Film Reviews
Failed by the State co-writer and presenter Ish: “I wasn’t trying to push agendas, I was just trying to tell the truth about Grenfell.”
By Robert Stevens, 16 February 2018
The World Socialist Web Site interviewed Ish about the making of Failed by the State, a documentary on the Grenfell fire, and the attack launched against it by the Daily Beast and right-wing newspapers in Britain.
Louis C.K.’s I Love You, Daddy: The tragic fate of a significant American film
By Zac Corrigan, 12 February 2018
After allegations of sexual misconduct against Louis C.K. became public, the distributor pulled the film, one week before its scheduled opening in November.
Jeff Daniels’ Flint: A drama about the former industrial city
Is it “all about the money” or all about race?
By David Walsh, 2 February 2018
Jeff Daniels’ drama is currently being performed at the Purple Rose Theatre in Chelsea, Michigan, some 60 miles west of Detroit. The play will run until March 10.
Marshall and #MeToo: A 77-year-old civil rights fight exposes the reactionary character of the sexual misconduct witch-hunt
By Fred Mazelis, 1 February 2018
The 1941 case, in which a black man was acquitted of rape charges, poses awkward questions for those who dismiss due process in their campaign against sexual harassment, both real and alleged.
Actress Dorothy Malone (1924-2018)
By Hiram Lee, 29 January 2018
Veteran Hollywood actress Dorothy Malone, who appeared in the Douglas Sirk classic Written on the Wind, has died at the age of 93.
70 years since the release of John Huston’s The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
By Joanne Laurier, 26 January 2018
The classic film, based on the 1927 novel by German author B. Traven, is the tale of two down-and-out Americans in Mexico who join with an older prospector to dig for gold.
B. Traven, the author of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
By David Walsh, 26 January 2018
The author of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre was the left-wing writer known as B. Traven. Considerable mystery surrounds Traven, some of it sustained by the writer himself during his lifetime.
The 2018 Academy Award Nominations: A few worthy films, and others to fill quotas
By Hiram Lee, 24 January 2018
Guillermo del Toro’s film The Shape of Water led with thirteen nominations. Christopher Nolan’s World War II drama Dunkirk received eight nominations, while Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri received seven.
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri: A vengeful mother stands up to the local “patriarchy”
By Kevin Martinez, 18 January 2018
Morbid and banal, the story concerns a mother battling local authorities to find the killer of her daughter. Unsurprisingly, it has won considerable acclaim from the arts establishment, including the recent Golden Globes.
Steven Spielberg’s The Post: To reveal government secrets and lies or not?
By Joanne Laurier, 17 January 2018
The new film recounts the internal struggle at the Washington Post over whether or not to publish the Pentagon Papers in 1971.
And the Golden Globe award goes to … Witch hunting!
By Trévon Austin and David Walsh, 9 January 2018
This year’s Golden Globes award ceremony, organized by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, was a spectacle of self-absorption and self-pity.
All the Money in the World—above all, the “expunging” of Kevin Spacey—and The Shape of Water
By Joanne Laurier, 5 January 2018
Probably the most important thing about Ridley Scott’s new film, an account of the 1973 kidnapping of J. Paul Getty III, is the decision to erase Spacey’s performance. The Shape of Water is a charming “fairy tale,” with anti-authoritarian overtones.
Director of A World Not Ours, A Man Returned and A Drowning Man
An interview with Palestinian filmmaker Mahdi Fleifel: “A film is like a historical document, it should be solid enough to endure”
By David Walsh, 4 January 2018
Fleifel’s A World Not Ours (2012), Xenos (2014), A Man Returned (2016) and A Drowning Man (2017) are some of the important films currently being made.
Short films considered for Academy Award nominations: Emmett Till, a Jack London story and an isolated child
By Joanne Laurier, 3 January 2018
Ten films have been voted onto the Academy Award short list in the “Best Short Film (Live Action)” category.
Best films of 2017, and other matters
By David Walsh and Joanne Laurier, 30 December 2017
It is impossible to discuss the best films of the year without considering some big social and cultural issues.
Remarkable collection of early Soviet films on DVD: The New Man—Awakening and Everyday Life in Revolutionary Russia
By Bernd Reinhardt, 29 December 2017
A notable collection of early Soviet films has been released on DVD in Germany to coincide with the centenary of the October Revolution.
