Overtly social issues-based cinema risk are boring unless you're a Ken Loach in which case it's not boring. Everyone knows, everyone is aware. As filmmaker you'll need to up the ante, a little. Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, with his new film "Lingui," appears to have not done this.
Amina lives with her fifteen year-old daughter Maria in a suburb of N’Djamena. Her world falls apart after she learns that her teenage daughter is pregnant. Amina herself had, in fact, experienced the same situation fifteen years earlier before being ostracized from her family.
“The Worst Person In The World” (“Verdens Verste Menneske” in the original Norwegian) directed by Joachim Trier and starring the architecturally-perfect Renate Reinsve, can be a little disconcerting at times. The story of a young thirtysomething who zigs and zags between professional aspirations, motherhood and men, is as entertaining as it can feel glossy and perfect (and not a stranger to clichés). Could this parade of well-filmed snapshots summarizing
To commit suicide is a weighty and personal matter, decency would have one take care of this business all on their own, without notifying anyone, let alone get several people to help you organize your sign-off party. But this is just what Monsieur Bernheim (France's eminent actor André Dussolier) asked of his two daughters, Emmanuelle (Sophie Marceau) and her sister (Geraldine Pailhas) after suffering a debilitating stroke, with more such events predicted
CANNES FESTIVAL: Has Todd Haynes directed the definitive Velvet Underground documentary? I think so.
Todd Haynes has directed a thorough and entertaining film about The Velvet Underground, the sixties rock band that was managed by Andy Warhol and headlined by Lou Reed.
Haynes, whose film was produced by Christine Vachon (theirs being a successful collab over the last twenty years), cuts scenes from live shows with talking heads and occasionally layers
The 74th Cannes Festival opened with a very unusual film on Tuesday, one that is slated to compete for the Palme D’Or, the top prize which this year will be given out by a jury headed by Spike Lee: “Annette,” by one Alex Christophe Dupont, otherwise known as Leos Carax (full disclosure: I haven’t read any of the press material for the film, on purpose, I wanted to soak up in the film’s energy. As it were, there’s little in the way of easily
The same summer that a largely white, middle- and upper-class group of students descended upon Woodstock, N.Y. for a mammoth concert like no other the Harlem Cultural Festival was taking place in Mount Morris Park in Harlem. That little attention was paid to these equally splendid affairs is sadly understood given that it was a black audience and black artists. Thankfully, the lost footage of that summer has been found
"Spellbinding" is not a word I throw around lightly. Where South African filmmaker Jaco Bouwer’s latest film “Gaia” is concerned it is richly deserved. While this is a film with a few issues, what works overpowers flaws. Gaia is the goddess of the Earth in Greek mythology. In the seventies, scientist, environmentalist and futurist James Lovelock developed the “Gaia hypothesis,” one that envisages our planet as a super organism that remains alive
“Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain” Director: Morgan Neville
Anthony Bourdain was the most unlikely of celebrities: a recovering drug addict and chef who wrote frankly about his experiences in the galley, publishing them in a memoir called “Kitchen Confidential.” The book was a sensation, catapulting Bourdain to stardom. Soon he was able to stop cooking
In the seventies Ron and Russell Mael fast attracted a fan base thanks to their decidedly unorthodox musical act, the Sparks. Despite changing demographics, shifting musical tastes and their unending oddity, the brothers have managed to enthrall fans well into the 21st century. Director Edgar Wright (“Shaun of the Dead,” “Baby Driver”) is just one among those many famous fans to wax nostalgic about the band, with a new documentary
Rita Moreno. What spirit! What soul!
Such a long and successful career in a Hollywood that did not want her to be herself nor celebrate her Puerto Rican heritage.
The new documentary “Rita Moreno: Just A Girl Who Decided to Go For It” is an uplifting look at the EGOT [EGOT is what you call individuals who have won all four Emmy