By Dina Iordanova. My interest, however, is in the festival as a shell – its structure and functionality; the films are a component that is vitally important but also ephemeral. And, in the year 2022, there is a lot to say about how film festivals in Europe emerge post-Covid.” It […]
The Fever Dream of Werner Herzog’s The Twilight World
A Book Review Essay by John Duncan Talbird. Although Hiroda Onoda [as a central character in Werner Herzog’s debut novel] doesn’t carry any of the toxicity of many of Kinski’s roles – misogynist, racist, sense of entitlement, viciousness – he does have what nearly all of Herzog’s characters have, the […]
Myth and History Restored: Aleksandr Ptushko’s Ilya Muromets (The Sword & the Dragon)
By Ken Hall. A visually rich and fast-paced mythic and historical screen epic…the timing of the new restoration by Mosfilm and Craig Rogers is also oddly appropriate given the current warfare in Ukraine, as the courageous defense of Kiev has featured prominently in newscasts. This visually rich and fast-paced mythic […]
Avoiding Complacent, Selective Angles – Woman Up: Invoking Feminism in Quality Television
A Book Review by M. Sellers Johnson. Júlia Havas scrutinizes selective applications of feminist analysis and responds with the charge of provoking media studies scholars to scrutinize those who engage in reductive feminist discourse.” Júlia Havas’s new monograph Woman Up: Invoking Feminism in Quality Television (Wayne State University Press, 2022) […]
Heaven is Overrated: Luke Boyce’s Revealer
By Thomas Puhr. It didn’t go where I expected it to. And at the end of the day, isn’t that just about one of the best things a movie (especially a horror outing) can have going for it?” Watching Luke Boyce’s Revealer (2022) gave me a much-needed lesson in patience. […]
Terror and Trauma: Michael Shannon and Filmmaker Spencer Squire on Abandoned
By Ali Moosavi. I found this character tragic and moving. He had such a traumatic event happen to him and he couldn’t get free of it…. I think that’s something people can identify with….” –Michael Shannon There is a long tradition of movies about a woman or a man psychologically […]
Investigation on the Frontier: Murder at Yellowstone City
By Ken Hall. A serviceable, well-made Western with some compelling characters and excitingly staged action scenes.” Directed by Australian Richard Gray and filmed in Montana, Murder at Yellowstone City appears at the outset to be just another Leone-influenced “realistic” Western. As the narrative progresses, however, the film, scripted by Eric […]
Half-Baked Cosmic Horror: Rich Ragsdale’s The Long Night
By Thomas Puhr. The Stuart Gordon ingredients are indeed there, though the film which precedes this loving dedication fails to do anything interesting with them.” Rich Ragsdale’s The Long Night (2022) – we learn during its end credits – is dedicated to schlock-master Stuart Gordon. This comparison makes sense: the […]
“An Act of Willful Defiance”: Terence Davies’s Benediction
By Theresa Rodewald. Unconventional and even daring while not appearing to be so.” “I am making this statement as an act of willful defiance of military authority because I believe that the war is being deliberately prolonged by those who have the power to end it,” writes poet Siegfried Sassoon […]
5 Billion Hours: Daisuke Miyazaki’s Videophobia (Kani Releasing)
By Thomas Puhr. Despite some striking imagery and a strong central performance, Videophobia never exceeds a low boil.” Daisuke Miyazaki’s Videophobia (2019) begins with an extended masturbation scene. You’d think such an opener would – at the very least – grab the viewer’s attention, but the sequence somehow lands with […]