Downsizing: Alexander Payne’s take on climate change, overpopulation, social inequality … and more
By Joanne Laurier, 23 December 2017
Payne’s latest work is a science-fiction satire that proposes to solve the earth’s ecological and other problems by “downsizing,” or physically shrinking, human beings.
Greta Gerwig’s Lady Bird and Todd Haynes’ Wonderstruck: “Small” films at a time of big crisis
By Carlos Delgado, 21 December 2017
The two films are sometimes charming, occasionally amusing and generally benign. But something is missing.
Star Wars: The Last Jedi—The further business of the Disney franchise
By Matthew MacEgan, 19 December 2017
The third Star Wars film released by Disney does little to break with the prescribed formula. Bombast and some surprises fail to carry good talent to meaningful places.
Mudbound and life in post-World War II Mississippi: Dreaming “in brown”
… and a word on James Franco’s The Disaster Artist
By Joanne Laurier, 15 December 2017
Dee Rees’s Mudbound centers on two families, one black and one white, in rural Mississippi, immediately following World War II.The Disaster Artist is a decidedly slight effort.
Film Review
“Grenfell changed everything”—Failed by the State: The Struggle in the Shadow of Grenfell
By Paul Bond, 14 December 2017
A new three-part documentary shows how the Grenfell Tower inferno exposed the realities of class oppression and social inequality in the most brutal way.
The Man Who Invented Christmas: Charles Dickens and the writing of A Christmas Carol
By Joanne Laurier, 8 December 2017
Directed by Bharat Nalluri, the film is a biographical fantasy that brings a reinvention of A Christmas Carol (1843), with Dickens as a central character, to the screen.
Roman J. Israel, Esq.: Rebel with a cause
By Joanne Laurier, 2 December 2017
Dan Gilroy’s Roman J. Israel, Esq. is a legal drama with an anti-establishment slant.
James Cameron’s 1997 film showing in the US for one week
What the WSWS said about Titanic 20 years ago
Why are the critics lauding Titanic?
By David Walsh, 29 November 2017
To mark 20 years since its release in December 1997, James Cameron’s Titanic is being shown in 87 theaters in the US for a week, starting December 1. We are marking the occasion by re-posting two comments on Titanic that appeared on the WSWS in January and February 1998.
What the WSWS said about Titanic 20 years ago
Titanic as a social phenomenon
By David Walsh, 29 November 2017
Originally posted February 25, 1998
LBJ and Marshall: Film biographies deal with mid-20th century US struggle for racial equality
By Fred Mazelis, 25 November 2017
In seeking to bolster illusions in the Democratic Party and the myth of an unsullied American democracy, both of these films obscure more than they reveal.
75 years since the release of Hollywood classic Casablanca
“And what if you track down these men and kill them? ... Even Nazis can’t kill that fast”
By Joanne Laurier, 22 November 2017
Michael Curtiz’s 1942 beloved melodrama, Casablanca, celebrating its 75th anniversary, was recently shown in select cinemas nationwide in the US.
Denis Villeneuve’s Blade Runner 2049: A dreary future
By Carlos Delgado, 20 November 2017
The film, a sequel to the 1982 original, stars Ryan Gosling as a police officer who hunts down “synthetic humans” in futuristic Los Angeles.
An artist’s eye view of the Russian Revolution
1917: The Real October—An animated documentary by Katrin Rothe
By Sybille Fuchs, 17 November 2017
The two-time Grimme Award-winner Kathrin Rothe portrays the events of February to October 1917 in Russia from the viewpoint of a number of artists.
Cottbus Festival of Eastern European Cinema
From Slovenia, Jan Cvitkovič’s The Basics of Killing: “We are all alone in capitalist society, especially when things go wrong”
By Stefan Steinberg, 16 November 2017
The “basics of killing” are the social measures and pressures that can destroy the lives of entire families in a short time.
Ai Weiwei’s Human Flow is a major work, but what does the defense of immigrants entail?
By Eric London, 15 November 2017
The film is an aesthetic and political milestone and Ai’s imagery is unforgettable because it is real. But in its political orientation, Human Flow lags far behind.
Richard Linklater’s Last Flag Flying: The great pressure on artists to pull their punches
By David Walsh, 14 November 2017
The new film, which involves two Vietnam War veterans who help a third bury his son, killed in Iraq, is set in December 2003. It is an indirect sequel of The Last Detail (1973).
The Last Hour (La Hora Final) and Peru’s ongoing glorification of its military and intelligence forces
By Armando Cruz, 13 November 2017
A superficial and cliché-ridden work, the film’s most fatal weakness is its complete lack of seriousness in dealing with the historical and social forces that gave rise to Shining Path.
