There is no need for propaganda films anymore. The internet provides the platform for the political manipulation that had previously been designated to cinemas by ministries of propaganda. Film is still used as a political tool, not least in India and the US, but what happened to the fascinating notion of filmmakers of considerable quality…
In our Color Code column, Luke Hicks chooses a handful of shots from a favorite film in order to draw out the meaning behind certain colors and how they play into both the scene and the film as a whole. For his fourth entry, he digs into the Safdie brothers’ Uncut Gems. Uncut Gems is a…
Our friends at Seed & Spark are featuring everything from an animated documentary to a romantic comedy for the month of November. Whether it’s something with quirky characters or quantum physics, there’s always intriguing campaigns for indie shorts and features to discover! DRAGONFLY Dragonfly (2020) – source: Julia Morizawa Writer-producer-director Julia Morizawa (JesusCat (or How…
On the seventh story of a Japanese tower block, an uncomfortable negotiation is underway. Behind a check-in desk, a hand extends through a heavy felt curtain and feels around for a credit card on the counter. Finding nothing, it quickly withdraws, and after a hidden, whispered kerfuffle, a receptionist emerges awkwardly into the windowless lobby….
Richard Luke Concanen was a Catholic prelate born in Ireland in 1747. He completed his studies in Italy and served various roles in several churches. Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonThanks to his friendship with the Archbishop of Baltimore, he was able to secure permission to establish a Dominican province in the…
Although Kevin Costner comes from a fairly substantial lineage of modern westerns, it might be the shared context of Costner and Diane Lane from Man of Steel providing the most meaningful background to Let Him Go. Don’t get me wrong. These movies have nothing to do with one another. One was Zack Snyder‘s gargantuan DC…
The skeleton of a woolly mammoth was discovered by a woman walking her dog by a nearby gravel quarry in 1986. It was one of the most complete mammoth skeletons ever discovered in the United Kingdom. The skeleton of the adult male was unearthed accompanied by partial skeletons of several juvenile mammoths. Read moreA Guide to…
Elio Callistio, a freedman of Emperor Hadrian, would have never imagined that his then fashionable, temple-shaped sepulcher would become popular in Roman folklore. Indeed, as the sepulcher fell to ruins, it strangely started assuming the shape of a great chair or throne. Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonWayfarers and others who maintained…
An ancient imperial capital and the eastern starting point of the Silk Road, Xi’an was the first city in China to be introduced to Islam. Today, it has an estimated population of 50,000 Hui Muslims and a total of seven mosques, the most notable of which is the Great Mosque of Xi’an, perhaps the oldest…
Nature may shape the characters of Francis Lee’s rugged, working-class romances, but it’s nurture that ultimately saves them. Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonIn 2017’s “God’s Own Country,” the Yorkshire-bred writer/director made a powerful first impression with a story, set on his home turf, about the attraction that builds between two young…
The holiday season is getting a little more queer with Happiest Season, the latest from co-writer/director Clea DuVall. Abby was stoked about the holidays. She was going to spend it with her girlfriend’s family, meeting everyone for the first time and taking that big step in the relationship. Then she was told that her girlfriend isn’t…
Before iPhones, there were DVDs. Before DVDs, there were Walkmans. Before Walkmans, there were cassette players. Before cassettes, vinyl, and before vinyl, Edison wax cylinders. Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonBut according to Nissan Cohen, owner and curator at the Nisco Museum, what came before all of these was by far more magnificent: intricate…
John Onyango has never been to culinary school, nor did he start his career as a chef in a recognized restaurant or hotel. Instead, he first cooked in a suburban food kiosk, where he served the wage earners who worked in the neighboring schools, market and local Nairobi City Council offices. But that was 25…
★★★ Directed by: Dana Ziyasheva Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonWritten by: Dana Ziyasheva Starring: Arman Darbo, Chloe Ray Warmoth, Nick Moran, Eric Roberts Read moreRobert Stack Finally Solves a Mystery in ‘The Strange and Deadly Occurrence’,,Film Review by: ,,Jason Knight So many films have been made that depict life in different…
Big Touch contains far more than its diminutive runtime would suggest. A very short-short, the film draws its audience into several small, human moments. Written, directed, and edited by Christopher Tenzis, the film dives into just a few minutes in a woman’s life as she perceives, is perceived, and finally, seems to release perception altogether….
“We saw the world the way we wanted it to be, we did not see the owrld the way it was.” Sony Classics has unveiled an official trailer for an acclaimed documentary titled The Human Factor, which played at lots of fests last year including the Hamptons, Chicago, AFI Docs, Denver, and Telluride Film Festivals….
California has long been associated with fantasy, but few people know that centuries before Hollywood, it drew its very name from an imaginary kingdom—one ruled by a Black queen. Around 1530, when Hernán Cortés’s conquistadors, amid shipwrecks, mutinies, and the destruction of the Aztec Empire, arrived at the peninsula on Mexico’s western side, they christened…
This imposing bronze statue on the Montreux promenade features Freddie Mercury striking his iconic pose. Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonThe statue is the work of a British-based Czech sculptor Irena Sedlecka, famous for British public figures, but also for oversized Communist statues dedicated to the working man. Sedlecka first saw Mercury…
When sketch comedy finds a wide audience, it’s like lightning in a bottle. Think of how The Lonely Island used to dominate “Saturday Night Live” with their digital shorts, or how Tim Robinson made a cult Netflix hit out of his 2019 series, “I Think You Should Leave.” Netflix seeks to replicate some of Robinson’s…
Tired of the endless positive energy of our media? Ready for something a bit more gritty and dark as your entertainment? Want a movie that matches your own cynicism about the current state of affairs? Sure you are, because, ya know, not everyone gets good things in life, chum. Read moreA Guide to The Perfect…
The twisted terror that can live on at the heart of one’s grief, especially when that grief is over the death of a child, has been the subject of cinematic exploration for many decades. From Donald Sutherland imagining his drowned daughter stalking him on the streets of Venice in Nicholas Roeg’s Don’t Look Now, to…