Throughout history, documentarians have scaled the heights of non-narrative cinema, dedicated to the belief that there was no fact too insignificant nor challenge too great for the curious spectator. Vertov! Flaherty! Jennings! Marker! Wiseman! Akerman! Herzog!. When the time came for these trailblazers to put their insight and veracity to …
America fell in love with Uncle Fester’s nipples. Why else would a topless Fester be there to greet audiences at the outset, the first big guffaw in a rapidly narrowing field of laughs? The press release promised “many new kooky characters” before asking “What could possibly go wrong?” New kooky …
Philip Roth, no less, lauded mentor Saul Bellow as the first Jewish author to gain acceptance in a Christian world. He was championed by readers and peers alike as the literary voice who defined his generation. What became of the Pulitzer Prize-winning author? Long before the woke brigade loomed on …
It wasn’t a random act of violence like the ones that hit classrooms with greater frequency, but rather a broken spring of nature. More than 6000 parents whose children perished in the 2008 Sichuan Earthquake were inspired by the government to cut their losses and have another one. (Those who …
The life of trans and AIDS activist Connie Norman, who raised her voice defense of her fellow HIV positive community members in1990s Los Angeles.
Whether he's dancing on top of a car or madly tapping a coffee spoon, Ali (Adeel Akhtar) has enough nervous energy in him to power all of Bradford. Ava’s (Claire Rushbrook) work as a teacher’s assistant introduces the Irish born immigrant to her Indian counterpart, the landlord of a student …
Big smile, bigger heart, and admired by all, Marc-André Leclerc is the kind of boychik one would be proud to call their own. Alright, so he experimented a little with drugs. Who hasn’t? When it comes to scaling faces on Alpine mountains, he is quite literally the master of all …
Documentary about the legacy of Saint Teresa of Calcutta through the testimony of Spanish believers.
Mildred Gillars, aka Axis Sally (Meadow Williams), was the Nazis’ answer to Tokyo Rose. Known throughout the world as the Berlin Babe and Hitler’s Girlfriend, the German-American radio personality was employed by the German Broadcasting Company to circulate Axis propaganda. During her trial in America, she stood second only to …
A purebred underdog with a dream rises from supermarket stock boy to the heights of fame and fortune in this inspirational sports biopic. Before entering the theatre, I couldn’t tell the difference between NFL hurler Kurt Warner (Zachary Levi) and legendary college football Pop Warner. Imagine my delight when the …
Two months behind in the rent, deflector of note Anaïs (Anaïs Demoustier) uses everything from a glass of juice to the smoke alarm that almost beaned her landlady to distract from the subject at hand. Anaïs moves at a whirlwind pace, the camera following her as it would a boxer’s …
Urban Outfitters plays at The Rialto, while down the street at the Orpheum, an audience is packed to the rafters, watching The Ape of God, starring Henry McHenry (Adam Driver), an incendiarily disruptive stand-up comic/performance artist who makes Nick Cannon look like Andy Kaufman. (The biggest laugh from his set …
Recycling corn is as essential to the narrative retardation of cinema as the regurgitation of cud is to a cow’s gastrointestinal tract. Hollywood’s overall abiding commitment to a lack of originality, and the consumers who lap it up like dog water, is a subject that demands far more time than …
In their heyday, studios employed dozens of comics, screenwriters, and animators, whose job it was to take an active interest in cranking out absurdist comedy. Most of them did so without overstepping the characters they worked so hard to create. Television had long ago reached the point where crazy comedy …