By Jacob Mertens. At some point in watching modern spy films—be they centered around James Bond, Jason Bourne, Jack Ryan, et al.—viewers can lose sight of the fact that being a spy is a job. As with any job, moments of exhilaration are matched with moments of mundanity, and a […]
By the Starlight: An Interview with April Wright on Going Attractions
August 13, 2014
By Paul Risker. On Saturday the 23 August two inaugural moments separated by eight decades are scheduled to converge when Going Attractions: The Definitive Story of the American Drive-in Movie (2013) screens at the first annual Reel East Film Festival in Oaklyn, Camden County, New Jersey. Is it a coincidence that […]
I am Cuba at 50
August 11, 2014
By James Knight. “My sugar was carried away on ships, but my tears were left behind.” This year marks the fiftieth birthday of Mikhail Kalatozov’s classic film I am Cuba. Not in the half decade since has a film been so effective in its portrayal of history. It is a […]
Wertham in Context: An Interview with Robert A. Emmons Jr. on Diagram for Delinquents
By Tom Ue. Robert A. Emmons Jr. is a documentary filmmaker. His films include: Enthusiast: The 9th Art (2001), Smalltown USA (2005), Goodwill: The Flight of Emilio Carranza (2007), Wolf at the Door (2008), YARDSALE! (2008), and De Luxe: The Tale of Blue Comet (2010). Goodwill has had the privilege […]
Making Personas: Transnational Film Stardom in Modern Japan (2013)
August 6, 2014
A Book Review by Carmen Siu. Earlier this year, Avril Lavigne garnered considerable negative attention for her ‘Hello Kitty’ music video. Filmed in Tokyo, the video features an enthusiastic Lavigne jumping around in stereotypical Japanese locales, like a clothing boutique, a candy store and a sushi bar, backed by four expressionless […]
In the Post-Mod Shadow: An Interview with Wayne Kramer
August 6, 2014
By Paul Risker. Writer-director of The Cooler (2003) and Running Scared (2006), Wayne Kramer has worked exclusively in independent cinema since the early 1990s. Once again, he walks the line between insider and outlier with Pawn Shop Chronicles (2013, renamed Hustlers for the UK release). Speaking with Film International, Kramer […]
Wherever in the Landscape: ArtFilm 2014
August 5, 2014
By Robert Buckeye. Cannes may be a place, but it is not place as we understand it, except as it exists as cinephilia on a screen. Berlin is a place, its past always brought to bear whenever the city or its people are mentioned. At ArtFilmFest in Trenčianske Teplice and […]
Bonded by Flicks: Woody Wise and Inda Reid on a 30-Year Brotherhood
By Irv Slifkin. For 30 years, Woody Wise has entertained his friends on Saturdays in his Los Angeles-area home. The fun usually starts with donuts or bagels in the morning, followed by a healthy serving of a movie serial, a short subject or a “B” western and a vintage feature […]
Alive Inside: Reconnecting the Self, with Sound
August 2, 2014
By Paul Risker. Earth: a world of sound within a vacuum, despite the best efforts of science fiction to convince us otherwise. Then there is the metaphysical question of a tree falling in a forest that confronts the very ontology of sound. In my own contemplation of music there are two […]
Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
August 1, 2014
By James Teitelbaum. The coolest thing about Joss Whedon’s film The Avengers (2012) is that it exists. The notion that four major Marvel Comics heroes (The Incredible Hulk, Thor, Iron Man, and Captain America) could each appear in their own individual movies, and then be brought together in a team-up […]