of time travel, the theme of moving back and forth through a temporal vortex, fourth dimensional rupture, or other weird-sounding description has fascinated us. Whether long term and short visits to the […]
Versatile Journeyman – Edmond O’Brien: Everyman of Film Noir by Derek Sculthorpe
Tony Williams
October 2, 2019
A Book Review Essay by Tony Williams. This book is the latest production of prolific archivist Derek Sculthorpe. If not, “The Man with the Golden Gun”, this independent film researcher is “The Man with the Golden Keyboard” whose busy fingers discover formerly obscure entries in the most obscure newspaper clippings […]
Announcing the Anthem Series on Exploitation and Industry in World Cinema
October 1, 2019
Series Editors David A. Cook – UNC Greensboro, USA Will Dodson – UNC Greensboro, USA The Anthem Series on Exploitation and Industry in World Cinema incorporates a broad range of scholarship on filmmakers, genres, cycles and national cinemas, focusing on ways in which exploitation filmmaking and distribution subsidize riskier commercial […]
Film Scratches: Re-Drawing the Table – La Mesa (2018)
September 30, 2019
Film Scratches focuses on the world of experimental and avant-garde film, especially as practiced by individual artists. It features a mixture of reviews, interviews, and essays. A Review by David Finkelstein. La Mesa, a ten minute experimental animation by Adrian Garcia Gomez, is a haunting cinematic poem, a beautifully constructed black and […]
On Programming Content and Context: 73rd Edinburgh International Film Festival in Review
Mina Radovic
September 30, 2019
By Mina Radovic. A lady patiently cleans her house. The yellow lights of Athens peer in through the windows as her husband smokes a cigarette and between puffs complains to her about his job situation. Her daughter walks past, asking for something new, and complaining about her brother. The family […]