Nostalgia is a cash cow in today’s film market. Audiences are vocal about their love and/or hatred for a variety of throwbacks, from resurrecting beloved television series to attempts to capture film noir. During a Q&A following the AFI screening…
Final Portrait Review: A Mediocre Work of Incomparable Genius
The struggles of the tortured artist is an attractive story for Hollywood, from the Picasso-centric Lust for Life to the modern-day biopic Basquiat. These films attempt to scrape under the paint-spattered surface of their subject, exposing them as a jangled…
Netflix’s Wild Wild Country is a Wild Ride
Cults will always fascinate people. The blend of otherworldly ritual, religious ideology, and, sometimes, even suicidal ideation terrify us and intrigue us. With many religious sects turning up between the ’70s and ’80s, one of the better known was Rajneeshees,…
The Leisure Seeker Movie Review
Elderly narratives are a genre unto themselves, with a formula all their own. Italian director Paolo Virzi’s English-language debut, The Leisure Seeker, is perfectly suited to appeal to the over-60 set with its sweetly told story of two elderly people…
Director Paolo Virzi talks about his newest film The Leisure Seeker [Interview]
Paolo Virzi, the Italian filmmaker behind the latest Helen Mirren/Donald Sutherland romantic drama The Leisure Seeker is definitely a character! Before starting our interview he cracked jokes about the chilly New York weather and about how California, where I’m located,…
Cory Finley talks about his genre bending film Thoroughbreds [Interview]
Cory Finley is a director whose work stimulates conversation. Or at least it did during a late-night screening at AFI Fest of his feature Thoroughbreds back in November. Now set for release on March 9th, Finley’s dark, polished high school…
Basmati Blues Movie Review: Brie Larson can’t save this ill judged production
It hurts to malign on a movie that’s directed and written by someone who obviously enjoyed the inspiration behind it. That’s at least what I’m assuming is the case with director and screenwriter Dan Baron’s Americanized ode to Bollywood, Basmati…
