By Martin Kudláč. International Film Festival Rotterdam that built its brand on investigating, gathering and curating the future of the world cinema through a long-term focus on emerging auteurs and discoveries possessing an innovative style and/or bold artistic vision started a new chapter in its fifth decade last year. The festival […]
The Aesthetic Majesty of King Hu: A Touch of Zen on Criterion
By Tony Williams. As I write, hours tick away for the latest unimportant event in film history – the Hollywood Academy Awards which will have millions glued to their television sets totally unware both of its worthless significance and the nauseating spectacle of a meritless institution narcissistically patting itself on […]
Ready, Ink, Go!: 24 Hour Comic
By Elias Savada. Ever wonder what it’s like to spend a long day in the life with a comic book artist? Or maybe eight of them? Dream no more, as 24 Hour Comic offers an interesting look inside the creative minds of some of the disposable/collectible medium’s brightest architects, when […]
Between the Cultural and the Personal: Javid Rezai and Afsaneh Dehrouyeh on Pegah
February 27, 2017
By Ali Moosavi. Short narrative films are perhaps the most unseen and neglected branch in cinema industry’s output. In recent years, documentaries, another branch of cinema which received relatively little exposure, have really grown in stature, and many documentaries, as well as being shown in dedicated festivals and various TV channels, […]
Get Out: Belated Misjudgments
By Christopher Sharrett. I was curious about Jordan Peele’s film Get Out. I heard rumors that it was a riposte to Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967), that bizarre mistake by the good-hearted Stanley Kramer, where a young white woman (Katharine Houghton) takes her black fiancé (Sidney Poitier) home to […]
Just Do It!: Get Out
February 24, 2017
By Elias Savada. You don’t need to be creative when making a low budget horror film. They can suck, yet are usually profitable with just a video-on-demand deal. Getting an on-the-cheap scary picture to register positively in the public’s mind is another story. I definitely get the feeling that Blumhouse, the […]
Film Scratches: Navigating the System – The Ensemble of Rules (2015)
February 19, 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. The Ensemble of Rules, a feature film by Eliseo Ortiz about the process of becoming a naturalized US citizen, combines documentary […]
Film Scratches: Camera + Hormones = Snooping: Stop (2014)
February 19, 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. Stop, a 28-minute short by Lydia Janbay and Matt O’Connell, realistically recreates the look of a VHS home video circa 1995, […]
A Big Crumble: The Great Wall
By Elias Savada. So, let’s get to the big question you’re asking your mirror. Is Matt Damon’s new fantasy action movie the greatest wall of them all? Well, for big screen entertainment, including those of you who like this sort of FX-driven, over-stylized, popcorn munching diversion, The Great Wall is […]
Condition: Cloudy – A Patch of Fog
February 15, 2017
By Elias Savada. Irish director Michael Lennox has been to the Oscars – for his 2014 film Boogaloo and Graham, a heartwarming comedy short. It lost, but at least people (well, Academy voters) saw it. Now, Lennox has gone over to the dark side with his feature debut, A Patch of […]