By Jessica Baxter. Co-directors Jean-Loup Felicioli and Alain Gagnol follow up their Oscar nominated film, A Cat in Paris, with Phantom Boy, a film that is perplexingly set in New York City, though everything else about it is as French as can be including the humor and animation style. The script […]
A Film of its Time: Spies, Fritz Lang’s Enduring Espionage Thriller
August 18, 2016
By Jeremy Carr. Fritz Lang’s Spies gets underway with a burst of kinetic energy, its first 15 minutes or so a case study in the advancement, endurance, and perhaps surprising vibrancy of late silent cinema. Released in 1928, this crime-thriller has a rapid-fire opening that drops the viewer headlong into […]
Lo and Behold – Can You Hear Me Now?
August 18, 2016
By Elias Savada. Werner Herzog’s documentaries tend to explore interesting lands or unusual people: the Chauvet caves in France (2010’s Cave of Forgotten Dreams), the frozen beauty of Antarctica (2007’s Encounters at the End of the World), or bear lover Timothy Treadwell (2005’s Grizzly Man) Now he catches up to something we find around […]
Time in “the Shack”: A Fuller Life
By Tony Williams. “The hatemongers and reactionaries are the most loathsome thorns in the eye of a great Democracy. Every generation has its own and they must be fought and defeated” (William Friedkin reading from A Third Face [2002] by Samuel Fuller). A Fuller Life is a daughter’s cinematic tribute to […]
La Chienne: Renoir Begins
By Christopher Sharrett. While the film is credited with bringing German Expressionism to French cinema and thus another step toward film noir, the film is notable for its sense of stillness….” My title is a bit misleading, since Jean Renoir made a number of films in the silent era (none […]
Under the Sun: Unmasking North Korean Propaganda
By Johannes Schönherr. Under the Sun, a documentary by Soviet-born and -raised director Vitaly Mansky, starts off like an slice of life type of cinéma vérité, filmed in the winter dawn hours in downtown Pyongyang. The city looks grey and run-down, and the streets between the aging apartment blocks are […]
Film Scratches: Patterns of Violence – Blind Spot (2014)
August 12, 2016
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. Blind Spot is a 9 minute short by Cristin Hughes made from clips appropriated from commercial films such as Basic Instinct, […]
Inspiring and Unsettling: Miss Sharon Jones!
August 12, 2016
By Jude Warne. Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings are a seasoned, air-tight, top-notch funk-soul band. Via Jones’ musical talents and Bosco Man/Gabriel Roth’s analog recording and band leading genius, the group has managed to bring back the 60s funk and soul sound to our modern era, infusing it with a vibrant […]
Q-ing Up Some Comedy from India: Qaushiq Mukherjee and Naman Ramachandran on Brahman Naman
August 10, 2016
By Paul Risker. Indian musician, composer and producer A. R. Rahman has said: “Comedy is a universal language. I grew up watching Nagesh, Surilirajan, Thenga Srinivasan and S.V. Shekhar’s comedies. And, of course, Charlie Chaplin! These artists are so blessed: they can make other people happy.” One of the gifts of […]
Seeking the Cityscapes of Toronto: An Interview with Eric Henry
August 9, 2016
By Tom Ue. Seek is the directorial debut of Eric Henry. The film, made and set in Toronto, follows the story of a young writer (Adrian Shepherd-Gawinski) who profiles a club promoter (Ryan Fisher). The film was an Official Selection of the Toronto LGBT Film Festival 2014. Congratulations on your directorial […]