For 350 years, Spain built a vast empire in South America based on the labor and exploitation of the Indian population, forcing them to accept Christianity while decimating their culture, religion, and even their language. In the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, “rubber barons” rounded up all the Indians and forced them to tap…
“For if the darkness and corruption leave a vestige of the thoughts that once we had. Better by far you should forget and smile than that you should remember and be sad” — Christina Rossetti CalArts Professor and film essayist Thom Andersen, acclaimed for his 2003 documentary “Los Angeles Plays Itself,” has brought his latest…
There are more coming-of-age films than masterpieces in the Louvre, but there are only a handful of them that have stood the test of time, even though teen-speak changes over the years. First-time Canadian director Andrew Cividino’s Sleeping Giant, an update of the short that won the youth jury prize at Locarno International Film Festival…
There are a few ways one could structure a biopic. One would be to celebrate the public image of a renowned individual and play up their endearing qualities for dramatic effect. Conversely, a biopic could also be presented as a juxtaposition of one’s public image and delve into the private, perhaps darker side of a…
“Life can be tragic, but let’s not snivel” — Gustav Mahler Alix Delaporte’s (“Angel & Tony”) The Last Hammer Blow (Le dernier coup de marteau) is the story of 14-year Victor (Romain Paul, in an outstanding debut performance that earned him the Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best Young Actor at the Venice Film Festival) who…
There are two ways that I noticed Goodnight Mommy was trying to unnerve me. First, there’s the image of a thirty-something-year-old woman whose face is wrapped in bandages, which gives her a striking resemblance to The Joker from “The Dark Knight.” Second, there’s this ominous notion that I need to beware all ten-year-old twin boys…
Eli Roth’s bloodbath, The Green Inferno, stars Lorenza Izzo (“Sex Ed”) as Justine, an oblivious college freshman who joins a social activism group constantly rallying on her New York campus. The crusade, led by older student Alejandro (Ariel Levy, “The Stranger”) and his girlfriend Kara (Ignacia Allamand, “Best Worst Friends”), is planning a trip to…
