Among the primates, expect for humans, widening the mouth and showing the teeth is a signal of aggression. In humans, it’s called a smile, and I’m sure that anthropologists have made much hay about that behavioral disconnect between us and our cousins. Parker Finn, in his feature film debut as writer and director, also makes… Read More »
HONEY BOY — Alma Har’el Interview
Click here to listen to the interview. The first thing I wanted to talk to Har’el when we spoke on October 10, 2019, was how tender the film. This despite portraying the harrowing, real-life childhood and adult struggles with anger and addiction of the film’s writer and co-star, Shia LeBeouf. Entwining parallel stories of LeBeouf’s… Read More »
UNSANE
For me, the single most disconcerting image in a Steven Soderbergh film is from CONTAGION. It’s not a panorama of people dying from the pandemic that threatens to end civilization as we know it, instead it’s the silent, dispassionately clinical shot of Gwyneth Paltrow’s head being autopsied. There are people I know who reference the… Read More »
ANGKOR AWAKENS: A PORTRAIT OF CAMBODIA
Robert H. Lieberman’s ANGKOR AWAKENS: A PORTRAIT OF CAMBODIA asks difficult questions and provides answers that are as illuminating as they are troubling. His portrait of Cambodia is refracted through the genocide that was inflicted on it by Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge, a genocide that reduced the number of doctors in in a once prosperous… Read More »
MIDSUMMER IN NEWTOWN
The word “safe” comes up over and over again in MIDSUMMER IN NEWTOWN, Lloyd Kramer’s elegiac yet emotionally gripping documentary about the aftereffects of the Sandy Hook Massacre on the survivors. As in, the sense of being safe has been taken from everyone involved forever. The question becomes how to deal with it. Kramer’s film… Read More »
Gavin Hood on EYE IN THE SKY
Gavin Hood not only directed EYE IN THE SKY, the erstwhile actor also took a small role as a military officer overseeing drone pilots. It was one of the things we didn’t have time to talk about on March 2, 2016 when we sat down to discuss his brilliant new film that respects its audience,… Read More »
LAST DAY OF FREEDOM — Dee Hibbert-Jones & Nomi Talisman Interview
Dee Hibbert-Jones and Nomi Talisman are first-time filmmakers whose short film, LAST DAY OF FREEDOM, has been short-listed for the Oscars™. The hand-drawn animation tells the story of Bill Babbitt and his beloved brother Manny, two men who were let down by the system in which they placed their trust. When Bill realizes that Manny… Read More »