By James Slaymaker. Like many late-period Eastwood films, The Mule is a revisionist genre piece with a pronounced self-reflexive streak. It only takes a glimpse at the poster to deduce that the figure of Eastwood – as a cinematic persona, as an actor, as an ailing body – will be […]
Film Scratches: Poetry of the Downtrodden – Short Films of Jeremy Gluck (2017)
February 20, 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. Jeremy Gluck is a Canadian-born artist living in Wales. Two of his recent short films have an unusual way to combine […]
Film Scratches: Remixing as Distillation – Praxis Selection from Index
February 20, 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. Index, the DVD label that specializes in collections of experimental work by Austrian artists, has assembled this 97 minute selection from […]
A Career Cut Short – Laird Cregar: A Hollywood Tragedy by Gregory William Mank
Tony Williams
February 19, 2019
A Book Review by Tony Williams. “It was not only his desire to play heroic roles that made him diet, but the hope that he would attract a young lover through his own beauty. He never did and he was too innately shy to be aggressive.” (DeWitt Bodeen) (1) For […]
The Compulsive Writer-Director’s Guide – Making Your First Feature Film by Dominick Bagnato
Mads Larsen
February 18, 2019
A Book Review by Mads Larsen. If you have a few hundred thousand dollars to burn, and although you have no experience, you are obsessed with making your own film – no matter how bad it becomes – then Making Your First Feature Film by Dominick Bagnato (McFarland, 2017) could […]
Fighting in America: Tim Sutton’s Donnybrook
Thomas Puhr
February 15, 2019
By Thomas Puhr. It’s only fitting that writer-director Tim Sutton’s latest, Donnybrook (2018), opens with a voyage by boat. Like Odysseus, Jarhead Earl (Jamie Bell) undergoes a long journey that culminates in a bloody showdown. Waiting for him at the end of the river is the titular underground fight, which […]
Handicapping the Oscars: 2019 Oscar Nominated Shorts
February 14, 2019
By Elias Savada. Another year and another Academy Awards show looms large, filled with commentary about snubs and surprises and a program, the first in decades, without a host. While many of us wonder which film will take home the statuette (my personal favorite remains Green Book, but Roma seems to […]
A National Pride for Tunisia: An Interview with Dhafer L’Abidine
Neila Driss
February 13, 2019
By Neila Driss. During the 40th edition of the Cairo International Film Festival (CIFF), which took place from November 20 to 29, 2018, the Tunisian actor Dhafer L’Abidine was chosen as a member of the international competition jury, the most important competition of the festival. The Jury was presided by […]
His Own Man – George Raft: The Man Who Would be Bogart by Stone Wallace
Tony Williams
February 12, 2019
A Book Review Essay by Tony Williams. Enter George Raft groom cum chauffeur – He lurked hand and collar and hands in his pockets – Heavy with menace he takes the job of looking after someone who was sure to reach the film – Sticky end abroad – George Raft […]
“Lillie Plays Violet”: Exit Smiling (A San Francisco Silent Film Festival Review)
Janine Gericke
February 11, 2019
By Janine Gericke. On Saturday, December 1st, the SF Silent Film Festival held its annual Day of Silents winter program at the famed Castro Theatre. As I’ve previously covered, the San Francisco Silent Film Festival offers a year round celebration of early film. The festival pulls in thousands of silent […]