By Christopher Weedman. The Criterion Collection deserves to be commended for their continued efforts to bring greater attention to the underappreciated films of director Ermanno Olmi. It is regrettable that, over the past fifty years, this Italian filmmaker’s deeply humanist oeuvre has largely lived in the critical shadows of the […]
Home Is Where the Hermit Is: Wakefield
By Elias Savada. There is a hidden recluse swirling around our theaters (and video on demand), and his name is Wakefield. Please go find him. While Howard Wakefield seems normal enough when first spotted in the hustle and bustle crowds pushing air about the streets of New York City, his […]
Cannes 2017 Wrap-up: Four from the Official Competition and Un Certain Regard
May 28, 2017
By Ali Moosavi. In A Gentle Creature, by the Ukrainian director Sergei Loznitsa which played at the Cannes Official Competition, a woman in a Russian village receives a parcel, which she had sent to her husband in prison, as undelivered. She sets out to go to town and personally hand in […]
REEL EAST FILM FESTIVAL 2017 Full Schedule Announced: Saturday, June 17
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Please Contact reeleastfilm@gmail.com for more information Third Annual REEL EAST FILM FESTIVAL Full Schedule Announced, Saturday, June 17, 2017; Tiela Garnett, followed by World Premiere of Sickness and other local premieres Cherry Hill, NJ (May 28, 2017) – The Reel East Film Festival (REFF), […]
Not Your Grandfather’s Raging Bull: The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Mäki
May 26, 2017
By Elias Savada. Aki Kaurismäki may have to scooch over a bit to make room in the upper tier of Finnish cinema for thirty-something director Juho Kuosmanen. While Kaurismäki’s deadpan style has spanned 18 features since 1983, the 60-year-old auteur said his latest film, The Other Side of Hope, would be […]
24 Frames: A Sad Goodbye to Kiarostami (Cannes 2017 Review)
May 25, 2017
By Ali Moosavi. The late Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami’s last film, 24 Frames, was shown as a special event of the 70th Cannes Film Festival, bringing an innovative, masterful career to an end. His words introduce the project best: I first conceived of 24 Frames while reflecting on the works of iconic painters whose […]
Moody and Improved: Sofia Coppola’s The Beguiled (Cannes 2017 Review)
May 25, 2017
By Ali Moosavi. Sofia Coppola’s decision to remake Don Siegel’s 1971 film The Beguiled (in Official Competition at this year’s Cannes), seems on the surface as strange and intriguing as Coen Brothers’ remake of Henry Hathaway’s True Grit. Both films had been made from a novel adaptation by directors with a […]
Bright and Bleak: Wind River (Cannes 2017 Review)
By Ali Moosavi. Taylor Sheridan has written the script for a couple of terrific thrillers recently: Sicario and Hell or High Water. This year he is in Cannes in the Un Certain Regard section as a director with another great noir, Wind River (only his second feature after 2011’s little […]
Super Troopers, or Super Dupers? Superheroes on World Screens, Edited by Rayna Denison and Rachel Mizsei-Ward
A Book Review by Tony Williams. Before you can say “Meryl Streep”, “Mamma Mia”, “Shazam”, in addition to the many superheroes and heroines and recent critical studies, Superheroes on World Screens (University Press of Mississippi, 2016) co-edited by two “Wonder Women” appears. Despite the earlier necessary demolition done by William Klein […]
Haneke Does Happy: Happy End (Cannes 2017 Review)
By Ali Moosavi. Michael Haneke’s new film Happy End played at the Official Competition section at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. Haneke is a Cannes veteran, having won the Palm d’Or for Amour and The White Ribbon, Best Director for Hidden, and Grand Jury Prize for The Piano Teacher. Happy End […]