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 […]
A Quick Take from Cannes: Zhao Tao on Mountains May Depart
June 23, 2015
By Amir Ganjavie. Jia Zhangke’s Mountains May Depart could be defined as a metaphorical representation of the status of romance in the age of consumerism. By focusing on three different time periods – 1999, 2014, and 2025 – the movie describes how emotions and feelings evolve over time and what […]
The Real Harry Lime: A Restoration of The Third Man (1949)
June 22, 2015
By John Duncan Talbird. What matters in that kind of role is not how many lines you have, but how few. What counts is how much the other characters talk about you. Such a star vehicle really is a vehicle. All you have to do is ride. —from This Is […]
Beauty from Chaos: Filmmakers Kenny Gage and Devon Downs on Anarchy Parlor (2015)
June 21, 2015
By Paul Risker. Anarchy Parlor (2015) is the directorial debut for Kenny Gage and Devon Downs, who along with co-directing this Lithuanian-set horror, together co-wrote the picture. Whether Anarchy Parlor will follow in the footsteps of Eli Roth’s Hostel (2005) and hurt the Lithuanian tourist trade, for what would certainly […]