And  now, for the nearly-ritualistic Cannes Festival press release that announces little, leaves much to speculation and wraps up with a note of mystery while flirting with contradiction--and causes much collective eye-rolling in people, one would assume? It did in me, at least. I am rolling my eyes right now, at this strange bird of a message received in my inbox at 6 p.m. Paris time. It began thus: "Following the declaration

“The Sharks” ("Los Tiburones" in the original Spanish title) is something special. Uruguayan writer/director Lucía Garibaldi's feature-length debut is a coming of age tale that gets to the heart of its subject without judgment or forced and phony life lessons. This is a careful and organic look at a teenager on the cusp of becoming a woman.

Almost overwhelmed

What can one say when a great performance is lost on a film so enamored with itself that it becomes less and less endearing from scene to scene, finally burying any good graces it may have had?

The answer? An unfortunate negative take on the new comedy, “Lazy Susan.”

Sean Hayes is the unambitious Susan O’Connell. Susan can’t hold down a job nor do what

Confinement. Quarantine. Shut in. Whatever you wish to call it, we are all doing our part to stay safe during this tough time. For many of us, the arts are the key to keeping our minds stable through any issue, let alone being stuck in our homes for months. We have novels, music, films and television to see us through.

The world now lives in the age of bingeing

The 2020 Census is upon us, and its results will determine how much representation each district will get in the House of Representatives. But for decades there have been various attempts to cheat the system in a trick called gerrymandering, wherein voting districts are redrawn to effectively divide certain blocs and thus reduce their collective representative power in Congress.

“Slay the Dragon,”

Kioumars Derambakhsh, the Iranian director, documentary maker and still photographer, died in Paris of COVID 19, on March 31st. During his long career, his many interests and wide culture caused him to direct a number of documentaries on a range of subjects, (including a thirteen-episode series on the drawings of Eugène Flandin, famed French 19th-century traveler to Iran, or ancient Armenian churches in Ispahan) feature films

The most frightening film of 2020 is not a horror flick. It’s a film about our electoral process. Chris Durrance and Barak Goodman’s stunning and eye-opening documentary examines how gerrymandering (the act of manipulating boundaries of an electoral constituency to favor one political party) is a very real and very present danger to our American democracy. This could be the most important film of 2020.

On January 29th, 1979, President Jimmy Carter and Chinese Deputy Premier Deng Xiaoping signed historic accords, reversing years of U.S. opposition to China. But now, on the forty-year anniversary of this normalization, the U.S. and China are at the threshold of what many fear is a new cold war.

“Better Angels,” a documentary directed by two-time Academy Award winner

Politics in the horror genre is a tricky thing. If done incorrectly, a film’s political slant can hurt its narrative. When done right, a political take can enhance a film’s potency. The late George A. Romero and horror film legend John Carpenter are the two filmmakers who expertly infused their political messages within their works.

Romero, with his series of “...of the Dead” films, made each one a reflection and commentary

These are tough times for movie lovers. Theaters across the country are closed, many libraries shuttered and people are staying home. However, there is still a way to enjoy watching films. In fact, it may give people a chance to see the more classic cinema that they’ve otherwise been ignoring. The Turner Classics Network (TCM) runs films 24/7 and perhaps the highlight of their line-up is the weekly segment “Noir Alley” hosted by noted