Thank You for Your Service: How many victims are there of America’s ongoing wars?
By Joanne Laurier, 9 November 2017
Jason Hall’s directorial debut, Thank You for Your Service, is a drama about three soldiers returning from the Iraq War and their difficulties adjusting to civilian life.
George Clooney’s Suburbicon: A misanthropic take on 1950s’ America
By David Walsh, 7 November 2017
A would-be “black comedy,” directed and co-written by George Clooney, Suburbicon is set in 1959 in a bland suburban community.
Sean Baker’s The Florida Project: “The joy and heart and humor of being a child”
By Joanne Laurier, 2 November 2017
The Florida Project focuses imaginatively and sympathetically on the “hidden homeless” who eke out a bare-bones existence in the shadow of Disney World in Orlando, Florida.
Flint: How much of the social crime does the film present?
Lifetime movie on the water disaster will air October 28
By Joanne Laurier, 27 October 2017
The film, directed by Bruce Beresford, was inspired by the ongoing Flint water crisis and bases itself more immediately on a February 2016 Time magazine report, “The Poisoning of an American City.”
The genuine achievement of Loving Vincent, and its limitations
By Joanne Laurier, 19 October 2017
The Polish-UK production is a tribute to the great artist and an attempt to bring his life and work to a wide international audience.
An interview with a Loving Vincent painter-animator
By Joanne Laurier, 19 October 2017
Natalie Gregorarz, a 27 year-old artist from the Detroit area, was one of the artists involved in the making of Loving Vincent.
Star Trek: Discovery—The latest incarnation of the popular science fiction series
By Tom Hall, 18 October 2017
The seventh show in the long-running science fiction franchise is a grim and militaristic special-effects extravaganza that largely repudiates the optimistic view of the future of earlier Star Trek television shows.
Toronto International Film Festival: Part 5
African American playwright Lorraine Hansberry, a revolution betrayed in Portugal and other matters
By Joanne Laurier, 4 October 2017
The Hansberry documentary presents a straightforward and enlightening picture of a woman who was smart, sensitive and rebellious, tragically dying of pancreatic cancer at the age of 34.
Toronto International Film Festival: Part 4
The Death of Stalin, The Other Side of Everything, Insyriated—The filmmakers’ inability to deal with complex questions, or worse
By David Walsh, 30 September 2017
Several films on political and historical questions underscore ongoing intellectual and artistic difficulties.
Toronto International Film Festival: Part 3
The Current War—about Edison, electricity and the 1880s—and Alexander Payne’s Downsizing—about “downsizing”
By Joanne Laurier, 28 September 2017
The Current War deals with the conflict between Thomas Edison, George Westinghouse and Nikola Tesla. Downsizing is a semi-comic attempt to treat the earth’s ecological crisis.
Darren Aronofsky’s mother!: Entirely misconceived
By Kevin Martinez, 27 September 2017
Dehumanizing and brutal, Aronofsky’s new film fails on nearly every conceivable level.
Toronto International Film Festival 2017: Part 2
Directions, Disappearance, A Drowning Man: Realistic about harsh conditions
By David Walsh, 26 September 2017
Certain films at the recent Toronto film festival depict reality in important ways.
Toronto International Film Festival 2017
An interview with Stephan Komandarev, director of Directions: “The first step is to have a clear picture of what’s happening. I don’t see any other way.”
By David Walsh and Joanne Laurier, 26 September 2017
We spoke with Bulgarian filmmaker Stephan Komandarev, the writer-director of Directions, in Toronto.
Toronto International Film Festival 2017: Part 1
Trouble in paradise: A comment on the economics and politics of the Toronto International Film Festival
By David Walsh, 22 September 2017
This year’s event screened 255 feature films, a 14 percent decline from a year ago, when the festival presented 296 features, and the lowest number of full-length films in a decade.
The Last Tycoon: Hollywood in the 1930s
By David Walsh, 13 September 2017
The Last Tycoon is an American television series about Hollywood and the film industry in the 1930s. The first and last season of the series, which emanates from Amazon Studios, comprises nine episodes.
Sean Penn’s The Last Face and Hollywood’s “August Death March”
By David Walsh, 31 August 2017
The Last Face, about relief workers in Africa, met with a savage critical response at the Cannes film festival. Meanwhile, the American film industry is deservedly suffering through one of its worst summers in decades.
