I remember the exact moment when Gianfranco Rosi’s Fire at Sea lost me. In an extended sequence, a young boy growing up on Lampedusa—a tiny Italian island almost 8 square miles large—goes to a doctor’s appointment. The doctor grills him…
NYFF Review: The Rehearsal
I like to think that when Alison Maclean finished shooting her new film The Rehearsal, she and her editor Jonno Woodford-Robinson sat down and numbered each scene individually. Maclean then flipped a coin. If it was heads, all the even-numbered…
Movie Review: I.T.
Few things anger me more in movies than deliberately incompetent or stupid cops. Can’t figure out how to advance your thriller or horror film? Need to raise the stakes? Have the cops come in, bungle an investigation, and refuse to…
Movie Review: At All Costs
I usually try to take careful notes while watching documentaries, even more so than when watching fiction films. There’s always an urge to simply regurgitate them for my reviews, swelling my word count with grabbed statistics and sound bites. Why…
Movie Review: A Family Affair
Much like with Gayle Kirschenbaum’s Look at Us Now, Mother! (2015), Tom Fassaert’s A Family Affair uses the documentary format to confront, examine and hopefully heal family trauma. But if Kirschenbaum’s documentary borrowed the trappings of dramedy, A Family Affair…
Movie Review: Starving the Beast
Over the last few decades, the realms of American higher education have experienced a fundamental shift. What was originally envisioned by the Founding Fathers as a crucial asset for our national welfare—Thomas Jefferson was so devoted to the cause of…
Movie Review: Max Rose
After 65 years of marriage, Max Rose’s wife Eva has died. Her loss has left him a ruined husk of a man. His granddaughter Annie does her best to take care of him, bringing him his meals, watching old movies…
