There could be no better time to re-discover Peter Kass’ lost black-and-white masterpiece, TIME OF THE HEATHEN. Taking as its theme man’s inhumanity to man (and woman), Kass uses the microcosm of racism as well as the macrocosm of society blindly following rules, legal and cultural, to give us a searing indictment of humanity as… Read More »
LIMBO
LIMBO begins with an Aboriginal painting that gradually fades into the cobbled landscape of the sere and foreboding landscape of the Australian outback. That is where Travis Hurley (Simon Baker) has been sent to look into re-opening the cold case of a missing Aboriginal girl who vanished from the eponymous town of Limbo twenty years… Read More »
RESTORE POINT
RESTORE POINT is a first-rate neo-noir set in a near-dystopian near future. The year in 2041, and the social and economic unrest plaguing Middle Europe has resulted in such violence that a new civil right has been bestowed on its residents. Anyone found to have been killed as a result of violence is guaranteed a… Read More »
IN THE LAND OF SAINTS AND SINNERS
IN THE LAND OF SAINTS AND SINNERS is a melancholy study of the futility of violence. Set in the war-torn Northern Ireland of 1974, it features a performance by Liam Neeson that is considered, measured, and infinitely eloquent for its silences in a story that eschews politics as it finely observes the consequences of choices,… Read More »
PROJECT DOROTHY
James (Tim DeZarna) is a tough old bird whose life choices have not served him well, but the cynicism this has engendered has not destroyed his moral compass. Not entirely, anyway. That is fortunate because his latest choice has put the fate of humanity in his hands. In PROJECT DOROTHY, James and his partner in… Read More »
OUT OF DARKNESS
OUT OF DARKNESS is set 45,000 years ago, and uses a constructed language based on Basque, but it deals with some disturbingly contemporary and immediately recognizable issues. For a time and characters so remote from our experience, it is remarkable for how the story of a small band of hunter/gatherers resonates with all too identifiable… Read More »
I.S.S.
I.S.S. is a thoughtful, disquieting consideration of loyalty and tribalism. Set in the near future aboard that symbol of cooperation, the International Space Station, it posits what would happen to the six scientists and military personnel aboard if war broke out down below. Gabriela Cowperthwaite has created a spare work that pushes aside the impressive… Read More »
SATURN BOWLING (Bowling Saturne)
SATURN BOWLING is a horror film as cold-blooded as the serial killer it depicts on a rampage through Calvados, France. And as cold-hearted as the father whose sins are visited in abundance upon two brothers attempting a détente after a lifetime of estrangement. Chillingly observational, and unflinching in its depiction of violence, psychological and physical,… Read More »
A HAUNTING IN VENICE
A HAUNTING IN VENICE finds master detective Hercule Poirot (director Kenneth Branagh) in a somber mood. Two world wars and first-hand knowledge of the evil that men (and women) do have prompted him to become a virtual recluse in Venice, where swarms of eager would-be clients are forcefully rebuffed by the formidable bodyguard (Vincenzo Di… Read More »
MAGGIE MOORE(S)
MAGGIE MOORE(S) is a nifty neo-noir that deftly plumbs the seeping corruption underlying the dull quotidian of a small southwestern city, trading the usual stark contrast between light and shadow for an oppressive sort of omnipresent sunlight that shows everything but reveals nothing. Beginning with a murder in a seedy motel parking lot, it flashes… Read More »
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