Ingrid Goes West and Wind River: Hardly scratching the surface
By Joanne Laurier, 30 August 2017
Two current films, Ingrid Goes West, a cautionary tale about social media, and Wind River, a murder investigation near a Native American reservation, skirt around significant issues.
Logan Lucky: Steven Soderbergh returns from retirement
By David Walsh, 26 August 2017
The new film is set in West Virginia and North Carolina and involves the robbery of the Charlotte Motor Speedway during a major race.
Early Women Filmmakers: An International Anthology—A largely untold story
By Charles Bogle, 17 August 2017
This collection samples the work of 14 early women directors (1902-1943). International in scope, the anthology brings to light the important contributions that these directors made to the development of film as an art form.
Rescue Under Fire (Zona hostil): Propaganda in the service of Spanish militarism
By Alejandro López, 14 August 2017
The glorification of the military is a response to the growing inter-imperialist tensions and the drive to war, which have been intensified by the installation of an aggressively nationalist and protectionist administration in the US.
Barbet Schroeder’s Amnesia: The trauma of German history
By Joanne Laurier, 7 August 2017
Set in the early 1990s, Amnesia is an exploration of German historical memory and the impact of the legacy of Nazism on sections of the middle class after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Atomic Blonde: The last days of the Cold War
By Kevin Martinez, 5 August 2017
In 1989, before the fall of the Berlin Wall, MI6 agent Lorraine Broughton is sent to retrieve a secret list hidden in a wristwatch that has the names of every active agent in the Soviet Union.
The Handmaid’s Tale: Resistance is not futile
By Ed Hightower, 1 August 2017
In a number of ways, Hulu’s serialization of Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel challenges the viewer to oppose the status quo.
Kathryn Bigelow’s Detroit: Mind-numbing violence and racial politics
By Joanne Laurier, 28 July 2017
Bigelow’s film is a fictionalized account of an incident that occurred during the July 1967 rebellion in Detroit, the cold-blooded murder of three young black men by police at the Algiers Motel.
Citizen Jane: Battle for the City—Documentary on the life and times of urban activist Jane Jacobs
By Clare Hurley, 27 July 2017
The subject of Matt Tyrnauer’s documentary is journalist and activist Jane Jacobs, perhaps best known for her crusades against several large-scale infrastructure projects in New York City in the 1960s.
Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk: The outbreak of World War II without history or politics
By David Walsh, 26 July 2017
British director Nolan’s new film is about the famed evacuation of large numbers of British and French troops from northern France in May-June 1940.
Lady Macbeth—a bored, unhappy young wife “ready to go through fire”—and Mali Blues
By Joanne Laurier, 17 July 2017
Lady Macbeth is an adaptation of the well-known novella by Russian writer Nikolai Leskov, transposed to northeast England. Mali Blues offers a glimpse of that country’s remarkable musical scene.
Netflix series on Elizabeth II
The Crown: Sentenced to be queen
By David Walsh, 13 July 2017
The Crown is a biographical drama series, created and written by Peter Morgan (The Queen, The Damned United), about the life and reign of Queen Elizabeth II. The first season covers the years 1947 to 1955.
Beatriz at Dinner: Not the sort of resistance that amounts to much
By Joanne Laurier, 12 July 2017
Directed by Miguel Arteta (Cedar Rapids) and featuring Salma Hayek and John Lithgow, the new film promotes a New Age-type opposition to a Trump-like figure.
Sofia Coppola’s The Beguiled: Historical drama with hardly any history
By Joanne Laurier, 7 July 2017
Along the way, the film demonstrates once again how contemporary gender and racial politics tyrannizes over much of current cultural life.
The Jazz Loft According to W. Eugene Smith: A film about music, photography and the postwar world
By David Walsh, 27 June 2017
Between 1957 and 1965 or so, American photographer Eugene Smith took some 40,000 photos and recorded nearly 4,000 hours of audio tape, many dedicated to jazz and jazz musicians, in a New York City loft.
Megan Leavey: Oblivious to Iraqi suffering
By Joanne Laurier, 23 June 2017
Set during the Iraq war in 2006, Megan Leavey deals with the relationship of a female Marine corporal and her military dog companion. It is an unvarnished pro-war film.
My Cousin Rachel: Was she innocent or guilty—and what would it signify?
