By William Blick. Shows the glory of the ever-independent neo-noir film that will be around for a long time.” For me, neo-noir reemerged effectively with Blue Ruin, an underrated Coen brother-esque film that was buzzing around in 2010’s era at the Hampton Film Festival, where I happened to see it. […]
Policies of Migration: Sylvain George on Nuit obscure – Au revoir ici, n’importe où (2023)
By Yun-hua Chen. I don’t want to make a film about political discourses. I don’t want to preach to people. My purpose as a human being is to define and redefine my position in the world. How can we live with absolutely beautiful and totally awful things at the same […]
No Fear of the Boring: Trần Anh Hùng on The Taste of Things/La passion de Dodin Bouffant
By Jonathan Monovich. When you’re making a film, you’re showing characters’ lives and if it’s important, you have to actually show it. You shouldn’t be afraid that you’re going to be boring.” (At the 59th Chicago International Film Festival) For the last thirty years, Trần Anh Hùng has been writing […]
Lost, but Not Dead: London After Midnight
By Gary D. Rhodes. I’ve solved this mystery. You’re at the bottom of it.” – Hibbs (Conrad Nagel), London after Midnight, 1927 Tod Browning’s London after Midnight, released by MGM in 1927, represents America’s first supernatural vampire feature film. Except that it isn’t. It does not depict a supernatural vampire, […]
The Father of the Iranian New Wave: Dariush Mehrjui, 1939-2023
By Ali Moosavi. The discovery of the groundbreaking filmmaker’s body with that of his wife in their home, both stabbed, on Saturday, 14 October (found by their daughter), has sent a shockwave throughout the film community at a troubling time…. The news item was brief: the bodies of the Iranian […]
Falling in Love with Myself: Signe Baume’s My Love Affair with Marriage (2022)
By Jenny Paola Ortega Castillo. The film uses animation to delve deep into the complex tapestry of women’s roles in marriage and the harrowing loss of identity that often accompanies this timeless practice.” I felt like an inflated balloon trying to fit into a shoe box that couldn’t accommodate its […]
Take Your Medicine: Baatar Batsukh’s Aberrance (2022)
By Thomas M. Puhr. Unfortunately, this historical importance, as “the first Mongolian horror feature to be released theatrically in the U.S., is attached to a messy – albeit occasionally inspired – thriller that collapses under one (or two, or three) too many outlandish twists.” Baatar Batsukh’s Aberrance (2022) arrives with […]
She Has Overcome: Joan Baez I Am a Noise
By Elias Savada. A lovely curtain call, offering time for Joan to frame how she ultimately crushed her life-long demons. It’s a heartbreaking journey into the horrifying past and a heartwarming walk into a future of forgiveness.” I always envisioned this legendary folk musician and activist as the Baby Boomer […]
New Voices During Labor Unrest: Selections from the 48th Toronto International Film Festival
By M. Sellers Johnson. The presence of exceptional domestic screenings surely attests to the saliency of the Canadian film industry – a reminder of the importance of local creatives, amidst the large collection of international filmmakers and audiences.” In the early weeks of September, Toronto found itself once more engulfed […]
Life in Plastic, Not Fantastic: Micheal Bafaro’s Don’t Look Away (2023)
By Thomas M. Puhr. If the synopsis sounds familiar, then you’ve probably seen It Follows (2014). Don’t Look Away acknowledges this indebtedness… but this grating self-awareness relies far too heavily on its influences.” A haunted mannequin stalks a group of dimwitted twentysomethings in Micheal Bafaro’s Don’t Look Away (2023). Once […]