It is high time for a re-appraisal of Sinéad O’Connor. Now best remembered with a tinge of distaste for tearing up a picture of the Pope on “Saturday Night Live” in 1992, the singer is the focus of Kathryn Ferguson’s documentary, NOTHING COMPARES. Centering on O’Connor’s precipitous rise to stardom at barely 21 to the… Read More »
WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING
One senses that the novel of the same name on which WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING possessed some lovely prose. Certainly, when the narration includes lines from the book, there is the dark poetic ring of classic Southern Gothic reverberating from the musings on death intoned by the adult version of Kya (Daisy Edgar-Jones). Whatever philosophical… Read More »
THE BLACK PHONE
The horror in THE BLACK PHONE, and very effective horror it is, comes not primarily from the serial child killer on the loose in a suburban enclave of Denver in 1978. Played with a geeky, creepy panache by Ethan Hawke, The Grabber, as he is dubbed by the police and the populace of this all-American… Read More »
WHEN I CONSUME YOU — Perry Blackshear, Macleod Andrews, Evan Dumouchel, and Libby Ewing Interview
Click here to listen to the interview. I spoke by Zoom to writer/director Perry Blackshear and actors/producers Macleod Andrews, Evan Dumouchel, and Libby Ewing ahead of the world premiere of their film, WHEN I CONSUME YOU, at the Fantasia International Film Festival. This intense psychological horror/mystery film deals with Daphne and Will (Ewing and Dumouchel),… Read More »
QUEST — Santiago Rizzo Interview
Santiago Rizzo’s semi-autobiographical film, QUEST received the Mill Valley Film Festival Audience Favorite – US Cinema Indie. Not bad for a directorial debut, and doubly gratifying because it is a tribute to the Berkeley teacher, Tim Moellener, who probably saved Rizzo’s life. He certainly set the future filmmaker on a better path than the one… Read More »
IT
The evil that lurks in the sewers beneath Derry, Maine, has nothing on the evil lurking in the homes of that community.
REGRESSION
Alejandro Amenábar directed Nicole Kidman to one of her best performances in THE OTHERS, a horror film that was both haunting and clever. The full review of that fine film is here, and I recommend watching that instead of REGRESSION, a film that is equally atmospheric, but diffused in its mounting terror, rather than sharply… Read More »
Cary Fukunaga and Abraham Attah Take On BEASTS OF NO NATION
I loved the rapport between writer/director Cary Fukunaga and his discovery, Abraham Attah. If there was ever a more impressive feature film debut than Attah’s in BEASTS OF NO NATION, I can’t remember it. This searing, heartbreaking adaptation of Uzodinma Iweala’s novel of the same name casts Attah as Agu, a normal, happy kid in… Read More »
CAPTURING THE FRIEDMANS
Beyond the riveting look at a family falling apart under the weight of its own emotional baggage, CAPTURING THE FRIEDMANS explores the elusive nature of truth. By the end, far from establishing what is and isn’t true, we are left with the unsettling realization that what is real at any given moment for one person… Read More »
Andrew Jarecki on CAPTURING THE FRIEDMANS
For a debut film, Andrew Jarecki couldn’t have picked a more controversial or attention-grabbing subject that child sexual abuse. Yet his film dealing with the emotional impact on the family of the accused father and son transcends sensationalism and becomes a consideration on the nature of truth and universality of family life. When I spoke to… Read More »