By David Walsh, 17 June 2017
Roger Michell’s film, based on the 1951 novel by Daphne du Maurier set in the 19th century, follows a callow young man who falls for his sophisticated, perhaps calculating older “cousin.”
Wonder Woman: Humanity is pretty rotten, but the Germans are the worst of the lot
By David Walsh, 13 June 2017
The story involves an Amazonian princess/demigoddess who makes her way, in the company of an American Allied spy, from her island paradise to Europe toward the end of the First World War.
Three intriguing new films that should not disappear unnoticed: Sami Blood, Past Life and Radio Dreams
By David Walsh, 10 June 2017
Most of the films in movie theaters in the US at the moment are poor, or worse. As a result, the public is increasingly turning away. But there are exceptions.
Silence in the Courts—a film about judicial corruption in Sri Lanka
By Wasantha Rupasinghe, 3 June 2017
Prasanna Vithanage’s documentary deals with the sexual assault of two village women by a magistrate and the subsequent cover-up.
Barry Levinson’s The Wizard of Lies on HBO: The tame, New York Times’ version of the Madoff scandal
By David Walsh, 1 June 2017
The HBO film is an account of the downfall of Wall Street swindler Bernard Madoff, whose multi-billion-dollar stock and securities fraud unraveled in December 2008.
Conversations with Joseph Goebbels’s secretary
A German Life: A glimpse into the Nazi inner circle
By Bernd Reinhardt and Verena Nees, 27 May 2017
The Austrian-made documentary centres on Brunhilde Pomsel (1911-2017), who worked as a secretary in the office of Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels from 1942 to 1945.
ABC’s Designated Survivor: The US government in crisis, onscreen and off
By Carlos Delgado, 20 May 2017
The series stars Kiefer Sutherland as Tom Kirkman, a low-level cabinet member who ascends to the presidency after a devastating attack on the US government.
Risk: Laura Poitras’ confused, superficial documentary about Julian Assange and WikiLeaks
By David Walsh and Joanne Laurier, 11 May 2017
The film broaches a dozen subjects and avoids treating any of them in depth, and often fails to take a clear position of any kind.
13 Reasons Why: The unhappiness of youth
By Genevieve Leigh, 10 May 2017
The new Netflix series treats the background to the decision by Hannah Baker, a high school student in a more or less average American suburb, to kill herself…and its consequences.
San Francisco International Film Festival—Part 4
Dziga Vertov’s The Man with a Movie Camera: One of the films you must see!
By David Walsh and Joanne Laurier, 6 May 2017
A highlight of the recent San Francisco film festival was the screening of Soviet filmmaker Dziga Vertov’s masterpiece, The Man with a Movie Camera (1929), at the historic Castro Theatre.
National Bird, about drone warfare, currently available on PBS “Independent Lens”
By Joanne Laurier, 5 May 2017
Sonia Kennebeck’s disturbing documentary, National Bird, can be viewed until May 16 on PBS’s “Independent Lens” web site.
San Francisco International Film Festival—Part 1
By David Walsh, 26 April 2017
The 2017 San Francisco International Film Festival screened some 180 films from 50 countries or so. This is the first of several articles.
Edward Yang’s Taipei Story (1985) depicts a city of sadness and alienation
By Fred Mazelis, 18 April 2017
One of the early films of major Taiwanese director Edward Yang was recently screened in the US for the first time.
The Coming War on China: A pacifist appeal
By Richard Phillips, 14 April 2017
Pilger’s documentary exposes something of Washington’s escalating war plans against China but suggests that protests can prevent a nuclear conflagration.
“Nothing is entirely serious”—least of all Pablo Larraín’s Neruda
By Emanuele Saccarelli, 12 April 2017
Pablo Larraín’s Neruda is a highly unconventional and dissatisfying biopic of the Chilean poet.
San Diego Latino Film Festival—Part 3
On the assassination of Leon Trotsky, Latin American death squads and pictures of immigration
By Toby Reese, Kevin Martinez and Andrea Ramos, 10 April 2017
El Elegido (The Chosen) dramatizes the role of Ramon Mercader in the assassination of Leon Trotsky in 1940. El Amparo recounts the 1988 massacre of innocent fishermen in Venezuela. Lupe Bajo el Sol and X500 look at immigration and immigrants.
San Diego Latino Film Festival—Part 2
Conditions in Latin America, treated concretely…and more abstractly
By Kevin Martinez and Toby Reese, 6 April 2017
Films from Ecuador, Mexico, Colombia and the Dominican Republic were shown at the festival, including a tense political drama, a dialogue-free drama and two documentaries.
