By Gary M. Kramer. Two shorts programs at this year’s New York Film Festival feature new and exciting works by debut, established, and returning filmmakers. The International Shorts Program II opens with the U.S. premiere of Veslemøy’s Song. Canadian filmmaker Sofia Bohdanowicz’s black and white short revolves around the largely […]
Sleep No More: Or, If It Hadn’t Been for Those Meddling Kids….
By Alex Brannan. If one were to just slightly retool Phillip Guzman’s Sleep No More (aka 200 Hours) – eliminate the gore and profanity, shift the characters’ ages, move the time period back a couple decades, and make the least consequential character a canine – the film could easily pass […]
The Sublime Art of Ashby: Hal
September 21, 2018
By Elias Savada. Hal (no relation to the sentient computer in Stanley Kubrick’s classic 2001: A Space Odyssey), is a reflective meditation on the (high) life and (best) films of Hal Ashby, a director of note during the 1970s, when he churned out award-worthy films that now shape this debut documentary […]
A Woman Pioneer Speaks: Lisa D’Apolito on Love, Gilda
September 21, 2018
By Janine Gericke. What makes Lisa D’Apolito’s new film Love, Gilda so special is that, like the 2015 documentaries Listen to Me, Marlon and Ingrid Bergman: in Her Own Words and Samantha Fuller’s A Fuller Life (2013, also discussed here), Gilda tells us her story. Out of Gilda’s own journals, recordings, photographs, and home movies, D’Apolito […]
Finding South Korean Found-Footage Horror: Bum-shik Jung on Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum
By Areum Jeong. Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum, South Korea’s first found-footage horror film, directed by Bum-shik Jung, is a low-budget film that scored at the box-office and was a hit with critics. It was the first attempt in South Korea at combining the found-footage technique with the setting of YouTube live streaming. The film […]
The Science of Experimental Film – Lessons in Perception: The Avant-Garde Filmmaker as Practical Psychologist by Paul Taberham
A Book Review by Thomas Puhr. For many, the term “avant-garde” is synonymous with pretension: a sub-subgenre that revels in its impenetrability and niche appeal. One of Paul Taberham’s overarching goals in Lessons in Perception: The Avant-Garde Filmmaker as Practical Psychologist (Berghan Books, 2018) is to negate this misconception; experimental filmmakers […]
The Films of Jess Franco: Cinema on the Fringes
September 17, 2018
A Book Review by Alex Brannan. For those experiencing a Jess Franco film for the first time, the response is unlikely to be an academic one. Known predominantly for horror and erotica films, Franco’s filmography is often relegated under the umbrella of trash cinema. His preoccupations with the female form, […]
Mommy Noir: A Simple Favor
September 14, 2018
By Elias Savada. The crazy wait-who-did-what? mystery that is A Simple Favor offers up a pair of smooth, subversive, suburban housewives that spin some sparkling dialogue off each other and their communal parental units. Mystery loves the company of Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively in Paul Feig’s head-spinning, twisty-turvy tale of […]
Cinema Thinks: Film as Philosophy Edited by Bernd Herzogenrath
A Book Review Essay by John Duncan Talbird. The multi-authored book is a misnomer. Although out in the world there is no taint to the word “anthology,” it seems that in academe, readers (or publishers?) want something more cohesive. And so we have introductions wherein an editor will mightily attempt […]
Ending the War in Perpetrator’s Clothes: Robert Shwentke on The Captain
September 12, 2018
By Sergey Toymentsev. German-born director Robert Shwentke is mostly known for his glossy, action-packed Hollywood blockbusters, including RED, R.I.P.D, and two Divergent installments. But this time he turns to his German roots and offers a sleek black comedy about the final days of World War II from the perspective of a […]