By Gary M. Kramer. The New York Film Festival is a terrific showcase for shorts, and this year, there are four short film programs with international, genre, animation, and New York themes that feature many worthwhile films. Here is a sampling of the best shorts from each anthology. In the […]
Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation: The Indefatigable Action Spectacle
September 14, 2015
By Kyle Huffman. Every action movie relies on the audience’s suspension of disbelief regarding the humanity and dexterity of its star. Some, like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone, portray themselves as tank-like monuments of granite that through sheer force of will annihilate all in their path. Others, like Bruce Willis […]
Nordic Cat-and-Mouse: on the Series Øyevitne (Eyewitness)
September 14, 2015
By Paul Risker. The latest Nordic series Øyevitne (Eyewitness, 2014) adds to the UK audience’s seemingly insatiable demand for foreign language crime drama, particularly from the Nordic sphere. With yet another strong female character whose strength emerges through less her physical prowess and more her cerebral and spirited personality, Øyevitne’s […]
Emily Booth: Putting a Face to Television Horror as Presenter of Horror Channel
September 13, 2015
By Cleaver Patterson. Emily Booth has a wealth of experience both in front of and behind the camera. As a result, the British horror actress and face of television’s popular Horror Channel is better placed than most to comment on the current state of the horror genre, and its place […]
BFI London Film Festival 2015: Festival Programme Launch
September 13, 2015
By Cleaver Patterson. In the February 1984 issue of films magazine Derek Malcom, the newly appointed Director of the London Film Festival, introduced himself with a bold statement, claiming that “the LFF is known all over the world as one of the best-organised and best presented in the business”. Now, over […]
FILM4 FrightFest 2015 Interview: Adam Mason on Hangman
September 13, 2015
By Paul Risker. Every filmmaker has a story and English filmmaker Adam Mason’s began with a resilience in an hostile landscape. Looking back on the early part of his career during which time he tried to forge a path into filmmaking he explained: “I ended up making music videos as […]
Film Scratches: Janie Geiser on the Life of Objects
September 10, 2015
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. An Interview by David Finkelstein. Janie Geiser has been making objects come alive in performance works since 1981 and in films since 1989. She has […]
2015 DC Shorts Film Festival: September 10-20, 2015
September 8, 2015
By Elias Savada. I love shorts. Bermudas. Boxers. Short’s Brewing of Michigan. (Yes, there is a beer tie-in. Read on.) But for this column, I’m talking film shorts. And I guess most of them aren’t even shot on film anymore. Video, digital, etc. But they’re all great for little emotional […]
Who Needs Enemies? — Getting Acquainted with Eddie Coyle and His Friends
September 7, 2015
By Jeremy Carr. In The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973), Eddie Coyle sure could use a friend. Surrounded by many, known by even more, with a family and with former and current partners in crime, Eddie is nevertheless alone. He is a tragically solitary figure whose perhaps naive earnestness leaves […]
Coixet in the Dark: A Conversation on Another Me
September 6, 2015
By Paul Risker. The Catalonian filmmaker Isabel Coixet has moved beyond her native tongue to work in various languages that crisscross lingual borders to create both single and bilingual narratives. But for Coixet these dialects are simply part of a larger language that combines them all. As she explains: “I […]