By Elias Savada. “Anything can be turned into anything.” So says scruffy, droopy-eyed musician/music producer Nick Koenig, the eponymous subject of writer-producer-director Adam Bhala Lough’s documentary Hot Sugar’s Cold World. Grammy-nominated Koenig, a.k.a. Hot Sugar, and composing as Nick Koenig-Dzialowski likes to think outside the box, pushing his digital recording devices […]
The Big Short: The Funny Side of Financial Collapse
December 22, 2015
By Elias Savada. Mention the words “subprime mortgage” and people start dozing, or leave the room. Hey, you! Yes, you! Wake up. And your friend, get him back in here! Because both of you, my favorite readers, really want to learn about the fine new educational and entertaining film from Adam […]
Expressive Noise: An Interview with Naoki Kato on Carnival Folklore 2045
December 21, 2015
By David Novak. Carnival Folklore 2045 is perhaps the first true Noise film; its development is driven by the Noise that bursts out of the narrative, dominating the landscape of the film and binding the characters together in a mysterious world of sound. Combining the audacious absurdity of B-movie science-fiction kitsch with the […]
The 2015 European Union Film Showcase
December 21, 2015
By Gary M. Kramer. The American Film Institute’s annual European Union Film Showcase screened December 1-20 at the AFI Theater in Silver Spring, Maryland. This year’s program, the festival’s 28th, opened with Spanish filmmaker Fernando León de Aranoa’s comedy-drama A Perfect Day, set in the Balkans, and closed with Radu […]
Awakening the Legacy from Here?: Star Wars: the Force Awakens
By Paul Risker. Stories as in life have no true beginning, middle or end. Rather they are just a series of events running together like a never-ending piece of string that creates the linear structure of time. It is perhaps within the individual chapters that a beginning, a middle and […]
The Real Bad Santas: Monstrous St. Nicks from Around the Globe
By Sotiris Petridis. When we hear “Christmas films” we usually think of family-themed movies, comedies or even rom-coms, but the last thing that comes in mind is horror. Many horror films are based on holiday themes to attract audience members that are cranky about this jolly season. Black Christmas (1974 and […]
Expression/Supression: Gabe Polsky on Red Army
By Paul Risker. If the world is a stage in its own right then one of the enduring and timeless dramas is that of the division between East and West. It is a division that extends from political and communal ideas of otherness to employ sport, art and culture as […]
An Antidote for Loneliness: Dreams Rewired
December 16, 2015
By Jude Warne. “What is the good of all this progress? By overcoming distance we overcome difference.” True – it seems likely that the only route to world peace is the route that points straight ahead – or if not straight, then at least ahead. Because it is most definitely not […]
From Shakespeare to Superheroes: An Interview with Jordan Galland
December 14, 2015
By Tom Ue. Jordan Galland has directed commercials, music videos and three feature films: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Undead (2010), Alter Egos (2012), and Ava’s Possessions (2016). As a recording artist, he has released over a dozen albums of his own songs since 1998 and contributed music to films and […]
Spike Gets His Groove Back: Chi-Raq
December 12, 2015
By Elias Savada. I was ready to give up on Spike Lee after suffering through Red Hook Summer, his 2012 scattershot meditation on the director’s beloved Brooklyn. Lo and behold, the joint man is back in fine iambic pentameter form with the latest adaptation of the ancient Greek dramedy Lysistrata by […]