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…

Throwing off the group dynamic could be deadly in Stowaway, the latest from co-writer/director Joe Penna. Michael didn’t actually want to go to space. He worked on the ship as an engineer, but his life on the ground came with far too many commitments to disappear for years at a time. Unfortunately, that’s exactly where he…

Along the shores of the Red River in Winnipeg, Manitoba, the Canadian Museum for Human Rights is a tower of curving glass, steel, and alabaster, a bright place even in the dead of winter. In a gallery on the first floor, conservator Stephanie Chipilski checks equipment that monitors the room’s temperature and humidity. She slips…

This bear pit is the finest surviving example in the United Kingdom, and its superb condition of the structure is thanks to the many years it was used as Yorkshire’s biggest compost pit. Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonThis is a Grade II listed structure and was built in 1836 to home…

It was 15 years ago when they first started talking about dirty words. Tamanna Mishra and Neha Thakur often discussed how uneasy popular Indian expletives made them. Mishra, a communications consultant in Bengaluru, and Thakur, an Airbnb host in Mumbai, noticed increasingly casual use of these profanities in mainstream entertainment. The problem wasn’t the swearing…

Welcome to Filmographies, a column for completists. Every edition brings a working actor’s resumé into focus as we learn about what makes them so compelling. In this entry, we spotlight the filmography of Zendaya. Zendaya is an entertainer in every sense of the word. The erstwhile Disney Channel mainstay has cultivated one of the most sensational…

Beyond the Classics is a bi-weekly column in which Emily Kubincanek highlights lesser-known old movies and examines what makes them memorable. In this installment, she highlights the historical value of Lois Weber’s Where Are My Children? Few filmmakers knew how to make silent films about women as well as Lois Weber. Social topics barred from most feature…

“Now matter how far you run, you can never escape yourself…” Whoa, this trailer! Signature has released an official trailer for an epic new colonial historic thriller titled Edge of the World, a jungle crusade movie from filmmaker Michael Haussman. The film takes us on the true “adventures” of Sir James Brooke, who defied the…

This year’s winner of the Generation 14plus Grand Prix, the top prize at the youth category at the Berlinale, The Fam (La Mif) is equally haunting and fascinating. The insight into a care home for young girls discusses delicate subjects such as incest and sexual abuse with a verité approach that feels all too real,…

Roberta Saltzman shopped a lot on eBay. Often, her purchases fit into one narrow category: Jewish cookbooks, the more obscure, the better. Never mind that Saltzman, who died in 2014, was by all accounts not that interested in cooking. Over the years, she accumulated 700 Jewish cookbooks, with a particular focus on community cookbooks from…

On the outskirts of Hanga Roa, Easter Island’s only town, the Museo Rapa Nui has a small but striking collection. It includes a rare female version of the monolithic statues known as moai, and sets of piercing moai eyes made from white coral and red volcanic rock. Finely worked obsidian tools sit alongside displays on…

★ Written & Directed by: #ElinMargaretaNordin Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonStarring: #VictorNascimento, #VonnyMcNamara, #PauloAragão, #AishaJacobWilliams Series Review by Taryll Baker Read moreRobert Stack Finally Solves a Mystery in ‘The Strange and Deadly Occurrence’Episodes watched: 2 Ritual is a mini-series created by Elin-Margareta Nordin; debuting in 2018, though seemingly never continuing past…

So we come to this, the final episode in Amy Ziering and Kirby Dick‘s four part docuseries Allen v. Farrow. The overwhelming feeling by this point is of a series determined not to establish the facts but to definitively portray one side’s experiences in what has been no doubt a long and difficult ordeal, especially…

To step into one of Scandinavia’s surviving stave churches is to enter the past. Shadows shift and tell stories in the elaborate carvings of intertwined beasts that are hallmarks of the churches’ unique architecture. Sounds reverberate off the timber as if traveling across centuries. The air feels dense with the tang of hewn wood, peat…

Can you imagine if every sentence of this review is accompanied by the sounds of me groaning as I type? That would get annoying real quick, wouldn’t it? You’re gonna be hearing a whole lot of sighs and grunts in this 90-minute affair, as characters react and respond to text messages from start to finish….

In the city of Tarragona, the ruins of a massive structure stand by the water’s edge. Built in the second century, this amphitheater once held up to 15,000 spectators for various events including brutal gladiator fights. Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonFrom a distance this structure looks like a semi-circular Roman theatre, but…

Welcome to World Builders, our ongoing series of conversations with the most productive and thoughtful behind-the-scenes craftspeople in the industry. In this entry, Brad Gullickson chats with Tara DeMarco about WandaVision’s hidden and not-so-hidden visual effects. Uh, who the heck is that? The thought rippled through the Twitterverse the moment Disney+ launched their Assembled premiere…

There’s a blue road running by Souq Waqif known as Abdullah Bin Jassim Street. Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonThe unconventional idea to paint the road blue was approved by Ashghal, the Public Works Authority, as a pilot project designed to reduce heat radiating from the asphalt. The exact composition of the…

Hollywood proved slow to embrace the faith-based market in the wake of “The Passion of the Christ.” Still, select studios dipped a pinky toe in the spiritual waters, witness Sony’s Affirm film slate and features like “Breakthrough” and “The Case for Christ.” Even marquee actors — think Greg Kinnear, Jennifer Garner and Joseph Fiennes —…