By Thomas M. Puhr. Even at its bleakest – and it features some shockingly meanspirited turns of fate – the film keeps one eye on being a good time at the movies.” Francis Galluppi’s The Last Stop in Yuma County (2023) opens with a bird sitting atop an empty pump […]
Be Kind, Rewind: Kim’s Video
By Jonathan Monovich. More than anything, Kim’s Video proves that physical media for many is much more than nostalgic, it is a way of life.” Since their inception, video stores have been places of sacred proportions for film fanatics. Lance Lawson’s legendary Manhattan Beach video store, Video Archives, famously helped […]
Representative of a Global Tradition – Arab World Cinemas: A Reader and Guide
A Book Review by Ali Moosavi. Its format of selecting representative films from various parts of the Arab world and analyzing them in detail is quite refreshing and very conducive to understanding the cinema from these parts of the world.” Any book with the title “Arab World Cinemas” immediately raises […]
On an “Interior” Documentary: Filmmaker Rachel Elizabeth Seed on A Photographic Memory
By M. Sellers Johnson. I loved the idea that I could convey the interior of my imagination in my documentary and that it could be anything, like a narrative film, because no one can argue with your imagination. And yet, it’s really my story, and these are real people.” Documentarian […]
Strength in Representation: Filmmaker Jen Rainin on the Queer Doc Ahead of the Curve
By Brad Windhauser. My producing partner, Rivkah Beth Medow, and I kept talking about how frustrated we were with the lack of nuanced, well-told stories that represented strong queer women. We just weren’t seeing very many of them….” Jen Rainin’s excellent documentary Ahead of the Curve (2023), which debuted on […]
“A Dying Man, Scared of the Dark”: Don Siegel’s The Shootist (Arrow Video)
By Jeremy Carr. Just as crucial to The Shootist is what Books leaves behind, which, prior to the beginning of the film, was nothing more than his dubious exploits and the tales that followed. By the end of the film, though, there is something more.” It obviously isn’t necessary to […]
James Bond Before James Bond: Guy Ritchie’s The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare
By Jonathan Monovich. Not as in-your-face as Ritchie’s earliest work… yet there is still plenty to please fans….” Guy Ritchie has become well-known for his distinct style, easily recognized by quick cuts, lively transitions, intersecting plotlines, witty dialogue, and dark humor. This unique style, which audiences have come to love, […]
Taking Martial Arts Practice to the Movies: Filmmaker Jim Towns and Actor-Producer Jose Luis Torres II on Killer Ex
By Matthew Sorrento. In so many films, heroes have this unlimited, almost inhuman stamina, but anyone who’s done any sparring knows just how fast you get totally exhausted during physical combat. I think being mindful of something like that when directing a fight scene both humanizes a character….” –Killer-Ex Director […]
Man vs. Wild: Hundreds of Beavers
By Jonathan Monovich. An example as to why silent comedy is timeless despite the disbelief of many.” Whereas Lake Michigan Monster (2018) was a whacky take on films like Roger Corman’s Creature from the Haunted Sea (1961) and Curtis Harrington’s Night Tide (1961), Mike Cheslik/Ryland Brickson Cole Tews’ follow-up, Hundreds […]
Civil War: A Depressing Wake-Up Call
By Elias Savada. Dystopia never looked so depressing.” It’s not a far cry — from today’s escalating political dissention that is breaking apart friends and family — to the near-future possibility that is Alex Garland’s bleak world view in Civil War. It’s a savage and savaged county (not unlike the […]