While I was getting my film major, I saw a lot of classic movies in class, many more than once. One film I did not expect to see was a 1970 comedy about race relations, a quarter of which relied on whiteface, which held up not adequately but magnificently. Watermelon Man is about a racist…
At a height of just over 90 feet (30 meters), this beautiful waterfall flows down off the Ontika limestone cliff situated on the northern coast of Estonia between Ontika and Valaste. Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonThere was once a rickety platform across the cliff, but it was eventually replaced by a…
When Thomas Sadler Roberts retired from his career as a doctor, he remained hard at work in the field of ornithology. Roberts became a professor in the discipline at the University of Minnesota. He also helped establish the Bell Museum of Natural History. Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonTen years before Roberts’s death,…
Battle wasps, to war! At least that’s the way it sounded when conservators in England recently announced that they were going to deploy an army of wasps to fight a moth infestation at a stately manor home. But alas, the reality is less an epic battle and more like a quirky rom-com (with a little…
One of the major highlights of this year’s Jewish International Film Festival program – which is set to screen in select Australian cinemas from February 17 to March 24 – is Ruthy Pribar‘s heartbreaking feature debut Asia, whose appearance at the festival arrives at the tail-end of a smash-hit critical and commercial run in 2020,…
“You won’t be able to see it until it’s about to hit.” It’s the end of the world as we know it… and I feel fine! How about some apocalyptic cinema to relax you? This short film Red Rover originally premiered in 2015, but is just now being featured online thanks to a feature from…
“The Vigil” is an exercise in horror that effectively builds its character and narrative tensions in the first half only to tighten its grip for its lean remaining minutes. Character actor on-the-rise Dave Davis stars as Yakov, a young man who lives in Brooklyn’s Orthodox Jewish community. A horrible event has caused him to step…
When the COVID-19 pandemic brought the world shuddering to a halt in March 2020, it forced virtually every film set on the planet to shut down, leaving many filmmakers across the globe twiddling their thumbs. In the weeks and months that followed, directors have responded to this enforced downtime the only way they know how:…
Eight weeks into the latest season of RuPaul’s Drag Race and, just like this pandemic, it feels neverending. In this particular scenario, I don’t really think that it’s a bad thing because hey, Drag Race is life, but when the bottom two ends up being Kandy Muse, season 13’s prime source of entertainment, and Symone, the queen most…
Every decade in musical history has its influences: Chas Chandler, Malcolm McLaren, Brian Wilson, Mark Ronson. They’ve all contributed to the zeitgeist of musical evolution. Perhaps few of them – in recent history at least – can lay claim to the sheer bombast, balls-to-the-wall craziness, and never-say-die determinism of Alan McGee. The Scottish producer behind…
Inexplicable though it may seem, Mohamedou Ould Slahi spent nearly 15 years imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay without being charged for a crime. Attending the wedding of a friend in his native Mauritania on the coast of North Africa only months after the fall of the Twin Towers, Slahi was approached by police officers who told…
Near the summit of Mount Chelmos along the Peloponnese lies a mythical secret to immortality. Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonChelmos mountain is situated a few miles from the neighboring city of Kalavryta, known for its ski resort, the oldest monastery in Greece, and the impressive Cave of the Lakes. Also perched atop this…
One evening in 1983, a pair of local police officers in the German city of Siegburg stopped by an old butcher shop to investigate reports of suspicious activity. Inside, they found three slightly scruffy twentysomethings with kilos of contraband. Bernd Drosihn, the ringleader, tried to object, but the officers confiscated the offending substances. After a…
Just south of Coffee Bay, a tiny resort town along South Africa’s Wild Coast, a massive rocky sentinel sits astride the surf, as if guarding the mouth of the Mpako River. Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonThe well over 200 foot (80 meters) high, 1 000 foot (300 meters) long shore-side cliff…
It’s a good time to be the Netflix algorithm. With everyone sitting home, watching episode after episode of true crime docuseries and comfort food comedies, every day must be a veritable feast of data. From precisely whence “Ginny & Georgia” springs, this writer cannot say—it was created by newcomer Sarah Lampert, the showrunner is “Criminal…
This memorial is dedicated to the Sinti and Roma victims of Nazi Germany. It’s estimated that around 220,000 to 500,000 people were killed during the Porajmos, better known as the Romani Genocide. This mass murder was not recognized as genocide by the German government until 1982. Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonThe memorial was…
It’s time to rip out some spines with Mortal Kombat, the feature debut of director Simon McQuoid. Yep, they’re taking another shot at adapting the infamous video game series to the big screen, and hey, at least it can’t be as bad as Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, right? Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonIf you’re…
On the island of Saaremaa, just off the west coast of continental Estonia, stands a white church that is well-known for its distinctive features. Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonNot only does the Karja parish church boast some of the richest stone decorations of any Baltic rural church, but the ceiling also…
“But there’s just one thing… No one can find out.” Disney has revealed a teaser trailer for Pixar’s next new original movie titled Luca, the feature directorial debut of Italian storyboard artist Enrico Casarosa (who directed the Pixar short La Luna as well). Set in a beautiful seaside town on the Italian Riviera, the film…
Gành Đá Dĩa translates to “The Sea Cliff of Stone Plates.” This beach contains basalt rock formations similar to those seen at Ireland’s Giant’s Causeway. Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonThese rocks were formed the same way as their Irish twins. A volcanic eruption met the sea and the lava cooled in…
Who’s the big bad of WandaVision? Where is the series taking us in the grand scheme of the Marvel Cinematic Universe? What plot twists will be revealed next week? These are all valid questions for viewers of the Disney+ show, particularly those who are primarily interested and invested in the program as content to be…