By Christopher Sharrett. I usually begin a review of a piece of neglected film history with a tirade about the state of film culture, as the New Hollywood rides roughshod over the past, while pretending (at least a few of its prominent personnel) to have preservationist concerns, when in fact […]
“Like a Runaway Train”: Ariel Kleiman on Making Partisan
February 1, 2016
By Paul Risker. Partisan (2015) is the directorial feature debut of Australian filmmaker Ariel Kleiman, who already has a humorous take on the filmmaking process. Ask him about how the experience of making a film changes you and he will list a series of statements of no more than a few […]
The Languid Approach of Hou Hsiao-Hsien’s The Assassin
January 30, 2016
By Cleaver Patterson. In 8th century, Tang Dynasty China, Nie Yinniang (Qi Shu) has lived for many years, isolated from her family in a remote temple, where she has been trained in martial arts, becoming one of the country’s most feared assassins. Only when she is sent by her teacher […]
I, Shakespeare by Anonymous and Last Will. & Testament
By David Ryan. Rewriting history is a common academic enterprise, and crafting Elizabethan history – particularly Shakespearean biography – is composed recursively. Though Anonymous (2011) is neither a serious effort at literary biography nor historical drama, Roland Emmerich and John Orloff’s speculative work about Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of […]
(((1973)))
January 27, 2016
Kurt Vonnegut Hunter Thompson Norman Mailer Tom Wolfe William Burroughs Jonathan Miller William Burroughs Jr Jacob Bronowski Robert Hughes Bob Woodward Carl Bernstein Peter Maas Germaine Greer Ray Connolly Geoffrey O’Brien Pauline Kael Grover Lewis Leonard! Bernstein! “There was a point in ’73 where I knew it was all over,” […]
Traces of Postindian Survivance: Two Short Films by Jeff Barnaby
By John Garland Winn. Jeff Barnaby, a Mi’kmaq First Nations director, was four years old when the Quebec Provincial Police raided his Restigouche Reservation to restrict salmon fishing rights. The events of the raid are explored in Alanis Obomsawin’s documentary Incident at Restigouche (1984) and, as Barnaby recalls, are forever […]
The 2015 FrightFest Report
January 23, 2016
By Cleaver Patterson. Modern films can be hard to categorise: with so many increasingly open to different interpretations it is often hard to single out one core theme or trait. Fortunately though, this is not a problem often encountered by those that fall within the horror genre, and particularly for […]
The Negotiation of Morality: Radu Muntean on One Floor Below (2015)
By Amir Ganjavie. Radu Muntean’ s new, critically acclaimed Romanian film One Floor Below recently won a Special Citation by the National Society of Film Critics, USA. It is a story of family man who decides to stay quiet after seeing the prelude to a murder. It’s difficult to explain this brilliant, slow-burning thriller, which […]
Debuting with a Vengeance: Adam Stephen Kelly on Kill Kane
January 21, 2016
By Tom Ue. Adam Stephen Kelly is the author of over 700 articles, interviews, features and reviews, and he has been read by a worldwide audience in the millions. He is a regular contributor to Rolling Stone and he has conducted interviews with Sir Roger Moore, Simon Pegg, and ‘Stone Cold’ […]
A Journey Into Darkness: Bleak Street
January 21, 2016
By Elias Savada. Mexico’s grand auteur Arturo Ripstein is in fine neorealistic form with his devilishly depressing feature Bleak Street (La calle de la amargura), tripping over the world of luchadores wrestling as street walkers cozy by. With its film noir tonal quality, it is destined for the art house market, […]