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. Por Dinero is an engaging portrait of an indigenous family in the remote town of Panixtlahuaca in Oaxaca, Mexico, and the […]
Critic as Programmer: Michał Oleszczyk on Poland’s Gdynia Film Festival
By Paul Risker. Last year saw The Gdynia Film Festival celebrate its 40th edition, the history and lifespan of which greatly dwarfs the brief involvement of its current Artistic Director Michał Oleszczyk, who has just completed his second year in the prestigious role. When one contemplates film as a collaborative medium […]
Paolo Genovese and Perfect Strangers: A Tribeca Interview
May 4, 2016
By Gary M. Kramer. Paolo Genovese’s cheeky comedy-drama Perfect Strangers operates on the simplest—and perhaps riskiest—of principles: if our phones are all “black boxes of information” about us, is there anything in them that could possibly embarrass us in front of our spouses and dearest friends who know us so […]
The Chaplin Machine: Slapstick, Fordism and the Avant-Garde by Owen Hatherley
A Book Review by Tony Williams. Today, it has become a tedious commonplace to listen to erroneous fallacies such as Fukayama’s “The End of History” – to which one can reply, “whose ideologically written history?” Since that time of unquestioned neo-liberal hegemonic control, other issues have appeared, including dismissals of a challenging […]
On “Corporate” Nordic Crime: Natalie Madueño on the Series Follow the Money
April 30, 2016
By Paul Risker. “It would have definitely been another series had it come out before the financial crisis, or it would have had a different reception,” offers actress Natalie Madueño in reflection of the climate that has invariably impacted the new Danish Series Follow The Money (created by Jeppe Gjervig Gram, 2016). More […]
The 2016 Tribeca Festival Report
April 29, 2016
By Gary M. Kramer. The 2016 Tribeca Film Festival, April 13-24, showcased more than 100 features and nearly 75 shorts from 42 countries. The documentaries and foreign films were strongest. Here are reviews of six films—three features, and three documentaries—that were among the more interesting and ambitious films to play […]
All in the Momentum: Ira Sachs on Little Men
April 27, 2016
By Amir Ganjavie. One of the great entries at this year’s Berlinale, Ira Sachs’s Little Men centers on the coming-of-age story of two Brooklyn boys who test their friendship after a conflict between their parents. The challenge of this genre is to avoid the usual boy-meets-a-girl trap that often involves a routine portrayal of budding sexuality. Little […]
Liberation in Trapped: A Conversation with Ólafur Darri Ólafsson
April 25, 2016
By Paul Risker. “The great thing about being an actor from Iceland is that usually you know most of the other actors because it is just a small community,” explains Ólafur Darri Ólafsson. “And so it is an awesome playground to be a part of and to be able to be […]
Variety and Unity: Michal Kosakowski on German Angst
April 19, 2016
By Paul Risker. The question is an integral part of the interview, but equally it was a question that was the spark for Michal Kosakowski, Andreas Marschall and Jörg Buttgereit’s collaboration on the anthology film German Angst (2015). As Kosakowski explained: “Andreas told me about an idea that he’d had for […]
United 93: A Social Conscience and the Ease of Historicism (A 10th Anniversary Retrospective)
By David Ryan. Before United 93 opened ten years ago, the film’s previews were greeted with varying degrees of stress and grief. Although some theaters threatened to pull the previews to allay the pathos of its audience (the wounds still freshly felt in their hearts), only one New York theater […]