By Yun-hua Chen. I think we are always coming of age.” Sophie Jones is a sincere piece of coming-of age stemming from grief experiences of the director Jessie Barr and her cousin Jessica Barr, who plays the eponymous heroine. The film portrays a 16-year-old girl who suffers from the loss […]
Reinforced Perspective: Alan J. Pakula’s The Parallax View (1974)
By Jeremy Carr. Pakula adopts an accordingly striking compositional tension throughout the picture, isolating portions of the frame and dwarfing individuals in an abstract expanse, suggesting both a voyeuristic perspective and an unnerving environmental apprehension.” It might be hard to imagine now, but there was a time when being a […]
On Location, Post-Lockdown: Roger Spottiswoode on Either Side of Midnight
By Matthew Sorrento. Finding the right locations was even more important than usual on this film, because the city life within each location would have to tell the story as much as would the dialogue.” Roger Spottiswoode has had a journeyman’s career. After editing for Sam Peckinpah and others, Spottiswoode […]
Isolation in Contemporary Brooklyn: Tim Sutton’s Funny Face
By Gary M. Kramer. Funny Face may require some work on the viewer’s part to put the pieces together, but for those willing to make the effort, Sutton’s striking drama is ultimately rewarding.” Tim Sutton makes ambitious, hypnotic cinema. His latest effort, Funny Face is another brilliantly shot mood piece […]
Let’s Get Ready to Rubble: Godzilla vs. Kong
By Elias Savada. Over-the-top action (and) ludicrous to the max, yet if you expel all your notions of common sense, there’s a chance you might enjoy it.” A couple of senior citizens – longtime movie icons, too – walk into a big city bar and start a fight. One is […]
Selling the Digital Revolution: Casey Suchan and Tim Cawley on makeSHIFT
By Gary M. Kramer. As a consumer, advertising is intrusive. As an industry, we want to do better. This film and its participants are hopefully an example of that.” makeSHIFT is Casey Suchan and Tim Cawley’s nifty, zippy documentary about how the advertising industry has adapted to technological advances and […]
Animation from Lockdown: An Interview with Matteo Bernardini
By Alex Ramon. I had to invent a style of my own mostly because I am both a director and an illustrator but not an animator…. this is what drew me to think out of the box, becoming aware of both my limits and my strengths.” The recipient of the […]
What’s Seen and Heard: Barak Barkan’s Silence & Darkness
By Johnnie Hobbs III. A subtle indie thriller…chock-full of slow-burning tension and wonderful performances.” When do secrets and control masked as love become acts of sheer violence? The subtly eerie psychological thriller Silence & Darkness looks to explore this question. Led by first-time feature film writer-director Barak Barkan, Silence & […]
From Milquetoast to Mayhem: Ilya Naishuller’s Nobody
By Elias Savada. Suburban, hum-drum life turns into a darkly orchestrated example of a revenge….” As Ilya Naishuller’s Nobody takes its first steps, Hutch Mansell is one glum family man, stuck in a middle-age existence as an alternate-universe Walter Mitty, one with a dormant and well-hidden, action-powered past. But a […]