DVD Review: Jiro Dreams of Sushi
Jiro Dreams of Sushi is a subtle meditation on art and the price it exacts from those who would seek its peaks, in the fascinating context of the sushi world.
Film Review: Sergei Loznitsa’s My Joy
This Ukrainian film set in Russia and directed by documentary filmmaker Sergei Loznitsa offers no reason or explanation for why the boring, the tragic, the senseless and the funny happen in our daily lives.
Film Review: Square Grouper
Square Grouper is pretty even-handed in its telling of the exploits of a Florida religious group who funded their faith by moving piles and piles of its main sacrament.
Film Book Review: Every Night the Trees Disappear: Werner Herzog and the Making of “Heart of Glass” by Alan Greenberg
Every Night the Trees Disappear: Werner Herzog and the Making of “Heart of Glass” gives a portrait of an artist even more enigmatic and frantically creative than his films make him seem.
The Dude Abides: The Gospel According to the Coen Brothers
The Dude Abides: The Gospel According to the Coen Brothers makes a mostly successful case for the brothers’ classic films as a treasure trove of teachable moments about the human condition.
Book Review: Plague Town: An Ashley Parker Novel
Dana Fredsti, novelist and former swordswoman in charge of training on Sam Raimi’s Army of Darkness, manages to squeeze some fresh juice out of an idea that Buffy did better on the small screen.
Film Book Review: Shade Rupe’s Dark Stars Rising: Conversations from the Outer Realms
No one would argue with calling this massive, invaluable tome “exhaustive,” though there might be a few who would squawk with using the word “definitive.”
DVD Review: The Exterminator
One of the first exploitation films to be shown endlessly during the early days of cable, 1980’s The Exterminator is also one of the more grim entries in the genre. Gory, jaded and ambivalent on the merits of the vigilante, it anticipated Bernard Goetz by a few years.
The Ruse of Tribute: Vanity and Legacy in The Belly of an Architect
Memory is only important to the living; preservation of art or artifice, while living, is only preparation for possible legacy.
DVD Review: Adua and Her Friends (Adua e le Compagne)
Antonio Pietrangeli's 1960 film Adua and her Friends (Adua e le Compagne) explores the end of an era and points to future cultural upheaval.