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. Orphine is an intricate and complex 12-minute short on mythic themes by Sarahjane Swan and Roger Simian. The video is based […]
Playing with Horror and Drama in Journey to the Shore
July 23, 2016
By Chris Neilan. Directors who blend genre elements with an arthouse sensibility are rarely short of fans or plaudits. Take new darling of the American independent scene Jeremy Saulnier, whose career-making sophomore feature Blue Ruin (2013) applied a realist monkey-wrench to the nuts and bolts of the revenge thriller. Or […]
Looking Death in the Face: Iben Hjejle on Dicte – Crime Reporter
By Paul Risker. There is an ironic thread connecting the childhood of Danish actress Iben Hjejle to her adult self. Describing herself as having an obsession with death as a child, she now finds herself cast in the lead role in a crime series caught in death’s shadow. Prior to Dicte […]
Irreverent, and Set in ’78: Carnage Park
By Elias Savada. With big nods toward Quentin Tarantino (Reservoir Dogs), Wes Craven (The Hills Have Eyes), and Sam Peckinpah (The Wild Bunch, Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia), twenty-something writer-director Mickey Keating has chomped down on a big slab of 1970s grindhouse meat and spat out Carnage Park, […]
The Beautifully ‘Dressed’ Wicked Lady
July 20, 2016
By Cleaver Patterson. One has to question why some filmmakers see fit to remake films which were considered classics the first time round – is there so little original material and imagination out there that they have to revert to old material for inspiration? Take for instance 1945’s exquisite British […]
Mustang: Wars Against Women – Turkey
By Christopher Sharrett. It occurs to me that the best (the only?) films seriously challenging the current international War on Women come from Europe, Asia, the Middle East, often by women filmmakers either unknown by many without access to foreign films, or quickly forgotten, because they cannot afford a second […]
The Grisly Bare Bones of Triple-9
By Paul Risker. “Bare bones thrown to a hungry dog…do nothing to appease its hunger.” – Thich Nhat Hanh, Thundering Silence: Commentaries on the Sutra on Knowing the Better Way to Catch a Snake (2009). On the surface it may feel strange to see such a philosophical thought in a film review […]
Film Scratches: Dancing with Trees – Lilong (2009)
July 18, 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. The title of Valentina Ferrandes’ 11 minute short Lilong refers to something conspicuously absent in the film itself. The notes for […]
A Lover of Dreams, But Not Freud: Michel Gondry on Microbe & Gasoline
By Matthew Sorrento. Though obviously concerned with the dream life, Michel Gondry also focuses on the desires we have while awake. As an artist he aims to deliver dreamlike visions in relatable movie scenes. The variety of his surreal features – Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2003), The Science of Sleep […]
Not As Pale As Expected: Paul Feig’s Ghostbusters
July 15, 2016
By Elias Savada. Yes, there has been a lot of discussion – some quite vocal and inanely misogynistic – about the new Ghostbusters, an all-female cast reboot of the endearing 1984 film classic that spawned an animated television series, some video games, and an unending (and quite fascinating) trivia entry on […]