A Book Review Essay by John Duncan Talbird. David Simon’s television series The Wire ran on HBO from 2002-2008, five seasons of a prestige show that, in the less than ten years since its last episode, has reached iconic status and is on most critics’ top-ten shows of all time lists. […]
From Brooklyn, with Camp – Paul Bartel: The Life and Films by Stephen B. Armstrong
A Book Review by Irv Slifkin. Say the name and the image of an overweight, balding man with a neatly trimmed beard and unctuous demeanor comes to mind. In productions released by Roger Corman’s New World Pictures during the 1970s, Bartel seems to be there all the time, stealing scenes […]
The Indian Film Critics Have Done It Again!: Reading Gender in Ki & Ka Through the Cinematic Lens of R. Balki
August 9, 2017
By Devapriya Sanyal and Melissa Webb. The Indian film critics have done it again! As Glover and Kaplan state in their book Genders, the term “gender” itself is rather slippery. Such complicated issues regarding gender and performance are explored by Indian film director R. Balki, who attempts a gender role-reversal of sorts in his […]
Gazpacho with A Shot of Estrogen: Almodovar’s Women On The Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
By Kate Hearst. As statistics continue to demonstrate the persistent imbalance of women’s representation on screen,[1] Pedro Almodovar’s Women On the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988), beautifully restored by Criterion, is like a shot of pure estrogen. This screwball comedy, one of Almodovar’s best, packs a full range of […]
The Dark Tower: The Mighty King Has Fallen
August 5, 2017
By Elias Savada. The phrase “lump of coal” comes to mind after watching The Dark Tower, a lavish and most definitely lackluster CliffsNotes abridgment of a CliffsNotes adaptation of the Stephen King science fiction-fantasy-western magnum opus. The film prides itself by drop-kicking the prerequisite landscapes, people, myths, and phrases that abound […]
After Love: Verity and Banality
August 3, 2017
By Jeremy Carr. While watching After Love, a 2016 film about a Brussels couple in the midst of an emotionally evolving but physically inert separation, it’s often tempting to pick a side. Boris (Cédric Kahn) and Marie (Bérénice Bejo), partners of 15 years and parents of two young girls (sisters Jade […]
A Tool for Travelling: Transatlantyk Festival, Łódź (14 – 21 July 2017)
By Alex Ramon. Now in its seventh year, Poland’s Transatlantyk Festival remains a spearheading festival in a country that, despite its current volatile political climate, doesn’t yet lack for dynamic, high-profile cultural events: these range from Wrocław’s New Horizons to Gdynia Film Festival to Bydgoszsz’s Camerimage. Relocated from Poznań to […]
Film Scatches: A Diagram of Agony and Joy – Waiting for Sevdah (2017)
August 3, 2017
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. Waiting for Sevdah is a 41 minute poetic self-portrait by Saidin Salkic, a Bosnian filmmaker now based in Australia. The film […]
Film Scratches: The Unlived Lives of Parents – My Heart is an Octopus or My Father on the Shore of the Black Sea (2016)
August 3, 2017
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. My Heart is an Octopus or My Father on the Shore of the Black Sea, by Bulgarian filmmaker Neno Belchev, is […]
On the Road to Nirvana: Jodorowsky’s Endless Poetry
August 2, 2017
By Elias Savada. “A naked virgin will illuminate your path with a blazing butterfly.” Yes, just the kind of fertile, fantastic utterance you would expect to hear in any luxuriant, eccentric Alejandro Jodorowsky film, especially in his ultra personal Endless Poetry (Poesía sin fin), and you’ll have to take the two-hour-plus […]