Click here to listen to the interview. Rich Peppiatt convinced the Irish rap group Kneecap to let him tell their story during a long night of drinking. It’s one of the many things we talked about with two members of that group, Móglaí Bap, and JJ DJ Próvai, on July 26, 2024. There was a… Read More »
THE IRON CLAW
Click here to listen to the flashback interview with Sean Durkin for MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE. It would be too easy to pigeonhole THE IRON CLAW as a gloss on toxic masculinity in our culture. To be sure, that element is mightily present in Sean Durkin’s poetic tale of fathers and sons. Based on the… Read More »
MARISOL — Kevin Casanova Interview
Click here to listen to the interview. Kevin Casanova Abrams’ MARISOL centers on an honors high-school senior in a Texas border town with dreams of attending college whose life is upended when she discovers that she is undocumented, having been brought to the United States when she was 10 months old. The first thing I… Read More »
VENGEANCE
Ostensibly a mystery, and a nifty one at that, VENGEANCE is much more. BJ Novak has spun a savage takedown of the media and elite presumptions, but one that is also considered, literate, and even a bit compassionate. At least on the level of allowing redemption of sorts for the silly creatures called human beings… Read More »
NEWS OF THE WORLD
NEWS OF THE WORLD is a somber and sober tale of post-Civil War Texas with few surprises as it wends its way through the mythos of the Old West, unfolding as it does as a metaphor. Or is it an allegory? Perhaps a microcosm of the world’s ills, both then and now? All those elements… Read More »
J.R. ‘BOB’ DOBBS AND THE CHURCH OF THE SUBGENIUS
Though J.R. ‘BOB’ DOBBS AND THE CHURCH OF THE SUBGENIUS throws in that now infamous quote from L. Ron Hubbard, the one about how the real money is in starting a religion not writing science fiction, this (mostly) playful, always thoughtful documentary is an unusual cautionary tale, but not for the usual reasons. Yes, it’s… Read More »
BOYS STATE
As some of us still ponder the results of the presidential election of 2016, and view the approach of the 2020 election with trepidation, there is no more timely nor illuminating film than Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss’ cinema verité documentary, BOY’S STATE.
TRIAL BY FIRE — Ed Zwick Interview
Click here to listen to the interview. A film like TRIAL BY FIRE provokes a host of questions about the justice system and the ethics of capital punishment. When I spoke with Ed Zwick on April 15, 2019, those inevitably came up as we discussed adapting the true story of Cameron Todd Willingham’s murder conviction, and… Read More »
Eddie Rosenstein Celebrates the FREEDOM TO MARRY
When I spoke to Eddie Rosenstein by phone on June 22, 2016, the first thing I wanted him to discuss was how important it was to remember the decades-long struggle for marriage equality. We went on to talk about his personal connection to one his subjects, Evan Wolfson, of the Freedom to Marry Coalition, and… Read More »
THE BLIND SIDE
THE BLIND SIDE takes what in lesser hands would have been a prime example of the hopelessly hackneyed and saccharine sub-genre of holiday feel-good flick, sports division, and, instead, makes of this uplifting true story a refreshingly sober film that brings good and surprisingly wholesome good cheer. The true story is of how Michael Oher… Read More »