By Lisa Perrott, Holly Rogers, and Carol Vernallis. Beyoncé calls Lemonade a “visual album.” There’s been buzz about the image of Beyoncé smashing up cars, and a lot of talk about the autobiographical themes of the lyrics (lines like “better call Becky with the good hair” have been getting attention for the […]
The 35th Istanbul Film Festival
June 2, 2016
By Rob Lewis. Tickets? Check. Popcorn? Check. Bottle of water? Check. Notebook? Check. Festival Guide? Check. It’s 107 minutes long. That means if I leave before the credits and take a taxi, I can reach the Feriye in time for the 7 p.m. showing. Isn’t that my old teacher/classmate/someone I once chatted […]
A Journey of Lost Souls: Dheepan
June 2, 2016
By Elias Savada. French director-writer Jacques Audiard, a multiple Cannes Film Festival prize nominee and winner, and constant trophy collector at the César (French Oscar) ceremonies, should find a welcoming audience here in America with Dheepan. Here’s a brave, bittersweet tale about three unrelated Sri Lankan refugees cast adrift in France, […]
The Paranoid Political Thriller Three Days of the Condor
June 2, 2016
By Chris Neilan. They may never have matched the creative successes of Scorsese & De Niro, the genre-defining feats of John Wayne & John Ford, or earned the cinephile kudos of Allen & Keaton, but as director-star partnerships go it’s hard to beat Sidney Pollack and Robert Redford for longevity […]
Nathan Adloff on Volleyball, Technology, and the 90s of Miles
By Tom Ue. Nathan Adloff made his feature film debut with Nate & Margaret, for which he was director, co-writer, and producer. It sold for worldwide distribution prior to completion and received a commendatory review from Roger Ebert. Nathan acted in Joe Swanberg’s early films and IFC series. His short film […]
Park Row: Spotlight’s Other Forefather
May 28, 2016
By Paul Risker. It would be all too easy to label Tom McCarthy’s Spotlight (2015) as this generation’s All the President’s Men (1976). Alan J. Pakula’s film, based on the Watergate scandal, featuring Washington Post journalists Bob Woodward (Robert Redford) and Carl Bernstein (Dustin Hoffman), has the status of a […]
In Praise of Susan Oliver: The Green Girl (2014)
May 26, 2016
By Tony Williams. “She was so much more than the Green woman in Star Trek” (George Pappy DVD audio-commentary). “What I knew I didn’t want was to just get married and become a housewife and lose my identity.” (Oliver: 81) Produced and directed by George Pappy, who also co-wrote the script […]
An Under-Nourishing Meal: Sunset Song
May 26, 2016
By Elias Savada. Terence Davies does love his literary adaptations. His 2011 romantic drama The Deep Blue Sea was based on Terence Rattigan’s 1952 play of post-war relationships gone bad. Three of Davies’ features spring from the books of others, including The Neon Bible (1996) and The House of Mirth (2000), […]
The Mind as Camera: Of Walking in Ice by Werner Herzog
May 25, 2016
A Book Review by John Duncan Talbird. In November 1974, when Werner Herzog was thirty-two, he walked from Munich to Paris, over five hundred miles in three weeks. Herzog had received word that his friend and mentor, film critic and historian Lotte Eisner, was gravely ill and would probably die. Struck […]
Too Short on Criticism?
By Paul Risker. “The point is ladies and gentlemen that greed, for lack of a better word, is good.” – Gordon Gekko in Wall Street (1987) Desire is both a life sustaining and a destructive force, from which derives the human sin of greed. While desire is an emotional experience […]