A Book Review Essay by Tony Williams. When recovering from reviewing lesser works by well-established publishers, whether direct-to-library or university presses, it is often a welcome relief to read something outstanding by publishing companies that deserve to be much better known than their “illustrious” peers. Granted that not everything by […]
Mungiu’s Deceptive Simplicity: Beyond the Hills (Criterion Collection)
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 […]
Film Scratches: Sleepy in Sulaymaniyah – Dream City (2016)
May 29, 2018
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. In Dream City, a short feature, American filmmaker Emma Piper-Burket documents her friendship with Diana Jaf, a young Kurdish Iraqi woman. […]
Film Scratches: Recent Short Films of Jacques Spohr
May 29, 2018
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. Jacques Spohr is a French filmmaker now based in Athens. Here is a sampling of his recent shorts. Les Coups du […]
Film Scratches: The Words Behind The Dance – Una Mina (2016)
May 29, 2018
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. Una Mina is an eight minute dance film by Argentinian filmmaker María Papi. The footage shows actress Gesche Picolin performing tango […]
Hefting the Masterpieces: Filmworker
By Elizabeth Toohey. Do we really need another Stanley Kubrick documentary? There’s the comprehensive Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures (2001), with its reverent celebrity talking-heads – Tom Cruise and Woody Allen! Spielberg and Scorsese! – praising Kubrick’s technical genius, and Kubrick’s adoring wife pooh-poohing rumors that he was controlling […]
“Sickie” Docs and Features: The 20th Maryland Film Festival
May 24, 2018
By Gary M. Kramer. The 20th Maryland Film Festival, held at the Parkway Theater and various additional venues in Baltimore, took place May 2-6. The program included more than 100 features, documentaries, and shorts. Here are some highlights and lowlights from this year’s festival. Anahí Berneri’ gritty character study, Alanis, introduces […]
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 […]