By Thomas M. Puhr. A portrait of how the celebrity machine thrives on packaging and preserving its subjects as doll-like children who are denied the luxury of developing discernible inner selves.” The opening chords from Alice Coltrane’s “Going Home” accompany an overhead shot of two pristinely pedicured feet creeping along […]
Making Of, The Pulse, and Others on the Side: Selections from the 80th Venice Film Festival
By Ali Moosavi. Gabrielle: I still get eaten up. Vincent: Yes, but you get the shot! –from On the Pulse The side sections of the major film festivals often offer works that are as interesting, or sometimes more interesting, than the films in the main section. Here are a few […]
Things They Don’t Do on Broadway: Selections from the 59th Chicago International Film Festival
By Jonathan Monovich. Reporting from the U.S.’s ‘Second City,’ the home of the North America’s longest running film festival….” The Chicago International Film Festival is the longest running film festival in North America. This year marks the festival’s 59th anniversary. Founded by Michael Kutza, the history of the festival is […]
Collaboration to the Maximum: Jerzy Skolimowski and Ewa Piaskowska on EO
By Nathaniel Bell. More important was the fact that I changed my attitude toward creation. I was enthusiastic again. Young, fresh, and ready for experiments and risks.” –Jerzy Skolimowski Au hasard Balthazar is the only film that made Jerzy Skolimowski cry. In 1966, having recently completed his second feature, the […]
Unearthing the “Story” of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation: Landsberry-Baker and Peeler’s Bad Press
By Jenny Paola Ortega Castillo. If people are not liking you, then you’re doing your job.“ -Angel Ellis Freedom of the press is a fundamental right guaranteed by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution; it has been a cornerstone of American democracy since its ratification in 1791. Nonetheless, […]
The Holdovers: Alexander Payne Rises Again
By Elias Savada. A big, gift-wrapped present filled with sentimentality and lovely, effective performances….” Always a visionary, and one whose seven previous features as a director have garnered considerable acclaim—the sole, gaping-wound exception being 2017’s Downsizing, a disastrous journey into sci-fi dramedy with Matt Damon and Kristen Wiig—director-producer-writer Alexander Payne […]
Action by the Numbers: King of Killers (2023)
By Jeremy Carr. At just 88 minutes, King of Killers moves along at a well enough pace, but when there are lulls in the film it can be as lifeless as so many corpses strewn across the floor.” There’s something to be said for the escapist allure of a big, […]
A Dead-End World: Olmo Schnabel on Pet Shop Days (2023)
By Jonathan Monovich. The story was so grounded in referencing other stories, other films, or other filmmakers, and I just wanted it to feel like something that’s existed for a long time. I didn’t necessarily want it to feel like something new.” Olmo Schnabel’s writing/directorial debut, Pet Shop Days (originally […]
Collective Movements: Lav Diaz on Essential Truths of the Lake
By Yun-hua Chen. In Philippines, we still have very responsible cultural workers, social workers and foundations. We are still fighting. Even in other parts of the world, there are still responsible people. We need this kind of collective movements so that we can mitigate all these nuances of destruction.” In […]
Taking Risks for the Sake of Cinema in Iran: Celluloid Underground and Achilles
By Ali Moosavi. Both these films show the lengths their makers have gone, the enormous risks they’ve taken, all for the sake of cinema.” Two films made by Iranian directors have at least one thing in common: they both show the deep, undying passion that many Iranians have for cinema. […]