This story is excerpted and adapted from Will Burrard-Lucas’s The Black Leopard: My Quest to Photograph One of Africa’s Most Elusive Big Cats, published in March 2021 by Chronicle Books. I set off at 5.30 a.m., aiming to get through the center of Nairobi before the terrible rush hour traffic could build up. Ahead of…
Just north of the town of Canoa, Ecuador is a development project called Monkey Beach. Local archeologists have recently taken notice of a series of semi-circular stone walls that jut out into the sea from the beaches, located just to the north and south of this development. At high tide, the walls are submerged, but…
For a second consecutive year, our longtime local film festival South by Southwest (SXSW) has gone virtual due to the ongoing global pandemic. For movie, music, and technology conference enthusiasts around the world who have never been able to attend in the past, this actually works out nicely. For SXSW Film, this means opening up…
Happily, written and directed by BenDavid Grabinski, is a dark comedy that follows Tom (Joel McHale) and Janet (Kerry Bishé) a couple who have been happily married for 14 years. The picture-perfect nature of their relationship sometimes getting on the nerves of their friends. As Tom and Janet are visited by a stranger (Stephen Root)…
During the Battle of Atlanta fought during the American Civil War, Atlanta was famously burned to the ground by Union forces. Residents of the city were forced to rebuild from the ground up. One of the relics left remaining from that conflict are the ruins of the old Marietta Paper Mill along the shores of…
Christopher Nolan is hailed as one of modern cinema’s most successful puzzle-makers. In the perplexing Inception (2010), he broke cinematic grounds by considering the murky relationship between dreams and reality. Similarly, in his recent blockbuster, Tenet (2020), Nolan rejects ideas of linear time entirely in a manner that most viewers aren’t able to fully grasp…
First opened to the public in 1902, The Gobbins was created by Irish railway engineer Berkeley Deane Wise. At the time, the cliff path drew international admiration, but the costly upkeep and the onset of World War II meant the attraction fell into disrepair and eventually closed. With Wise’s experience engineering tunnels and bridges, as…
Social media giants and reporters alike covered up the Hunter Biden scandal during the critical weeks before the 2020 presidential election. It likely helped him defeat President Donald Trump. Now, filmmaker Phelim McAleer wants to show the world what voters missed. McAleer’s next project, “My Son Hunter,” will detail all the sordid details behind the First…
Isola del Garda is a small island that takes its current name from the surrounding Lake Garda. However, during the two millennia of human presence, the island has been known by many different names and has had many uses. Today, the island hosts a beautiful neogothic villa. First inhabited during Roman times, the island was…
“An old man like me, guided by these slightly childish impulses to have an adventure as if I was apathetic, fat Indiana Jones” When his long-time girlfriend Mariana is accepted into a year-long study programme in France, filmmaker Ignacio Ceroi packs his bags and leaves Buenos Aires to follow his beloved for a period of…
No traveller arrives in Mali, a town in the far north of Guinea’s mountainous Fouta Djallon region, without a story to tell. Mali, which is sometimes referred to as Mali-ville to distinguish it from the neighboring country of the same name, is as remote as it is beautiful. The town sits among rolling green mountains…
The volcanic island of Ponza is blessed with a chromatic richness and no cliff looks the same. The world-famous crescent-shaped beach of Chiaia di Luna (Half Moon Beach) is dominated by sheer vertical white and yellow tuff cliffs that rise more than 300 feet (100 meters) above the turquoise-colored sea below. Locals claim that on…
Yesterday’s Oscar nominations proved that there’s something to be cherished about rare moments when the big names step away from the limelight, leaving room for smaller but just as mighty filmmakers. That same dynamic carries on as 2021’s virtual film festival experience goes from Sundance to Berlin to its next exciting stop, SXSW. In previous…
Rob Belushi prefers drama. That’s not what I expected to hear from any Belushi, let alone the family’s prince. But the son of Jim and nephew of John has done his part in breaking into the industry without relying on his inherent legacy. Though he graduated from Chicago’s famed Second City improv academy – the alma mater of his…
“Cutting and shaving.” Y Not Studios has released a first look teaser trailer for an upcoming Indian comedy titled Mandela, the feature directorial debut of filmmaker Madonne Ashwin. This Tamil-language localized comedy is a commentary on politics in India, and very timely as satire about elections in the country. The film tells the story of…
“If it bleeds, it leads.” That’s the newsroom mantra introducing Nightcrawler protagonist Lou Bloom (Jake Gyllenhaal) to the cutthroat world of “stringing,” in which freelance videographers prowl LA’s streets in search of grisly footage to sell to news stations. The phrase is a neat summation of the lurid priorities of news directors like Nina (Rene Russo),…
A pinprick of light perforates a pitch-black frame. A train rumbles. A woman screams. “Out of the black silence,” booms a guttural, menacing voice, “you were born in pain.” The light at the end of the tunnel grows larger. The woman’s screams die down, supplanted by those of her newborn baby boy. “You were born…
Early each morning, keys turn in locks on the ground floor shops along Pugliano street in the Italian town of Ercolano. Doors open to reveal shiny sequin dresses, furs in a range of browns, and jeans from the 1970s—plus a slew of military uniforms, displayed on hangers, dangling from boxes, or draped on white sheets….
