What we learn in Alex Russell’s LURKER is that Eve Harrington, while successful in her manipulations in ALL ABOUT EVE, is a mere piker compared to Matthew Morning, Russell’s protagonist in his taut thriller. Exploring themes of love, obsession, and the symbiotic relationship between fan and star, this psychological character study of desperation with a… Read More »
HERETIC
HERETIC manages to be terrifying because of the very civility each of the characters shows during the slow build-up to the, ahem, crux of the film. This fable for our times is a cleverly disguised dialectic not just on faith, but on the very human need to believe in something in the face of proof,… Read More »
MUSICA
Rudy Mancuso (played by . . . Rudy Mancuso) lives in a slightly different universe than the rest of us. Where we hear the rumble of city life, Rudy hears rhythm and music. Where we see people going about their daily lives, Rudy sees syncopated choreography. And that’s the universe that Mancuso, as director and… Read More »
THE SALESMAN — Asghar Farhadi
When I spoke with Asghar Farhadi during the Mill Valley Film Festival on October 14, 2016 about THE SALESMAN, one of us (me) fully anticipated that it, like his Oscar™-winning film A SEPARATION, would be nominated for an Oscar™. Neither of us could have anticipated that when it was, in fact, nominated, Farhadi would not… Read More »
Errol Morris — TABLOID
Errol Morris specializes in stories that challenge preconceived notions and recieved truth. With TABLOID, he allows Joyce McKinney, the center of a tabloid frenzy involving sex and religion, the tabloid reporter and the tabloid photographer who told the tale to the multitudes in search of salacious story, and a gay Mormon activist who met Joyce… Read More »
WORDPLAY with Patrick Creadon & Merl Reagle
WORDPLAY is a film about obsession and there are no better representatives of that phenomenon than filmmaker Patrick Creadon and crossword puzzle-maker Merl Reagle. The particulars are all things word, as Reagle demonstrated by anagramming my name, but there is a universal quality to it. Creadon and Reagle proved conclusively during our talk on May 25, 2006… Read More »