It’s a strange time for all of us, and perhaps it’s little wonder that the crop of films being released direct to streaming has itself gotten weird. How else to explain a movie where Mick Jagger plays an arts dealer who may, and this is giving nothing away, actually be the devil in disguise? (in case you don’t guess his name, it is Joseph Cassidy. As Al Pacino observed as Satan in “The Devil’s Advocate, “I have so many names.”).
“We decide for ourselves what will hurt.”
Ah, the past and the memories it leaves us. Be they good or bad they make a home in our mind and soul, guiding our life decisions and shaping who we will become. Sometimes warm, sometimes dark, our remembrances become our true and constant life companions.
Hans Petter Moland’s adaptation of Per Petterson’s novel
British filmmaker Alan Parker, who left us on July 31st, 2020, was not a prolific filmmaker. He made just shy of twenty movies but what a heavy footprint these movies left on me. Films like "Angel Heart," starring Mickey Rourke, and Robert De Niro as the devil, "Mississippi Burning" or that terrific film "The Commitments," which came out in 1991, they all made their mark on me, each one for a different reason. It struck me, as I look over Mr. Parker's filmography
The definition of amulet is “a charm (such as an ornament) often inscribed with a magic incantation or symbol to aid the wearer or protect against evil such as disease or witchcraft.”
But there is a new definition. “Amulet,” a 2020 film directed by Romola Garai that is subtly eerie and one of the most effectively-directed films of 2020. Romanian actor Alec Secareanu stars
The documentary is called “The Fight,” which could not be a more à propos title for a film about the ACLU’s ongoing quest to defend not only civil rights, but also the necessity for everyone to enjoy free speech, no matter how odious their views might be.
But the civil rights organization’s mandate became even more demanding during the Trump administration, as the president and his cabinet have sought to make
It’s inarguable that the pioneering work of Marie and Pierre Curie changed the world, for both good and ill. “Radioactive,” the new film starring Rosamund Pike and Sam Riley as the late-nineteenth century Parisians, gives us a brief on the life, and, yes, the deaths, largely due to radiation poisoning, of the couple that is part love story, part scientific procedural and, somewhat strangely, decides to also jump through time (more on this later).
Films about investigative journalism exposing a dramatic event and/or cover-up have been popular for decades, from Billy Wilder’s “Ace in the Hole” and Sam Fuller’s “Park Row” to Alan Pakula’s “All the President’s Men” to 2015’s Oscar winning “Spotlight,” all have expertly captured what it means to be a dedicated journalist tirelessly searching for the truth.
The best films about journalism offer viewers a potent story and relatable
With the multiplexes shuttered, and the so-called event films on hold for months yet, it’s a boomtime for documentaries, which continue their march onto streaming platforms. Here are a few choice non-fiction flicks to keep an eye out for.
“Desert One”
It’s been four decades since Iranian students overran the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, beginning a hostage situation that would only end
“The ninth ward isn’t covered,” or so goes the voiceover […]
It’s rare that a documentary will film for a decade, but that’s precisely what New York Times reporters Catrin Einhorn and Leslye Davis accomplished with their new film “Father Soldier Son.”
The documentary, which premieres Friday on Netflix, follows two generations of upstate New York’s Eisch family. The father, Master Sgt. Brian Eisch, is a veteran of the Afghanistan