Luca Guadagnino’s new feature ‘Queer’ gets a premiere at the Venice Film Festival.
In ‘The Seed of the Sacred Fig,’ charged, but heartfelt, emotions brew
Iranian drama sets one family in the center of political, and social, fury.
Olivier Assayas on Bergman’s ‘absurdly important’ Persona
Celebrated French director Olivier Assayas (Paris, je t’aime, Clouds of Sils Maria) recently penned an editorial, for the magazine Film Comment, on director Ingmar Bergman’s legacy. In “Where Are We With Bergman?” Assayas wrote, “I see [Bergman’s absence from contemporary cinema] as a terrible void,” adding that “[Bergman chose as his subject] what is most precious in the ontology of […]
An Elephant Sitting Still
After completing An Elephant Sitting Still, his first and only film, director Hu Bo tragically committed suicide in October 2017 at the age of 29. In many ways, the movie could be viewed as an ominous cry for help, an accomplished piece of cinema that resonates louder than its seemingly modest premise. It’s also an ambitious movie: clocking in at […]
Caniba
Cinematically, exploring the mind of a murderer has always been attempted with a proverbial veil of safe distance between the subject and the uncomfortable matter at hand. Directors Verena Paravel and Lucien Castaing-Taylor attempt no such thing. Their latest movie, Caniba, is an unapologetically uncomfortable feature-length monologue by a murderer, about his murder. Delivered by Issei Sagawa, who in 1981 […]
Chris Colfer
Written by Sara Tardiff Most red-blooded Americans can find familiarity in the high school experience forever preserved in television and film. For Chris Colfer, the archetypes of the demonic cheerleader and rampant over-achiever truly came to life after he graduated—on the set of Glee. The now 25-year-old has finally left those hallowed halls after the shows’ finale in March 2015, […]
At Eternity’s Gate: Review
Written by: Gregory Mann A look at the life of painter Vincent van Gogh (William Dafoe) during the time he lives in Arles and Auvers-sur-Oise, France. On February 20th 1888, Vincent van Gogh arrives in Arles. Before that, he lived in Paris for two years, where he developed a thoroughly modern style of painting. During the more than fourteen months […]
Widows: Review
Written by: Gregory Mann When Harry Rawlins (Liam Neeson), Florek (Jon Bernthal), Carlos (Marvel Garvis-Ruffo) and Noel (Eric Lynch), four armed robbers, are killed in an explosive heist attempt, their widows, with nothing in common except a debt left behind by their dead husbands’ criminal activities, take fate into their own hands to forge a future on their own terms. […]
The Last Race: Review
Written by: Gregory Mann “The Last Race” is a cinematic portrait of a ‘Long Island’ stock car race track as it’s 87 year-old owners struggle to maintain an American racing tradition in the face of a real estate development boom. ‘Long Island’ was the birthplace of American stock car racing. At it’s peak, there were over forty racetracks on ‘Long […]