While it is tempting to think of A GHOST WAITS as merely one of the best love story involving a ghost since THE GHOST AND MRS. MUIR, there is a great deal more going on director/co-writer Adam Stovall’s witty, cinematically rich, yet philosophically dense effort. At the risk of being accused of overthinking it, one… Read More »
I BLAME SOCIETY
I’m not giving anything away to tell you the punch line in Gillian Wallace Horvat’s I BLAME SOCIETY. It’s a perfectly timed, and even more perfectly delivered explanation about the film her character made in the course of this vicious, and viciously funny satire: I’m sorry it didn’t meet your expectations, I didn’t make it… Read More »
PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN
It’s only right that a revenge story with a savage punch line should also have a savage sense of humor. And so it is with PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN, a tale of rage against the patriarchy in which the testosterone-heavy are not the only problem, and one woman’s refusal to let a crime go unacknowledged makes… Read More »
THE HUNT
No one is spared in Nick Cuse and Damon Lindelof’s THE HUNT, nor, as, will be revealed by the end, should they be. Our intrepid filmmakers have eschewed taking sides in the current political morass, instead opting for a more challenging take on the foibles of human nature itself. A bold move guaranteed to raise… Read More »
THE ART OF SELF-DEFENSE
As a trenchant examination of the roots, expression, and consequences of toxic masculinity, THE ART OF SELF DEFENSE has no peers. As a black comedy told with a straight face and a tone of conviction, it is a first rate guilty pleasure. Any film that can draw guffaws as a small child is gently choked… Read More »
PUSHING DEAD with Tom E. Brown
One of the first things I established with Tom E. Brown when I spoke with him on June 17, 2016 was that his debut feature film, PUSHING DEAD, was not autobiographical. It does, however, reflect his mordant sense of humor about living with HIV+ status, and it includes an interlude where a character is pelted… Read More »
IN BRUGES with Martin McDonagh
Martin McDonagh has the same sort of dark, yet whimsical sense of humor with which his film IN BRUGES, is rife. When I talked with him on January 30, 2008, the twisted way in which he examines morality was top of my list of thing I wanted to discuss, as well as the redefinition of… Read More »