By Elias Savada. Horrific footage of the inferno casts an eerie light as Nanau’s film begins, and, with a surgeon’s precision, he peels away the scab hiding an immoral national health-care system at home, one that had been secretly festering for a decade.” It took a Romanian sports journalist to […]
Keeping the Peace: On David Freyne’s Dating Amber
By Zoe Kurland. The film is redeemed by its overall heart, precious bouts of whimsy, and, above all, the care given to moments of quiet when the battle recedes into the background.” The year is 1995, and a group of Irish soldiers (the 57th battalion, to be exact) has just […]
Lulu Forever: The 2020 Louise Brooks FilmPodium Retrospective (Zurich)
Fritz Kortner and Louise Brooks in Pandora’s Box (G.W. Pabst, 1929) By Thomas Gladysz. Louise Brooks has been described as a “cult actress”…. But as both the Melbourne and Zurich retrospectives show, there is a good deal more to this singular performer.” Last October, the Melbourne Cinémathèque in Melbourne, Australia […]
The Ghosts of Guilt: On Bryan Bertino’s The Dark and The Wicked
By Zoe Kurland. A true sense of terror hums through the film, though Bertino gives us many clues but few conclusions….” In an early scene in Bryan Bertino’s The Dark and The Wicked, the Straker siblings, Louise (Marin Ireland) and Michael (Michael Abbot Jr.) sit on the porch of their […]
Prometheus on Netflix: How The Trial of the Chicago 7 Sidelines a Black Panther’s Struggle
By Greg Burris. Whereas the previous films sought to emphasize Seale’s struggle, The Trial of the Chicago 7 diminishes it. In Sorkin’s directorial hands, Seale’s chains are turned into a plot devise, and they function primarily to bolster the film’s main concern: a war within the white left.” My initial […]
A Legacy All Her Own – Geraldine Chaplin: The Gift of Film Performance by Steven Rybin
Doctor Zhivago (David Lean, 1965) A Book Review Essay by Tanja Bresan. I’ve been wondering about the immortality of the soul” –Geraldine Chaplin in A Countess from Hong Kong (1967) How does one find independence in cinema when your own father is cinema immortalized? Steven Rybin’s new book Geraldine Chaplin: […]
The People vs. Larry: Battling a Downloadable Demon in Come Play
By Rod Lott. If only it could be less silly…. Is there an app for that?” While the invention of the cellphone has forced filmmakers to get more creative in keeping their characters in peril, few have been able to figure out how to use the mobile device as an […]
Going Virtual: Selections from Philadelphia Film Festival 2020
À L’Abordag (Guillaume Brac, France, 2020) By Gary M. Kramer. The Philadelphia Film Festival, now in its 29th year, offered more than 100 films, shorts, and documentaries online, with select programming at the Film Society’s drive-in theater. There were some great documentaries and feature films from around the world screening […]
Essential for Fans, and Even the Accusers: Apropos of Nothing by Woody Allen
Directing Scarlett Johansson (an Allen defender) on the set of Match Point (2005) By Ali Moosavi. Apropos of Nothing is an immensely entertaining, funny, often touching, openly confessional memoir…. It is essential reading for fans of Woody Allen and his films. Even those accusing him of being a pedophile, rapist, […]
Babadook Move Over, There’s a New Monster in Town: Jacob Chase’s Come Play
By Elias Savada. “It’s a fascinating concept, not that it’s terribly original…but one that constantly put me on edge.” I’ve been a fan of Jacob Chase since the Spooky Movie International Horror Film Festival played his short film Copycat five years ago. He also wrote and directed the 5-minute dread-inducing […]