When the perfectly-preserved body of a Stone Age man was found in the Ötztal Alps in 1991, it became a world sensation. "Ötzi" (renamed Kelab) was so well-preserved, in fact, that one could draw several different conclusions about his life and his violent passing. These hypotheses now make up the template of this new Felix Randau-directed film, and result in a gripping drama starring Jürgen Vogel in the role of
Qiao (played by Tao Zhao) a gangster’s girlfriend in the northern Chinese province of Shanxi, dreams of an immutable kind of love, the one that defies and lasts. Her and her boyfriend seem on the periphery of society, like dark angels, hovering nearby. She bides her time, even though she doesn’t embrace the lifestyle fully, and, after a violent incident involving him (Bin, played by Fan Liao), instead of turning on him she goes to jail, for
A half-century ago this summer two men stepped foot on the moon, the first time in our species’s history that human footprints were made on an object beyond Earth. Commemorations of the fiftieth anniversary are planned throughout 2019, and kicking off that great milestone is the new film “Apollo 11,” which begins its one-week IMAX run Friday before moving into general release March 8th.
SANTA BARBARA, Calif., “I think there’s only one way, forward, for women, and we are 51 percent of the world, so 51 percent of women should do movies,” Austrian director Eva Spreitzhofer (“What Have We Done to Deserve This” a.k.a. “Wo mit haben wir das verdient?”) said at a red carpet event at the last Santa Barbara International Film Festival (SBIFF) (a still from the film is this article's featured image). With #MeToo and #TimesUp
(SANTA BARBARA, Calif.) Santa Barbara, often referred to as the “American Riviera,” is hosting its 34th film festival this week, replete with the typical red-carpet events and world premieres of films from around the globe. Yes, Melissa McCarthy, Spike Lee, Claire Foy and other high-wattage stars have been seen here this week, but in addition to appearances by those A-listers, numerous filmmakers and stars on the rise have also been
While movie studios the world over scramble to create their own answers to the cultural/financial juggernaut of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, M. Night Shyamalan, the much-beloved, often-maligned creator of highly personal and unapologetically idiosyncratic thrillers, has managed it on his own, entirely. Shyamalan has finally completed his Eastrail 177 Trilogy, nineteen years in the making
When the documentary “Love, Gilda” premiered at last year’s Tribeca film festival I got left out in the cold. No ticket, it was a sellout. But after taking in the film’s premiere on CNN recently, I could see why “Love, Gilda” would garner such success. This tribute of the life of late comedienne Gilda Radner (1946-1989) is filled with warmth, cheer and heart. I was incredibly fortunate to be able to chat with Lisa D’Apolito about this
Roger Ailes died in May 2017, but his legacy lives on in Fox News, the cable network bankrolled by Rupert Murdoch that many have accused of being little more than a mouthpiece for conservative agitprop and an apologist for President Trump. Whether or not Fox News was “responsible” for Donald Trump is a peripheral concern of the new documentary “Divide and Conquer: The Story of Roger Ailes,” opening nationwide this week.
There was a time, before social media and cell phones, when a scandal took hours or even days to break publicly, and when a politician’s fortunes were perhaps not decided within seconds of being captured in a compromising photograph. That was the case in 1987, when Gary Hart, a rising Democratic star, seemed all but poised to sail easily to his party’s nomination to face Ronald Reagan’s Republican successor