As the story goes, Dr. John Hall Smith, the founder of Middlesex University was traveling through Ireland and saw Lismore Castle. Smith was so impressed with the castle that he asked to bring it back with him. The owners denied his request. Smith then asked for the blueprints, only to be told no again. Not…
★★★ Directed by: Evan Kidd Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonWritten by: Evan Kidd Starring: Damien Elliott Bynum, Melissa Cowan Rattray Read moreRobert Stack Finally Solves a Mystery in ‘The Strange and Deadly Occurrence’Film Review by: Vikas Yadav Each one of us has our own way of dealing with grief. The pain…
Most people associate the British parliament with the Palace of Westminster, the iconic home of the green benches and Big Ben. While the palace on the Thames has hosted parliaments since the 12th-century, it’s not an exclusive host. Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonLong before the United Kingdom existed, medieval England was…
Open for just 11 years, Maine North High School shuttered permanently in 1981 due to low attendance. However, a few years later, it reopened its doors temporarily to a handful of students who collectively became known as The Breakfast Club. Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonBecause Maine North’s library was too small…
A smoothie shop employee with butterflies in his stomach and a bleeding right hand sits next to an older gentleman on a bench. “Can I ask you something?” he prefaces. The worker then proceeds to babble about his crush, Maria. Should he follow her to New York City, and leave Florida behind? The older man…
I appreciate a film like The Spine of Night for throwing out storytelling conventions one would expect out of the fantasy genre. At times, it has more similarities with the works of H.P. Lovecraft than that of J.R.R. Tolkien. Meanwhile, the film keeps you constantly aware that it was painstakingly animated via rotoscope animation. The…
Just south of Lake Isabella in Bodfish, California sits a collection of old mining buildings arranged around a large courtyard. These ramshackle structures date as far back as the 1850s. They all hail from an era when gold fever struck the region. The towns all quickly became abandoned as gold deposits dried up. The various…
“Nobody” casts Bob Odenkirk as Hutch Mansell, a family man whose life is a mix of quality family time, working out and routine irritations, like forgetting to take out the trash in time. One night, Hutch finds his home being robbed, an incident that alters how his family views him after he fails to fight…
These 87 rocks, one from each of Minnesota’s counties, all carry an excerpt from a letter either to or from a deployed serviceman. The messages are a mix of sentimental and humorous, but all are a reminder of the importance of the family at home to those deployed on active service. The letters from which…
“Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times!” The fight for democracy captured on camera. Do Not Split 不割席 is an excellent short documentary by filmmaker Anders Hammer, who was on the streets in Hong Kong filming the protests in 2019. After premiering at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, the film earned a Best Documentary Short…
What Will Summer Bring is a poetic reflection on displacement, a creation blessed by fortune. Ignacio Ceroi builds a poignant dwelling on the contemporary nomad that beautifully conveys a man’s existential quest. The director sat with Film Inquiry to discuss the film’s exploration of diaspora, privilege and isolation. For our review of What Will Summer Bring, click…
Continuing on from my coverage of documentaries from SXSW 2021, I examined a feature on PC music trailblazer Charli XCX, a biopic of the world’s most renowned domino toppler and the chronicle of American intelligence specialist-turned-whistleblower Reality Winner. Alone Together (Bradley Bell & Pablo Jones-Soler) Alone Together is essentially four movies in one. It’s a…
Incredibly, it took over halfway through the season for Tina Burner’s brand of red, orange, and yellow to become an issue with the judges, and right at the end of her run, too. Tina’s sudden rise, plateau, trip, and then swift fall to the bottom two is one for the ages, comparable only to Jan…
★★★★ Directed by: Chris Hallas Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonWritten by: Chris Hallas Starring: Amanda Gordon, Shona Graham, Rosie Steel, Sam Tutty Read moreRobert Stack Finally Solves a Mystery in ‘The Strange and Deadly Occurrence’FilmReview by: JasonKnight Three young candidates experience a job interview they will never forget. Two girls and…
Pete Docter, the two-time Oscar-winning director of the beloved Pixar features “Up” and “Inside Out,” joined his co-writer/director Kemp Powers (“One Night in Miami”) and producer Dana Murray (“Brave”) in chatting with me via Zoom about their Oscar-nominated animated film, “Soul,” which just won the Producers Guild Award for Best Animated Film. The conversation was held as…
Ziaulhaq Ahmadi sits on the floor of his small, one-story house, a brown, mud-walled compound at the end of a dusty alley in Aqa Saray. Surrounded by vineyards, fruit trees, and snow-capped mountains, the village is a half hour’s drive north of Kabul, Afghanistan’s capital. With great gentleness, he taps on what looks like a…
Six Minutes to Midnight is quite a personal endeavor for Eddie Izzard: not only does she star in the film, but she also serves as executive producer and co-wrote the script, based on events that took place in her hometown of Bexhill-on-Sea during the 1930s. At that time, the Augusta Victoria School, an Anglo-German finishing…
Caesarea was one of the most important cities of the ancient Roman world and the capital of the province of Judaea. The ruins of Caesarea, sometimes referred to as Caesarea Maritima to distinguish it from Caesarea Philippi, lie on the Mediterranean coast of present-day Israel. Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonThe city was…
In my undistinguished career as a filmmaker–consisting of a few Super-8 reels in my green days and a zero-budget sci-fi feature in my brown—I’ve had a lot of time between projects to read up on movies. Film continues to be a source of endless fascination for the public. Celebrity is the shiniest bauble on the…
Born as Harry Mills in 1840, Brusher Mills earned his nickname due to the fact that he was a frequent sight at local cricket matches where he would sweep, or brush, the pitch between innings. Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonHowever, it was another community-spirited occupation that earned Brusher the status of…
In the small village of Águas de Moura, in Portugal’s Alentejo region, stands the world’s largest Cork oak tree (Quercus suber). Well over 230-years-old, the tree was planted in 1783, the same year that the Treaty of Paris was signed ending the American Revolutionary War. Sobreiro Monumental is also affectionately known as “The Whistler Tree…