By Rod Lott. If “fun” sounds like an odd word to apply to a Belgium-lensed beaut this art-minded, this patient, the slow burner eventually catches enough fire to earn the distinction.” Prematurely celebrating its 50th anniversary with a new 4K restoration courtesy of Blue Underground is 1971’s Daughters of Darkness. […]
A Scorching Slow Burn: Paul Schrader’s The Comfort of Strangers
By Jeremy Carr. Lingering apprehension goes on and on like some unyielding, if seemingly uneventful dream, which befits the film’s surreal and otherworldly constitution.” Colin and Mary (Rupert Everett and Natasha Richardson) are two English tourists on holiday in Venice, and they’re hungry. The hotel concierge directs them to a […]
Jorge Ameer Does the Yuletide Decorating with The Family Tree
By Elias Savada. No doubt the film is somewhat stifled by its technical faults (at least in my online viewing). The Family Tree offers up a spiritual dish in a different setting, probably outside your comfort zone.” Panamanian indie filmmaker Jorge Ameer’s name (and initials) is all over the place […]
A RomCom during Ramadan: Mike Mosallam on Breaking Fast
By Ali Moosavi. It is a romantic comedy about how people live their lives and how people love each other. I think nobody should watch this film and say here is what it means to be a Muslim, because there is no one way to be a Muslim.” REVIEW When […]
Two Tales of the Border: Identifying Features and No Man’s Land
Identifying Features By Gary M. Kramer. The austere approach of Identifying Features contributes to the film’s haunting quality,,,,, (while) No Man’s Land‘s bluntness is why it is ineffective.” Two films that deal with characters crossing the U.S.-Mexican border are being released January 22. Identifying Features is a potent drama, but […]
In a Feature Debut, Things Come to an End: David Färdmar on Are We Lost Forever
By Tom Ue. David Färdmar’s new film Are We Lost Forever explores what happens at the end of a picture-perfect relationship: Adrian’s (Björn Elgerd) and Hampus’ (Jonathan Andersson) partnership seems built to last. They are materially secure, and they are, for all appearances, compatible. One day, Hampus decides that the […]
I Thank You: The Arthur Askey Story
The Ghost Train (1941) A Book Review by Tony Williams. Meticulously researched, accessible to all readers, and full of Anthony Slide’s usual discerning comments, it is an important study of one of Britain’s most misunderstood popular entertainers. For American and U.K. counterparts interested in the British past and watching Talking […]
Film Scratches: January 2021
Film Scratches is a blog by David Finkelstein focusing on the world of experimental and avant-garde film, especially as practiced by individual artists. It features a mixture of reviews, interviews, and essays. Theory versus Practice: Letters from Vancouver (1973) Canadian filmmaker Kirk Tougas made his film diptych Letters from Vancouver in 1973, and […]
Another Round: Drinking (and Dancing) in the Age of Apocalypse
By Greg Burris. A film that manages to peer beyond the horizon at a time when doing so has become impossible for so many of us.” Films do not often bring me to tears. Even less often do those tears come in the first twenty minutes of the movie. Danish […]
Another Liam Neeson Roadside Distraction: Robert Lorenz’s The Marksman
By Elias Savada. A lackluster affair, sporting cardboard characters and gag-worthy clichés.” Just a few months ago Liam Neeson was fumbling around the generic wasteland of his usual escapist entertainment with Honest Thief. Easily forgotten stuff. He’s back in the same doldrums with a new film, in a new year […]