By Jake Rutkowski. Anxiety over parenthood has long been fertile ground for the horror film tradition. Frankenstein (1931), one of the first explicit entries of the genre in film (and literature for that matter), was a real-life Mary Shelley pregnancy nightmare turned fiction classic. Then there’s films like Rosemary’s Baby (1968) and The Omen (1976), […]
Ivor and Hitch: the Criterion 2017 DVD Versions of The Lodger and Downhill
By Tony Williams. Although currently promoted mainly as a restoration of The Lodger (1927), a film that its director regarded as his first real film, this two-disc DVD also includes the frequently unseen Downhill, also starring Ivor Novello (1893-1951), a major matinee idol in his time well known as a musical […]
Power Off: Kill Switch
June 28, 2017
By Elias Savada. There’s a lot of technical wizardry afoot in Dutch filmmaker Tim Smit’s feature directorial debut Kill Switch, an indie sci fi race-to-save-the-planet flick set in the depressing, dystopian future of March 24, 2043. Yeah, been there, done that. E.T. phoned home a long time ago in a much […]
Taking Stock – The Second Edition of the Criterion Collection’s Straw Dogs
By Tony Williams. In 2003 Criterion issued a two-disk DVD version of Sam Peckinpah’s controversial Straw Dogs (1971) when the issue of the director’s supposed virulent misogyny and sexism still raised critical debate and strong emotions. Fourteen years later a second edition has now appeared with most of the same […]
Film Scratches: Canaries in the Mine – Focus (2014)
June 26, 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. Focus is a thoughtful, intriguing 7 minute film essay by Simon Welch. The film is a portrait of Pierre, a retired […]
Film Scratches: Meditations on the Vine – Domain and Range (2015)
June 26, 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. Domain and Range is a thoughtful, engrossing 6 minute film essay by Simon Welch, a British artist living in rural France. […]
Film Scratches: Recombinant Modification of Sci Fi – Going Somewhere (2015)
June 26, 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. Something fascinating and strange is going on in Going Somewhere, an ongoing “movie serial” by Michael Betancourt, with individual episodes […]
Eternal Fugitives: Nicholas Ray’s They Live by Night from Criterion
By Tony Williams. Again Criterion have provided us with a welcome reissue of a classic film noir now in a new 2k digital restoration with valuable feature material including the 2007 audio commentary by “Czar of Noir” Eddie Muller and Farley Granger, now sadly no longer with us. (Though available on […]
Cinematic Archeology and the Portrayal of a “Wonder Woman”: Letters from Baghdad
By Martin Kudláč. In the 1996 film The English Patient directed by Anthony Minghella is a scene with British soldiers examining a map. “But can we get through those mountains?” to which another replies “The Bell maps show a way” followed by “Let´s hope he was right.” This reference has […]
The 2017 AFI DOCS Short Films
June 21, 2017
By Gary M. Kramer. The short documentary films at this year’s AFI DOCS ranged from the political to the personal. The political shorts were part of the festival’s “World Views” program. One of the best shorts in this program was Election Night, which chronicled the reactions of a group of […]