By Travis Merchant. Recently, the rise of extreme right-wing groups and individuals have done more than upset the quotidian structure to society. More often than not, these individuals seem bent on violence and nationalistic tendencies. It began with the criticism of the European Union and the sudden, unpredicted secession of the United Kingdom […]
War’s Veiled Aftermath: 1945
By Jeremy Carr. On the day of her son’s wedding, presumably the central event of 1945, drug-addled Anna (Eszter Nagy-Kálózy) ominously observes, “I’ve got a bad feeling.” At the time, this comment refers to the approaching marriage of her timorous son, Arpad (Bence Tasnádi), to the notoriously unfaithful Kisrózsi (Dóra […]
Placing Theory and Practice – Spectatorship: Shifting Theories of Gender, Sexuality and Media edited by Roxanne Samer and William Whittington
April 4, 2018
A Book Review by Dean Goldberg. While the introduction to this collection of published essays from the storied Spectator, the University of California’s premier film journal, provides an articulate jumping off point for the text, the book itself is certainly not a page turner. Not that it should be; Spectatorship: […]
Bricolage, Narration, and Archives: Sam Ashby on The Colour of His Hair
By Tom Ue. The title cards of Sam Ashby’s first film The Colour of His Hair (2017) take us to the year 1954, with the sentencing of Lord Montagu of Beaulieu, Michael Pitt-Rivers, and Peter Wildeblood for homosexual offenses. This scandal, we learn, led the government to establish a committee […]
Deceit and Inconsistency: The China Hustle
March 30, 2018
By Travis Merchant. A decade has passed since the beginning of an economic recession that many still feel today. The recession of 2008 brought about a collapsed American market that desperately searched for a shining light to capitalize on to regain its losses. Consequently, it found China: a topic that Jed […]
Rebellious Departure: An Interview with Nanouk Leopold on Cobain
By Yun-hua Chen. Premiering at the Berlinale Generation 2018, Cobain is a film about the eponymous hero, a 15-year-old boy in Rotterdam played by the first-time actor Bas Keizer. As his drug addict and expectant mother Mia is unable to take care of him, Cobain is sent to a foster […]
Max Winkler’s Flower Sour
By Elias Savada. I didn’t like Max Winkler’s first feature, the dreary comedy Ceremony (2011), a quirky tic of a wedding crasher film. My impression of his directorial abilities hasn’t changed much in Flower, a jaded Valley Girl vigilante drama that screams “watch my petals wilt” as shell-shocked patrons wander […]
Andy Goldsworthy’s Landscape Art: Leaning Into the Wind
March 26, 2018
By John Duncan Talbird. In the opening of the new documentary, Leaning Into the Wind, artist Andy Goldsworthy tours a small home in the mountains in Brazil. To Western eyes, the dwelling might seem pre-modern, even decrepit. But to Goldsworthy, all he sees is the handcraft of the residence, the sturdy […]
Role-Playing Writ Small: I Kill Giants
March 23, 2018
By Elias Savada. Children dealing with their fears – although not those anxieties normally associated with horror genre tropes like The Dark, Loud Noises, and such – play a central role in I Kill Giants, which melds one Eastern Long Island, New York, family’s enigmatic trauma with monstrous, noxious beasts that […]
Comedy Killing Satire: The Death of Stalin
March 20, 2018
By Jake Rutkowski. The process of interpersonal grievances and small-scale ironies rippling out into matters of national security is at this point a calling card for celebrated Scottish satirist Armando Iannucci (he of Alan Partridge, The Thick of It / In the Loop, and Veep fame). It’s fair to say that […]