The Zookeeper’s Wife: Life and heroism in wartime Warsaw
By Joanne Laurier, 5 April 2017
The Zookeeper’s Wife recounts the true story of the rescue of Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto during the Nazi invasion of Poland that began in 1939.
Lyrical and left-wing film
Nicholas Ray’s They Live by Night (1948): “They’re thieves, just like us”
By Joanne Laurier, 29 March 2017
A viewing of Nicholas Ray’s iconic 1948 film They Live by Night is a refreshing antidote to the current trivia, social indifference and identity politics.
Get Out: The horror of racism, and racialist politics
By Hiram Lee, 28 March 2017
With Get Out, Jordan Peele has said he wanted to make a film to “combat the lie that America had become post-racial.” The monster at the heart of this horror film is racism itself.
Bitter Harvest: Ukrainian nationalist fantasy as film
By Jason Melanovski, 18 March 2017
Russophobia and historical misrepresentation abound in George Mendeluk’s pseudo-historical drama.
Revolution: New Art for a New World—A careless, unserious treatment of Russian Revolutionary art
By Joanne Laurier and David Walsh, 17 March 2017
British filmmaker Margy Kinmonth is out of her depth in her documentary about Russian avant-garde art.
Raoul Peck’s The Young Karl Marx
By Peter Schwarz, 15 March 2017
The Young Karl Marx, Raoul Peck's biographical portrait of Marx and Engels between 1843 and 1847, opened in movie theaters in New York City and Los Angeles Friday to be followed by a wider US release. We are re-posting the review which originally appeared on the WSWS last March.
The Settlers: Israel’s movement toward an apartheid state
By Fred Mazelis, 11 March 2017
A new documentary shows the impact of decades of Israeli occupation of the West Bank on the Zionist state.
67th Berlin International Film Festival—Part 3
The absence for the most part of the big wide world: German films at the Berlinale
By Bernd Reinhardt, 9 March 2017
The dramatic social and political developments of the past several years were evidently not high on the German filmmakers’ agenda.
The Look of Silence: Important documentary on the aftermath of the 1965 Indonesia massacres
By Clara Weiss, 6 March 2017
In a profoundly moving, intimate and disturbing way, Joshua Oppenheimer’s film deals with the long-lasting and devastating impact of the mass murder of up to one million Communists and suspected Communists.
67th Berlin International Film Festival--Part 2
A film about the legendary guitarist: Django
By Bernd Reinhardt, 4 March 2017
The debut film of Étienne Comar focuses on the year 1943, when the Nazis tried unsuccessfully to convince Django Reinhardt to undertake a tour of fascist Germany.
67th Berlin International Film Festival—Part 1
Filmmaking in “apocalyptic” times
By Stefan Steinberg, 2 March 2017
There was very little evidence in Berlin this year of filmmakers and the festival as a whole taking up burning social and political issues.
89th Academy Awards: What does Hollywood offer today?
By David Walsh, 28 February 2017
The 89th Academy Awards ceremony, held Sunday at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, was an even more complex and peculiar affair than usual.
Zhang Yimou’s The Great Wall: Issues bound up with a major Chinese film production
By Joanne Laurier, 23 February 2017
Set in ancient China, Zhang Yimou’s new work is a visually arresting, large-scale action film undermined by its general cartoonishness.
Pedro Almodóvar’s Julieta: A mother and daughter … and what else?
By Joanne Laurier, 16 February 2017
Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar’s latest film, Julieta, is a family melodrama that seeks to explore themes of guilt, alienation and absence, but with very limited results.
I Am Not Your Negro: Raoul Peck’s documentary on James Baldwin
By Clare Hurley, 14 February 2017
The film takes as its point of departure Baldwin’s proposal to his editor in 1979 to write a piece about civil rights leaders Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr.
Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi’s The Salesman
By Tom Carter, 13 February 2017
“Most of the film takes place inside an apartment,” Farhadi told one interviewer, “but once the film has ended, you feel like you’ve seen the whole city.”
Alberto Cavalcanti and postwar British cinema
By Joanne Laurier, 10 February 2017
In the course of a lengthy filmmaking career, Brazilian-born Alberto Cavalcanti created several of the most poetically realistic and socially poignant films of the twentieth century.
Black Mirror: A murky reflection
By Carlos Delgado, 4 February 2017
The science fiction television series purports to show its viewers the dark side of modern technology.
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