Few documentary subjects are more enigmatic than the life and careers of The Beatles. Few subjects have been spotlighted and discussed to the extent of the band’s effect on world culture, with no shortage of films from 1964’s “A Hard Day’s Night” until the present day. Ben Lewis returns to a well-worn director’s chair to…
There has not been a penetrating and provocative documentary in my recent memory that chronicles with such curiosity, the insight and intimacy into the musical process and romantic partnership disillusionment than Swedish director-writer-producer Kasper Collin’s compelling and resonating true crime documentary, I Called Him Morgan. Collin (“My Name Is Albert Ayler”) provides a winning, yet…
With the film Tiger Girl, writer/director Jakob Lass (“Love Steaks”) deals out a sharply cut, strangely mesmerizing, buddy movie. Set in an unnamed German city, we follow a pair of streetwise Frälueins, who boisterously dispatch any and all bystanders that dare get in their way. Awkward good-girl Maggie (Maria-Victoria Dragus, “The White Ribbon”) begins training…
As spectators flock to see Billie Jean King defeat Bobby Riggs in straight sets in “Battle of the Sexes,” there is another tennis match currently playing on the silver screen. This battle of sexuality that airs before the full-length feature Beach Rats is a surprising cartoon short, in which a defending champion is struggling to…
Okay. Alright. Okay. Alright. So. “Kingsman: The Secret Service” was admittedly a surprise hit for most people. I, like many, found that it was an inventive, satirical yet loving take on the spy genre in just the right climate. Much like “Kick-Ass” before, Matthew Vaughn took an imaginative, but ultimately flaccid, concept of Mark Millar’s…
In the midst of the devastation that was Hurricane Sandy back in 2012, New Jersey’s notorious play land, Atlantic City, was stripped to a bleak and torn terrain. First-time director Emanuele Della Valle uses this as a backdrop for his crime-drama film debut, Wetlands. The grey wasteland welcomes a once rogue Philadelphia cop, Babel (Adewale…
The end of a relationship is chronicled convincingly and compellingly in Danish filmmaker Kristian Håskjold’s short Forever Now. It begins with the start of a breakup and ends with, well, the end of the breakup, so there are few plot-based surprises in its compact running time that barely exceeds 15 minutes. Instead, Håskjold is content…
