The Shanghai Film Park is a working film and television studio based around a full-scale replica of Nanjing Road, Shanghai’s famous shopping area circa the 1930s. The set recreates iconic buildings from central Shanghai such as the five-story Sincere Company department store. Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonThe streetscape was constructed for…
At the De Akkers metro station in Rotterdam’s suburb of Spijkenisse on November 2nd, 2020, a metro train breached the station’s end barriers and nearly plummeted over 30 feet from the elevated rails. All that saved the train and its operator was the fact the front carriage was caught and held aloft by one of…
Over the last five years, director Marco Porsia had been accumulating a mass amount of footage from recording the concerts of venerated alt-rock group Swans. While gathering this treasure trove of material and getting to know frontman Michael Gira, Porsia set about to create a documentary on the revered music of Swans with the 2019…
Through the village of Chevreuse runs a tiny offshoot of the Yvette river, gently traversing timeworn cottages, ancient wash-houses, and a medieval tannery. There are 22 “petits ponts,” “little bridges,” that span the river, crossing various pathways. Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonA popular walk for locals and visitors, this promenade is hidden…
As Edinburgh Castle rests on the remains of an extinct volcano, it’s prominently featured from several visual vantage points. A visitor is by no means cut short on photographic opportunities of this majestic sight. Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonAnywhere along the tree line boulevard of Princes Street allows for a more…
Let’s go to Colombia! Disney has revealed an early teaser trailer for Encanto, an original Disney Animation project due for release in November of 2021. This is one of MANY movies featured in Disney’s epic Investor Meeting announcement this week of all their upcoming projects from 2021 onward. Encanto is made by the directors of…
Film journalism spaces this year have been living in the past. That’s not a bad thing — just a fact. Few new releases and the malaise of coronavirus lockdown have inspired or outright forced many critics to revisit old favorites or to seek out films they hadn’t yet seen. Many smaller publications — including this…
It’s not often one needs to make a batter for a cocktail, but so it is with the Tom and Jerry, a Christmas party staple in the American Midwest. The drink begins with a frothy batter of separately beaten egg whites and yolks folded together and mixed with sugar and warm spices. When served as…
★★ Directed by ,#LouisHannan, ,#DominicHodge Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonWritten by ,#GaiusBrown. ,#LouisHannan, ,#DominicHodge, ,#ElliotHughes, ,#RyanJones, ,#AndreReid Starring ,#LeoTaylor-Jannati,,#VictoriaSlinger, ,#KeithFlood Read moreRobert Stack Finally Solves a Mystery in ‘The Strange and Deadly Occurrence’,,Film Review by ,,Lawrence Bennie What if the Cold War never ended? Suppose a coalition was formed by the…
Four films into the five-film Small Axe anthology co-written and directed by Steve McQueen, I’m convinced that this cycle should be celebrated as the cinematic event of the year. In turning his masterful talents as a filmmaker to the telling of five stories about London’s West Indian community in the mid-twentieth century, McQueen has created a…
After being photographed with a cross in one hand and an automatic rifle in the other, Father Hovhannes became a viral sensation in Armenia. He says he never intended to become a symbol of defiance during the recent war over Nagorno-Karabakh, the region within Azerbaijan that has attempted to break away and declare itself the…
It’s pretty likely that there is exactly one product from Madagascar in your home right now—no more, no less. That product is vanilla, and Madagascar is at the moment the world’s leading producer of this ubiquitous natural flavor—despite the fact that Madagascar is a very strange country to be the world’s leading producer of vanilla….
The problematic (and mercurial) relationship between Iraq and the United States reached its boiling point when the latter invaded the former in 2003, under the pretense of bringing democracy to the country. During the invasion and under U.S. occupation, Iraq suffered numerous cases of abuse, murder (including the Nissour square massacre by the Blackwater mercenaries)…
The village of Ečka is best known for its Kaštel (Castle), which is now a hotel, and its Art Colony. But just a short walk away from the Kaštel—one of the best preserved and most popular castles in Serbia, famous for the composer Franz Liszt playing piano there as a nine-year-old boy—are the ruins of an old water tower…
Sacha Baron Cohen wouldn’t be a household name without “Borat.” Yes, the British comic previously gave us “Da Ali G Show,” a wacky spin on the talk show genre. Still, it took the runaway success of his 2006 comedy “Borat” to become a superstar. Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonAnd he earned…
To this day, fishing and seafood represent a very significant part of Shetland’s economy. The main fish caught from the North Sea and Atlantic Ocean waters surrounding the archipelago include herring, cod, and mackerel. The first of these has been historically very popular in the Netherlands. Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonBetween…
Trentino Alto Adige, now an Italian region, was contested between Italy and the Austro-Hungarian Empire during World War I, with much of the fighting concentrated in Southern Trentino. The area was located around the former border between the two powers. Here, thousands of people lost their lives in combat. Now, the remains of around 20,000…
Liam Neeson gets another mission in The Marksman, the latest from director Robert Lorenz. This time around the aging action hero plays a rancher barely hanging on to his place near the border. Trouble comes his way when a boy and his mother cross onto his property with the cartel hot on their heels, and being…
According to legend, three monks miraculously found an icon of the Virgin Mary hanging from a myrtle branch on the island of Chios. The Nea Moni, or New Monastery, now stands on the site of this discovery, and it contains both centuries-old artwork and an ossuary filled with bones from the area’s greatest tragedy. Read moreA…
I first discovered the Mahoning Drive-In theater in the spring of 2016, just as a young filmmaker, Alexander Monnelli, began shooting a documentary about this most unlikely of businesses: A classic drive-in theater which, despite lagging attendance, was determined to continue presenting movies on 35mm. Two years later, now also an employee of this drive-in,…
Situated on a small hill that leads up to Mt Faber, the abandoned Keppel Hill Reservoir serves as a hidden sanctuary for thrill-seekers and urban explorers. Although its origins are unknown, it dates back more than a century, yet was absent from official maps for decades until it came to the attention of the National…