In 1845, a crowd gathers in a field as a young girl is hooded and hoisted into the air by a rope tied to an old oak tree. The men surrounding the base of the tree light a fire, and a priest prays aloud, holding a doll in his hands. The crowd does nothing to…
“. . . something is happening here but you don’t know what it is? Do you, Mr. Jones?” — Bob Dylan Mr. Jones, directed by Agnieszka Holland (“Julie Walking Home”) from a screenplay (Holland’s first) is based on the real life story of Gareth Jones (flawlessly played by James Norton, “Little Women”), a young Welsh…
News Vendor: “I’m leaving.” Gordon: “Why?” News Vendor: “I found out I’m Jewish.” Gordon: “But you fought in the war.” News Vendor: “Tell it to the person that threw a rock at my window.” Gordon: “This is Budapest.” Budapest Noir, directed by Éva Gárdos (“American Rhapsody”) transports us to the Budapest of 1936. Zsigmond Gordon…
In Circles, a based-on-fact drama about crop circles in England, is unfortunately inert and dead on arrival. It’s a muddled ball of confusion that struggles fruitlessly to provide some sort of context or emotional connection among the characters, the audience, and the plot. Otherwise, it’s not really terrible. A reporter, Lara (Cassandra Thomas, “The Duchess…
Perhaps naming a motion picture Truth is opening the door to criticism over the real validity of its contents — more so when the film is based on true events and events that are still relevant in the public conscious, no less. But regardless of some of its debatable content, James Vanderbilt’s directorial debut admirably…
“Suffering is what was born. Ignorance made me forlorn. Tearful truths I cannot scorn” — Allan Ginsberg Co-directed with Juliano Ribeiro Salgado, Wim Wenders’ (“Pina”) The Salt of the Earth chronicles Brazilian photographer Sebastião Salgado’s essays shot over a period of thirty years in one hundred different countries. Winner of the Special Jury Prize at…
You know when you love the idea of something, but tend to be disappointed by the way that idea is put into practice? That’s how I feel about found-footage films. “The Blair Witch Project” perfectly exemplified the genre; since then, more or less, I believe it has gone downhill. In many such movies, I find…
