By Elias Savada. Summer, 2014. Versailles. Boyhood. Road trip. That’s a possible tagline description of Microbe & Gasoline (Microbe et Gasoil), Michel Gondry’s low-key, coming-of-age ramble through the French countryside by a pair of 14-year-old boys. This is not your usual flight of fancy that Gondry fans are wont to expect. […]
Announcing George Toles’ Paul Thomas Anderson (University of Illinois Press, 2016)
July 13, 2016
The new study of Paul Thomas Anderson’s films by critic, screenwriter, and occasional Film International contributor George Toles (author of A House Made of Light: Essays on the Art of Film, and co-writer of the screenplays for The Saddest Music in the World, Brand Upon the Brain!, Keyhole, and others) will appear in […]
Big in Europe – Eat That Question: Frank Zappa in His Own Words
July 12, 2016
By John Duncan Talbird. Frank Zappa was a man of his time even while remaining an iconoclast and pushing back against whatever counted as “pop culture” at the moment. He was seen as a “freak” by mainstream America and revered in hippie culture in the sixties and seventies even as he […]
A Swing and a Miss: The Phenom
By Elias Savada. Recruited out of high school, Hopper Gibson (Johnny Simmons) is professional baseball’s latest pitching sensation, but, like the cracked face of his iPhone, his mental mechanics are off. A case of the yips is sending his tosses to the North Pole. Baseball may be his passion, but […]
In Need of Tech Support: Beta Test
July 10, 2016
By Elias Savada. In an attempt to meld the pc gaming world with that of modest-budget movie-making, Beta Test doesn’t score many points. Opening in 15 AMC theatres and Seattle’s SIFF Cinema Uptown (the film was shot in Seattle and Lake Forest Park, Washington) on July 22nd, this is a hybrid […]
Son of Saul: Versions of the Irrational
By Christopher Sharrett. I have been meaning for some time to put pen to paper about last year’s superb achievement by Laszlo Nemes, Son of Saul, but have hesitated for various reasons, not least of which was that any comment by me on the film would as this point seem […]
Film Scratches: Odd Intersections – Inside/outside (DOGS VIII) (2014)
July 7, 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. Inside/outside (DOGS VIII) by Berlin-based artist Enkidu rankX is a four minute video study of the view from a Berlin streetcar. […]
Not My Kind of Film: Our Kind of Traitor
July 6, 2016
By Elias Savada. I wasn’t attracted to the ruffled, ordinary couple at the core of the latest big screen John le Carré adaptation, which, I believe, is the tenth feature birthed from the writings of 84-year-old British author, responsible for nearly two-dozen best-selling spy fiction novels. Ewan McGregor and Naomie Harris […]
A Question of the Medium: Scott of the Antarctic (1949)
July 5, 2016
By Paul Risker. Humanity shares a love-hate relationship with the planet. Our ongoing rape and exploitation of it has been reciprocated, in a way, by nature’s propensity for devastating violence, none of which has either been conscious or discriminatory. Rather deliberate cruelty is the preserve of humanity. The Antarctic continent and […]
Recap of the 21st Annual San Francisco Silent Film Festival
By Michael T. O’Toole. For those who enjoy a good silent film, you’ll seldom find a more a captivating outlet than the stylish San Francisco Silent Film Festival (held this year between June 2-5). It’s an overwhelming aesthetic treat: the fine period wardrobe of the attendees; the savvy, academic discussions; […]