By Gary M. Kramer. French filmmaker Laurent Maria started his career as an actor—he appeared in several theatrical productions as well as in films such as Yves Saint Laurent (2014) for director Jalil Lespert. In 2014, he wrote, directed, and starred in his fifth short, Sunday (aka Dimanche), playing a […]

By Gary M. Kramer. Director, co-writer, and star Tyler Cornack’s Butt Boy is a one joke sci-fi comedy thriller. Discerning viewers intrigued by this title will find this low-budget, high-concept film offers some cheeky deadpan humor and one imaginative visual motif. The film has everyman Chip Gutchell (Cornack) stuck in […]

By Yun-hua Chen. After winning Canadian Best First Festure at the Toronto International Film Festival and Best Film at the Los Cabos International Film Festival, The Twentieth Century was showcased at the Forum section of the Berlinale and won the FIPRESCI Prize. In a fantastically satirical manner, the film loosely […]

By Elias Savada. Now, more than ever, films that you’d expect to find in your Sadly Infrequently Occasionally Constantly attended art house cinemas aren’t there because of the Covid-19 crisis. Like most film distributors (at least in the United States), Focus Features has made Eliza Hittman’s wonderfully absorbing drama available […]

A Book Review Essay by Tony Williams. Thanks to one of my connections, I was able to see all of the episodes of the TV series Naked City (1957- 1963), 32 of the 39 episodes of the first season penned by legendary scenarist Stirling Silliphant (1918-1996). He was also Academy Award winner of In […]

By Jeremy Carr. There’s no denying Adam Mars-Jones has amassed a considerable resume of writing experience. The research professor at Goldsmiths, University of London has penned novels, essays, a memoir, and a number of articles on a range of topics, including film. But it’s this last area of concentration that […]

By Thomas Puhr. With just two features under their belts, director Lorcan Finnegan and writer Garret Shanley have already mapped out a distinct approach to genre filmmaking. “Mapped” is the operative word here, since both Without Name (2016) and Vivarium (2019) share a preoccupation with hostile, maze-like landscapes: a labyrinthine […]

By Ali Moosavi. There were four films made by Iranian directors in this year’s Berlin Film Festival, shown at four different festival sections: Panorama, Forum, Generation and Berlinale (Main Competition). Mohammad Rasoulof’s There Is No Evil (Shaytan Vogoud Nadared), shown at the Main Competition section, walked away with the Festival’s […]

By John Duncan Talbird. I became aware of Polly Jean Harvey in 1993 when I first saw the video for her song “50 Ft Queenie” on MTV’s 120 Minutes. I was blown away. She was simultaneously petite and huge, dangerous and feminine, just like Juliette Lewis in Natural Born Killers […]