In a puckish bit of self-reference, one of the characters in the Romanian comedy, TWO LOTTERY TICKETS, opines that Romania doesn’t make good movies anymore. They’re all doom and gloom, completely missing the essence of Romania. In his second film, Paul Negoescu sets out to change that single-handedly and does a tidy job of it.… Read More »
ENFANT TERRIBLE
At one point, late in in ENFANT TERRIBLE, the titular character of this bio-pic, omnisexual filmmaker and agent provacateur of the German New Wave, Rainer Werner Fassbinder (Oliver Masucci), calls himself an uber-pig. It’s part boast, part confession, and part apology. As seen in Oskar Roehler’s stunningly oneiric film, they are all consistent with the… Read More »
UNDINE
At no point in Christian Petzold’s UNDINE do we encounter anything as pedestrian as a character discussing the nature of the supernatural creature at the heart of this exquisitely enigmatic, emotionally intense film. Rather, we are left to ponder just what the nature of our title character is on a more human level. Whether or… Read More »
PAPER SPIDERS
Husband and wife writing team Inon Shampanier and Natalie Shampanier wrote PAPER SPIDERS from personal experience, which gives it that extra gloss of authenticity. While it does not reflect the factual truth of the struggles they had with Natalie’s mother and her diagnosis of persecutory delusional disorder, it does convey the emotional truth of seeing… Read More »
ABOUT ENDLESSNESS (Om det oändliga)
In one of the series of vignettes that make up Roy Andersson’s ABOUT ENDLESSNESS, we find a city café where the patrons sit in carefully constructed isolation among one another, in the foreground, a dentist who we know from the previous vignette, is in a bad mood and plagued with problems. Snow falls. Christmas carols… Read More »
THE BOYS FROM COUNTY HELL
There is an air of Celtic melancholy running through the, ahem, deadpan humor of THE BOYS FROM COUNTY HELL. That touch elevates the, further ahem, stakes in this horror comedy that takes a few swipes at fraught family relationships, a sinking economy, and Bram Stoker’s relevance when a real vampire resurfaces. The supernatural is almost… Read More »
BREWMANCE
There could have been no better way for Christo Brock to start BREWMANCE, his documentary love letter to craft beer, than with Jim Koch of the Boston Beer Company. It’s not just that he pioneered craft beer as a commercial venture, and that he was so passionate about it that he personally canvassed bars, sometimes… Read More »
SENIOR MOMENT
If you are a Wiliiam Shater fanboy or girl, SENIOR MOMENT is the flick you’ve been waiting for. As an aging Lothario with a kooky sidekick (Christopher Lloyd), he oozes the Shatner brand of charm while skating through a predictable story about how Peter Pan finally grows up. He plays Victor, a senior citizen in… Read More »
FRANCESCO
Click here to listen to the flashback interview with Evgeny Afineevsky for CRIES FROM SYRIA. FRANCESCO can be classified as a hagiography of Pope Frances. Certainly, what Evgeny Afineevsky shows us of His Holiness is a man of great faith and great, notably ecumenical, compassion. Even when Frances makes a blunder about the sexual abuse… Read More »
THE TANGLE
Be advised. THE TANGLE is a hard-boiled techno-noir to which close attention must be paid. Fortunately, this intriguing bit of speculative fiction is also an enticing piece of filmmaking, making that requirement a pleasure. Rendered with a suitably moody chiaroscuro and a mid-century vibe, this murder mystery is plotted with fiendishly clever twists, while the… Read More »
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