By Alexandra Heller-Nicholas. From Hideo Nakata’s Ringu (1998) to Julian Richards’s The Last Horror Movie (2003), there’s something about the very materiality of the video cassette that evokes horror. Is there something vaguely symbolic about those little black coffins of cinematic memory? Do we subconsciously read them as the perfect […]
Introducing the Classics: How to Serve Your Kids a Slice of Nostalgia Through Film
Singin’ in the Rain (1952) By Noah Charney and James Charney. The pull of nostalgia is a powerful one. We parents had favorites growing up: favorite TV shows, movies, books and games. We’d love to introduce them to our kids and there’s a particular delight when our kids love something […]
Rocking (and Tripping) in the Desert: Stuart Swezey’s Desolation Center
By Thomas Puhr. Los Angeles probably isn’t the first city that comes to mind when one thinks of American punk rock, but Stuart Swezey’s Desolation Center (2018) successfully shines a light on one of the genre’s lesser-known cultural hubs. The titular organization, founded by Swezey himself, held a series of […]
Now Unreeling Online: AFI DOCS at 18
Boys State By Elias Savada. One of the premier documentary film festivals is back for its 18th year. Unlike all previous iterations of the event it started life as Silver Docs but was renamed in 2013 when it expanded beyond the AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center and ventured to […]
A Rookie Director Takes to the Skies: 7500
By Elias Savada. German-born filmmaker Patrick Vollrath’s first feature, the foreign-financed, English-language 7500 (pronounced seven-five-zero-zero), is the latest in a long string of airplane hijacking movies. Since most folks are not doing any flying these days (stay home, stay safe), you might find meager travel points accumulating in your frequent […]
Episodic Exploration: Mazursky’s An Unmarried Woman (Criterion Collection)
By Gary M. Kramer. The first reel of An Unmarried Woman practically eavesdrops on the lives of its characters, Erica (Jill Clayburgh) and Martin (Michael Murphy), who have been married for 16 years. They live comfortably in the Upper East Side of New York, and have a smart, 15 year-old […]
Down to the Earth: An Interview with Victor Kossakovsky on Gunda
Yun-hua Chen
June 11, 2020
By Yun-hua Chen. It is a rare opportunity to have an eye-level communication with pigs, chickens and cows. Victor Kossakovsky has once again demonstrated the unique power of cinematic language to open up a new way of seeing commonplace phenomenon or creatures which have long been taken for granted, and […]
Whose Truth is the Truth? Agnieszka Holland’s Mr. Jones
Thomas Puhr
June 11, 2020
By Thomas Puhr. “I don’t have an agenda,” intones journalist Gareth Jones (James Norton) in Agnieszka Holland’s historical drama, Mr. Jones (2019). “Unless you call truth an agenda.” While some write off his stance as idealistic naivete, he is not speaking in an abstract, philosophical sense. The truth, in this […]
Dreamer and Performer: An Interview with Jessica Henwick and her Father, Novelist Mark Henwick
Ali Moosavi
June 11, 2020
By Ali Moosavi. For fans of fantasy and sci-Fi Tv and cinema, Jessica Henwick is a familiar name. After refining her acting skills in a number of British TV series, Hollywood beckoned, and she landed parts in such iconic projects as Star Wars VII – The Force Awakens (as Jess […]
More to the Show: Jeffrey McHale on You Don’t Nomi
Ali Moosavi
June 9, 2020
By Ali Moosavi. Showgirls (1995) is one of the most notorious films in Hollywood history. Director Paul Verhoeven and screenwriter Joe Eszterhas were riding high on the massive box office success of their previous joint effort, Basic Instinct (1992). Perhaps because of that success, the critics had sharpened their pencils, […]