By Ali Moosavi. Though a simple story, The Perfect Candidate is a quiet gem that explores a number of deep-rooted issues regarding the rights of women in conservative societies, how women are viewed by men in these cultures, and the role of music and media in providing both joy and […]
The Elements of a Scene: Punk the Capital
By Edward Avery-Natale. The documentary zooms in on particular individuals and bands without falling victim to the easy and well tread path of tracing only the few bands that everyone knows…. [P]unk is about the fans and the small bands who never play outside of their hometown or record an […]
Comme si, Comme Saw: Spiral
By Elias Savada. Strings a handful of grisly murder traps together in its fairly mundane whodunit frame.” As the Saw horror series goes, its new spinoff, being fully titled Spiral: From the Book of Saw, isn’t much to write home about. Despite the presence of comedian Chris Rock, in a […]
A Toxic “Crime of Passion”: Phillip Noyce’s Above Suspicion
By Theresa Rodewald. Whether the film wants its audience to revel in or ignore the casual, low-key sexism and the gratifying violence towards women is unclear. But it definitely expects us to cut it more slack.” Above Suspicion could have been an analysis of privilege and power, of patriarchal structures […]
Movie without a Mission: Ryan Kruger’s Fried Barry
By Elias Savada. This is one of the most unusual alien visitation films you’ll ever watch. Especially if you don’t give any thought to why the other-worldly presence was careless enough to pick Barry for its stopover on Earth.” The 3:44-minute South African short Fried Barry is an acid trip […]
Return of the Early 80s Action Film: Guy Ritchie’s Wrath of Man
By Thomas Puhr. If you’re willing to surrender to the testosterone-saturated, borderline fascistic dialogue – at times, the characters’ locker room banter sounds like it’s taken from a subpar John Milius script, or an unironic Paul Verhoeven film – there’s some pleasure to be had.” With his latest genre exercise, […]
Nature in a Beautiful Vacuum: Mindaugas Survila’s The Ancient Woods
By Thomas Puhr. Does a document of a unique place not lost some of its impact if packaged in a sociocultural vacuum? Perhaps, but as a means to contemplation and appreciation, The Ancient Woods exudes an undeniable power.” The Ancient Woods (2017), a nature documentary filmed in Lithuania, says a […]
Lost in a Genre Maze: Nick Stagliano’s The Virtuoso
By Theresa Rodewald. Could be an enjoyable action thriller [but] jumps between locations, plot points, and flashbacks without ever deciding which story to tell.” The Virtuoso (Anson Mount), an enigmatic hitman, lives a solitary life in the woods. After a mission goes awry, the Virtuoso reluctantly accepts a mysterious job, […]
Fans Only: The Super-Human Muddle of Mortal Kombat
By Elias Savada. It’s part origin story and part training film, where some of the warriors have to awaken his or her arcana, the energy within their soul that imbues them with special powers. Players know the term. I didn’t.” I am not the target audience for this film. Pac-Man, […]
The Experimental Past – 3-D Rarities: Volume 2
El corazón y la espada (The Sword of Granada), 1953