By Jake Rutkowski. The 1972 United California Bank robbery and the gang that pulled it off don’t occupy a lot of space in the popular American bank heist imagination. The story has been covered in some true crime television documentaries here and there, but it doesn’t quite have the flashiness of […]
Welcome to the Universe: Captain Marvel
March 12, 2019
By Elias Savada. Packing a $153 million weekend wallop here in her home country, and a huge $455 million on her native planet, Captain Marvel, the latest addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, rallies itself after a sluggish start, and ultimately proves itself an acceptable crowdpleaser. Brie Larson, the Oscar-winning actor […]
Tradition Against Trafficking: Birds of Passage
Ali Moosavi
March 11, 2019
By Ali Moosavi. Films about drug trafficking in Central and South America have been on our cinema and TV screens almost continuously, from Scarface to Sicario. In recent years, there seems to have been more films and TV series about drug barons in Columbia and Mexico than any other topic; […]
Beyond the Stereotypes of a Selfie: An Interview with Agostino Ferrente
Yun-hua Chen
March 8, 2019
By Yun-hua Chen. Agostino Ferrente, the director of Selfie, started this film project with the initial intention to document the story of the 16-year-old Davide Bifolco, who was mistakenly shot dead by carabinieri in the Neapolitan district of Traiano. After casting several teenage boys and girls, the director gave a […]
What We’re Left with at the End: Jupiter’s Moon
John Duncan Talbird
March 7, 2019
By John Duncan Talbird. In the opening seconds of Kornél Mundruczó’s White God (2014), we see a bird’s-eye view of Budapest, but a Budapest absent any people. It’s reminiscent of the opening of Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later… (2002) where downtown London has been wiped clean of people from what […]
A Problem of Catharsis and Urban Space: Ondi Timoner’s Mapplethorpe
Mina Radovic
March 6, 2019
By Mina Radovic. Robert Mapplethorpe is one of New York’s famous black-and-white photographers of the 1970s: coming out after the Warhol generation and in touch with the underground, Mapplethorpe is remembered for his distinct use of monochrome composition, imbued with a sense of rigid formalism coupled with controversial and often […]
The Weight of the Journey: The 2019 Miami International Film Festival
March 1, 2019
By Gary M. Kramer. At this year’s Miami International Film Festival, there are some interesting debuts, some intriguing slow-burn films, and some compelling documentaries. Here is a rundown of a half-dozen titles screening at this year’s fest. Pahokee is the first feature-length documentary by co-directors Ivete Lucas and Patrick Bresnan. […]
Deliberate Relief: Visconti’s Death in Venice (Criterion Collection)
February 26, 2019
By Gary M. Kramer. Death in Venice, Luchino Visconti’s sumptuous adaptation of the 1912 Thomas Mann novella, has been released on DVD and Blu-ray by the Criterion Collection in a new 4K digital restoration. The film is a classic story of unrequited love as Gustav von Aschenbach (Dirk Bogarde) becomes […]
A Cinephile’s Cinephile – Mysteries of Cinema: Reflections on Film Theory, History and Culture 1982-2016 by Adrian Martin
Jeremy Carr
February 25, 2019
A Book Review by Jeremy Carr. At the very least, Adrian Martin’s Mysteries of Cinema: Reflections on Film Theory, History and Culture 1982-2016 (Amsterdam University Press, 2018) makes the reader want to watch more movies. Not a specific genre of movies, nor those of a particular nation or movement, nor […]
Gods and Penguins: The 2019 DC Independent Film Festival
February 25, 2019
By Gary M. Kramer. The DC Independent Film Festival, unspooling March 1-10 in Washington, DC, is celebrating its 20th year in 2019. This year’s program features dozens of features and shorts, along with a tribute to director Phillip Noyce, who will present three of his features. Here is a rundown of […]