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 […]
A Beautiful Crash Course – Boom for Real: The Late Teenage Years of Jean-Michel Basquiat
By Janine Gericke. Clocking in at a cool 78 minutes, Sara Driver’s documentary Boom for Real: The Late Teenage Years of Jean-Michel Basquiat is a Basquiat crash course. The film provides insight into the teenager he was and the artist he became. Named after Basquiat’s catchphrase, Boom for Real uses […]
Deadpool 2: Shtick Happens. Again.
By Elias Savada. So, as numerous superhero universes collide in worldwide multiplexes, you might wonder if there is an escalating case of mega-budget overload on the horizon. 20th Century-Fox’s Deadpool 2 arrives three weeks after Disney’s oversized Avengers: Infinity Wars shredded box office records in advance of this weekend’s match-up, which […]
At War with Trump, Etc: 2018 Cannes, Week One
By Ali Moosavi. The honor of opening the 71st Cannes Film Festival went to the Iranian director, and multi Oscar winner, Asghar Farhadi’s new film Everybody Knows. This thriller stars the real-life couple Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz, plus the always impressive Argentinian actor Ricardo Darin. In the press interview following […]
“As Usual, Ladies First”: Manners, Manuals, and The Hunger Games
By Richmond B. Adams. During “The Reaping” sequence from Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games, Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) “volunteer[s] as tribute” to save her younger sister Primrose (Willow Shields) from almost inevitable “death in the upcoming arena” (22). While exceptional for District 12 of Panem, Katniss’ interposition is quite familiar […]