A discourteous comedian takes the place of a king in Chang-min Choo’s elegant, languid Masquerade, a Korean costume drama starring the formidable Byung-hun Lee, sadly best known to American audiences as Storm Shadow, courtesy of the G.I. Joe franchise. Lee, who is a Korean star par excellence, is the film’s focus, portraying both the hardened,…
By now those chosen few who’ve sought out Ben Wheatley’s latest, Sightseers (his next film, the English Civil War-set “A Field in England“, opens in UK cineplexes in July), have gotten their fill and hopefully developed an opinion. The film, unleashed upon U.S. audiences in limited release, is one of the darkest I’ve experienced and…
Albert Camus said, “The evil that is in the world almost always comes of ignorance, and good intentions may do as much harm as malevolence if they lack understanding.” These words become prophetic in Romanian director Cristian Mungui’s Beyond the Hills, a powerful tale of religious and emotional obsession that leads to tragic consequences. Like…
If you thought conspiracies about the grassy knoll were captivating, then you would love to hear what movie enthusiasts have to say about the perceived meanings behind Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining” in the mesmerizing new documentary, Room 237. From archived clips of vignettes from Kubrick’s impressive filmography, to detailed analysis and careful camerawork, this IFC…
For scrawny 12-year old Simon (Kacey Mottet Klein), life is up and down. Going up, however, does not mean moving up the ladder of success but only riding a cable car to do his “work” at the top of a mountain ski resort, a playground for wealthy tourists. Ursula Meier’s heartbreaking Sister, Switzerland’s submission for…
I’ve seen enough documentaries, especially those that regularly stream on Netflix, to recognize the hallmarks of what I can only label “vanity documentaries,” in the manner that the term vanity has been applied to subsidy presses. By this I mean that the filmmaker is an amateur — often wealthy, with too much time on their…
If, as the famous line from “Love Story” says, “Love means never having to say you’re sorry,” then Alex (Gael García Bernal) and Nica (Hani Furstenberg), a young couple engaged to be married in a few months, are on the right track. Summer vacationing in the Caucasus Mountains in the Republic of Georgia, Julia Loktev’s…
