Screen
Leni Riefen-stalling
On the one hand, any film subtitled “Part 1” is a naked cash grab. On the other hand, shut up and take my money, Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1...
Close to something
In one of the most insightful, clever comments in a movie surprisingly devoid of insightful, clever comments, backup singer Janice Pendarvis notes, “When you think about the history of pop music and all the memorable hooks that most people sing along with, they’re ...
Big emotions in small packages
All the best movies elicit our emotions — Roger Ebert famously called these movies “empathy machines” — but there is a fine line between...
Thou art a symbol and a sign
Wanting for my happily-ever-after, I lowered my defenses, forgetting the first lesson I was taught: That I was brought into this world to be...
Original sin
Every April, tiny flowers spread like confetti across the blackjack hills of Oklahoma. This is Osage Territory — land carved out and granted to...
Waltzing with the enemy
Since 1994, Pierre Dulaine, subject of the 2013 documentary Dancing in Jaffa, has run a program called Dancing Classrooms, which teaches fifth graders the fundamentals of ballroom dance. The program teaches more than just footwork, it teaches the students elegance, ...
Object of my Affleck-tion
It’s easy to thrill people when they don’t know what’s coming. OK, maybe not easy — paging Mr. Shyamalan — but certainly less difficult than whipping up tension in a film based on a decades-old actual incident, the resolution of which is but a Google search away. ...
Dumb wolf in smart sheep’s clothes
To review The Wolf of Wall Street at this stage of the game is to enter into a narrative feud with able critical champions on both sides...
Almost a film
The first thing to note about Sam Neave’s indie thinkflick on love, Almost in Love, is that it’s made in practically the opposite way as a Hollywood film...
‘Hockney’ takes a look inside the mind of a painter
I’m interested in ways of looking, and trying to think of it in simple ways,” David Hockney says. “Everybody does look, it’s a question...