By William Repass. Newton’s Third Law does not hold sway in Argentine filmmaker Damián Szifron’s Wild Tales (Relatos salvajes, 2014). On the contrary, action leads only to overreaction, effect revenging itself on cause. Each of the six thematically interlocking shorts that comprise the film advances by means of escalation. In […]
Discovering Mary Pickford
By Tony Williams. The title of this article has a double meaning. It is primarily a reworking of that lavishly illustrated and meticulously researched 1999 publication Mary Pickford Rediscovered written by someone (Kevin Brownlow) who already knew her work and had the privilege of once meeting the 70 plus year-old […]
The 2015 AFI Docs Festival Report
July 1, 2015
By Gary M. Kramer. The AFI Docs film festival showcased more than 50 feature and short length documentaries in Washington, DC, and Silver Spring, MD venues. Here is a rundown of two World Premieres from the fest—1st and 17 and The Three Hikers—as well as reviews of several documentaries from the […]
A New World: Marie Tourell Søderberg on the Series 1864
June 29, 2015
By Paul Risker. There are those projects that stand out in stark contrast to what has gone before, which engulf the individuals involved. 1864 (2014) is one of those moments, and as the young Danish actress Marie Tourell Søderberg, who stars in the epic war drama, explains: “This is by […]
Big Game (2015): Hi/Low Concept
June 28, 2015
By Elias Savada. If Oskari Kontio, the cautious, newly-minted 13-year-old boy that is half of the unusual buddy team in Big Game, were Jewish, he’s having one heck of a Bar Mitzvah day. Theme: Wilderness Action Adventure on wry. Finnish writer-director Jalmari Helander, in his English-language feature debut, is throwing […]
Slow Coen-esque West
June 27, 2015
By Elias Savada. John Ford’s nowhere to be found. Stagecoach (1939) has left the building. There’s also no widescreen, large-ensemble-driven Silverado (1985) on the golden western horizon. Slow West is the latest film that tries to reinvent a genre that has died off more times than John Wayne can remember. And he’s […]
The “Czar of Noir” on TCM’s Summer of Darkness
June 26, 2015
By Matthew Sorrento. The “Czar of Noir” Eddie Muller needs no introduction. Over the past two decades, he has become what we could describe as a public intellectual for golden age cinema. If not the scholar of film noir that Foster Hirsch or James Naremore may be, Muller has offered […]
Call Me Lucky: Bobcat, Crimmins, and American Culture
June 26, 2015
By Paul Risker. I was fortunate enough a few years back now to be in the opening night audience when Bobcat Goldthwait opened proceedings at the 14th installment of Film4 FrightFest. The electricity that he can radiate from that place upon the stage is a remarkable feat. Although I had the […]
Seeking the Intimate in The Overnight
June 25, 2015
By Paul Risker. Film cannot escape the inevitable measure of its worth – how close the pendulum of critical and spectatorial judgment swings towards success or failure. For some, the box office gross is the measure of success, while for others the subjective uncertainty of creative merit or the satisfying […]
PIXAR Goes Inside Out on Us
June 24, 2015
By Elias Savada. What’s PIXAR gonna dream up next? Something about singing taste buds, perhaps? How out this for a ticklish tale of palace intrigue: Spicy Salsa (Sofia Vergara), Dour Sour (Jim Parsons), Mr. Salty (Kevin Spacey), and Grace Bitter (Melissa McCarthy) band together in a scrumptious comedy about a […]