Film
Ornette: Made in America: The 1985 Jazz Documentary Gets a Second Spin
The invaluable American independent filmmaker Shirley Clarke (1919–1997) once said: “There is no real difference between a traditional…
Film
The Sheik and I: Do Not Commission a Movie From This Man
American filmmaker Caveh Zahedi professes to know nothing about Sharjah, one of the United Arab Emirates, when he…
Film
Bestiaire: Denis Cote Goes to the Zoo
The Parc Safari in Hemmingford, Quebec, is, per its website, home to 500 animals of 75 different species;…
Film
Chasing Ice: Following the Scientist Who Follows Global Warming
If you recently had a close encounter with the howling demon known as Superstorm Sandy, you might have…
Film
Tales of the Night: Neat French Animation for the Kids
Sometimes when you appropriate the storytelling modes of other cultures or time periods, the result is an enormous,…
Film
The Dirt on The Details
Visiting SIFF this June with The Details, Jacob Aaron Estes was also returning to the location where he’d…
Film
Brooklyn Castle: Pint-Sized Chess Prodigies
He’s glimpsed only briefly in Katie Dellamaggiore’s magnanimous look into the agonies and ecstasies of the country’s top-rated…
Film
Smashed: Alcoholism Without Pity
Movies about drugs and alcohol may be a dime(bag) a dozen, but James Ponsoldt’s Smashed is so beautifully…
Film
This Must Be the Place: Sean Penn Hunts Nazis
Google “Danzig shopping for cat supplies,” and you’ll find links to phone-cam shots of former Misfits singer Glenn…
Film
The Details: Tobey Maguire Versus Seattle Raccoons!
Shot in Seattle and seen at SIFF this spring, this dark comedy’s release was delayed by Harvey Weinstein’s…
Film
The House I Live In: The Real Cost of the War on Drugs
Eugene Jarecki’s Sundance award-winning doc is an occasionally muddled disquisition on the colossal failure of the war on…
Film
Head Games: Athletes Face Brain Injuries
While Head Games does feature a number of articulate and consistently intelligent talking-head interviews, it’s ultimately not a…
Film
A Late Quartet: Christopher Walken as Afflicted Cellist
Woody Allen has been known to suggest that, in directing a good movie, much of the battle lies…
Film
Sister: Crime and Punishment in the Alps
Ursula Meier’s Sister is a Dardenne-lite drama about a 12-year-old boy’s efforts to support himself and his older…
Film
The Bay: Barry Levinson’s Aquatic Horror
This found-footage eco-horror cheapie—in which a waterborne parasite mutates into an unstoppable human-flesh-eating scourge thanks to the march…
Film
3,2,1…Frankie Go Boom: Ron Perlman in Drag
Less inept than its worst-of-the-year title suggests, Frankie nonetheless proves too ramshackle and aimless ever to achieve true…
Film
Flight: Denzel Washington’s Drunken Heroics
The yammering about “Oscar gold” and Denzel Washington’s potential three-peat will soon reach a deafening pitch, but such…
Film
Photographic Memory: A Documentary Filmmaker Studies His Son
Ross McElwee attempts to understand his son in the present day by revisiting his own past in this…
Film
Simon and the Oaks: Swedes, Jews, and World War II
Lisa Ohlin’s Simon and the Oaks has all the superficial elements of compelling drama but none of the…