★★ Directed by: Paolo Pilladi Written by: Greg Lingo, Paolo Pilladi Starring: Jeremy Piven, Taryn Manning, Cathy Moriarty Film Review by: Vikas Yadav Last Call Movie Review There is no place like home. These six words hit you the most when you circle back to your hometown after being away for a long time. The…
Andrew Christ remembers the day he became part of “this 60-year, weird, wild Cold War story.” It was 2019, and the University of Vermont researcher was just four days away from defending his dissertation. He was beyond stressed, and had better things to do than help examine an ice core sample drilled decades earlier. The…
“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.” “Judas and the Black Messiah.” “One Night in Miami.” “The Forty-Year Old-Version.” “Da 5 Bloods.” “Night of the Kings.” That sampling represents the Black films that held viable Oscar chances in 2021. All were highly acclaimed. At one point or another, each garnered the descriptor of “timely.” During and after the…
I appreciate the writing and critical contribution of the people who came up with and proliferated the phrase “vulgar auteurism”, I really do. That being said, it’s one of the stupidest concepts to be thrown into a discussion of movies this century, along with “elevated horror” or “nicecore”. Some names of directors who have been…
At the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, one specimen dwarfs everything else in it: a 27-and-half-meter long dinosaur skeleton. His name is officially ROM 3670, but he’s more commonly known as Gordo, and he’s the largest mounted dinosaur skeleton in Canada, rivaled only by a Futalognkosaurus installed in the lobby. However, Gordo stands out because…
NOTE: This list features TV shows that either began or ended between 2011 to 2021 1. “Mad Men” (2007-2015) — The AMC drama might be the best television show of all time. What makes the show so stinkin’ good (beyond the writing, acting and aesthetics) is the generational conflict. World War II Korea Vietnam “Mad…
Every step through the woods and meadows of Laumeier Sculpture Park reveals a new exciting discovery. A chain of giant spheres that look like a slithering extraterrestrial creature. Imposing mounds of earth that seem to have been left behind by an ancient civilization. A conglomeration of flaming-red steel oil tanks. Each piece of sculptural art…
They came after the wrong man in Without Remorse, the latest from director Stefano Sollima. Based on a book by Tom Clancy, the film is an origin story of sorts for John Kelly, a Navy SEAL within the Jack Ryan universe. He’s launched into the world of international espionage when Russian soldiers break into his home…
In the past this street was called Carrer Sant Bernat. But as popular belief spread that witches met in this odd covered passageway, the name was changed. It has an elongated layout, parallel to that of Carrer Major, with sections covered with arched vaults, and others that pass in the open air. The town of Cervera…
The Zoo, Groovy Yard Art is a tongue and cheek zoo that is home to information on over 25 animals. However, these animals are artistic renditions composed of various mediums. Many are crafted from some combination of metal, aluminum, and wood. As visitors walk around the art installation, information panels provide interesting facts about all…
Longhua Martyrs Cemetery is a memorial to those who lost their lives at the hands of Chiang Kai-shek’s Kuomintang. During the 1920s and 1930s, the site of the Longhua Martyrs Cemetery was home to the Kuomintang prison. At the prison, hundreds of communists were executed in an attempt to wipe out the communist movement. Across the…
In the summer of 2020 in the small western New York town of Perry, the serpent returned. It moved along the shore of Silver Lake, long as a football field some onlookers reckoned, fangs bared. Its eyes were flecked with gold, a hint of its previous deaths by fire, and of the future that awaited…
Pul Moran, or as it’s famously known Pul Kanjri, is a place very few have on their itineraries when visiting Amritsar. It’s located in close proximity to the India-Pakistan international border. This structure was built by Maharaja Ranjit Singh, the emperor of the Sikh Empire in the Panjab region of India, and was used as…
★★★ Directed by: #ShehrozeKhan Written by: #MohammedallyShushtari & #ShehrozeKhan Starring: #CarlaElenaRodriguez, #MohammedallyShushtari, #GianbrunoSpena Short Film Review by Taryll Baker Chocolate follows 17-year-old Jordan, who has grown up his whole life without a father. When his elusive uncle comes to visit for the weekend for the first time in years, the balance that Jordan’s mum has…
“These women know what they signed up for…” Samuel Goldwyn Films has released an official trailer for an indie feature titled The Marijuana Conspiracy, based on a remarkably true story. This entertaining & informative film took place in 1972. It’s about an outlandish study on the effects of marijuana on young women. This film centers…
The star of “Supa Modo” is a bright young girl living in rural Kenya. Jo loves comic books and Jackie Chan movies, and has familiar half-serious, half-joking discussions with her friends about how superheroes would fare in the real world. They all agree Iron Man would not survive the wet season without rustproof armor. Then…
This article is part of The Reading List, a monthly column in which we encourage you to take your enthusiasm for a particularly groovy movie and direct it into a wide array of extracurricular studies. This entry explores the Snyder Cut of Justice League and the many opportunities it presents for comics discovery. Sweet release…
Welcome to Movie DNA, a column that recognizes the direct and indirect cinematic roots of both new and classic movies. Learn some film history, become a more well-rounded viewer, and enjoy like-minded works of the past. This entry recommends movies to watch after you see the Russo brothers’ Cherry. Joe and Anthony Russo‘s ambitious adaptation…