-
Blood of the Damned: Chan-wook Park’s Thirst leaves you feeling parched for more context.
Marc SavlovHave you heard the one about the priest, the girl, and the mother-in-law? Would you like to? It goes like this: A humble, selfless priest enters into a supremely dangerous... read on»
-
Moving Pictures: Director Vera Chytilová the subject of an offbeat and inspiring movie tribute.
Adam JosephCzech filmmaker Vera Chytilová is considered the pioneer of Czech New Wave cinema. She didn’t use conventional cinematic devices; she used cinéma vérité-style filmmaking, often incorporating superimposed images and backward... read on»
-
The MCFC and Monterey Jazz Festival present Clint’s Bird.
Dan LinehanCharlie “Bird” Parker never got to play his alto sax at the Monterey Jazz Festival. He died – much too young – in 1955, three years before the first festival... read on»
-
Anyone Can Whistle: The Informant! tells us more about human nature than corporate wrongdoing.
Marjorie BaumgartenAlthough they share the same first syllable and both are movies about real-life corporate whistle-blowers, Steven Soderbergh’s The Informant! could not be more different than Michael Mann’s The Insider, a... read on»
-
The director of An Inconvenient Truth makes an inconsequential doc.
Marc SavlovIt’s a testament to how far White Striper Jack White has come in the rock & roll world since the release of the first White Stripes album 10 years back... read on»
-
Burton’s Burden: 9 remake has moments, but doesn’t live up to original.
Marc SavlovCo-produced by, among others, Nightwatch/Daywatch director Timur Bekmambetov and Tim Burton, 9 is a beautifully animated (in CGI) but narratively compromised fable about – sort of – societal cooperation and... read on»
-
Common Touch: The natives are feckless in Mike Judge’s new paen to regular folks.
Kelly VanceMike Judge is the chief magistrate of Flyover Land. Sure, other comedy filmmakers can claim to have their fingers on the pulse of Lower Middle America, a country the entertainment... read on»
-
Silent Fighting: Dardenne brothers are masters of form and content.
Karina LongworthWhether or not you “like” their work, you’d be hard pressed to deny the impact that Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne have had on recent art cinema. The Dardenne style (handheld... read on»