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…
The gangster movie is a genre with a long and distinguished history. From “The Public Enemy” to “The Godfather” to “Infernal Affairs” to “Black Mass,” the exploits of gangsters around the world have delighted audiences and encouraged filmmakers to produce works that are familiar yet innovative. The British gangster film includes some prominent and memorable…
Director Andy Goddard’s British war drama, Six Minutes to Midnight, starts off strong — with sweeping tracking shots of the English coast, fitting period attire, and an underlying sense of “doom” matching a continent on the brink of war. In fact, the film’s opening act is quite intriguing — dropping viewers into a peculiar English…
William Shatner, who in real life recently turned 90, should be commended for playing the lead in any feature film. That said, Senior Moment, a bit of cinematic fluff directed by Giorgio Serafini, is not the best vehicle for him to show off his acting chops. The script is not developed sufficiently for him or…
“I should have loved a thunderbird instead; At least when spring comes they roar back again. I shut my eyes and the world drops dead” — Sylvia Plath, from “Mad Girl’s Love Song” As the popular classical French love song “Plaisir d’Amour” says: “The joys of love are but a moment long. The pain of…
2021 has been an incredible year for absurdist comedies that push the boundaries of socially acceptable humor to the extremes. Josh Greenbaum’s “Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar” is still the funniest (and best) film of the year (so far), but there’s a new competitor in town that dares to go back to…
Conceptual films are always a welcome change from the norm. It takes vision and courage to put together a complex film of this nature and form a whole world without necessarily having to explain it all. Phobias, although an anthology, falls in this category. It has a backdrop that serves as a through subplot that…
