Film Review

Sundance Midnight Masterpieces #3: The Oregonian

Sundance Midnight Masterpieces #3: The Oregonian

Rooftop alum and blogger Calvin Lee Reeder’s The Oregonian is a psychotic horror freakout of epic proportions, scary and hilarious.

SUNDANCE REVIEW: LUCY WALKER’S “WASTELAND” Because 99 Is Not 100

SUNDANCE REVIEW: LUCY WALKER’S “WASTELAND” Because 99 Is Not 100

Vik Muniz is an internationally-acclaimed artist best known for his playful recreations of famous masterpieces using quotidian materials–the peanut butter and jelly Mona Lisa, for example. But coming from a lower class background in Brazil, Muniz is now developing an interest in breaking out of art world gags and doing something more global, more socially significant.

SUNDANCE REVIEW: RODRIGO CORTES’S “BURIED” <br class=lazy />“One actor, in a coffin. You’re still here. I don’t know why.”

SUNDANCE REVIEW: RODRIGO CORTES’S “BURIED”
“One actor, in a coffin. You’re still here. I don’t know why.”

Spanish director Rodrigo Cortes introduced his film Buried thusly: “I am sorry that Ryan Reynolds cannot be here today, because he is much taller and better looking than I am, but I have this accent, which perhaps to you is sexy. This is a film about a man in a coffin. That’s it. And yet you are still here. I don’t know why.”

Sundance Review: Utopia in Four Movements

Sundance Review: Utopia in Four Movements

Rooftop alum Sam Green and Dave Cerf‘s philosophical film essay Utopia in Four Movements swirls brilliantly and casually through cultural history and detritus, through fantasy and forgotten fact. The film hits NYC in October.

SUNDANCE REVIEW: THE RED CHAPEL <br class=lazy />Poking Fun at North Korea, Suffering the Consequences

SUNDANCE REVIEW: THE RED CHAPEL
Poking Fun at North Korea, Suffering the Consequences

Traveling to one of the most isolated countries in the world, making fun of one of the most deadly regimes in history, takes courage and passion, but it should also be terrifying.

SUNDANCE REVIEW: GASLAND <br class=lazy />Lighting Tap Water on Fire

SUNDANCE REVIEW: GASLAND
Lighting Tap Water on Fire

Gasland opens on September 15th at the IFC Center in New York City. Learn more about Gasland screenings in your area. When a natural gas mining company offered Josh Fox and his upstate New York neighbors $100,000 each for the right to drill for gas on their land, Fox thought he’d better examine what was […]

SXSW REVIEW: FICTION VS. NON-FICTION IN “WOODPECKER” AND OTHER FILMS

SXSW REVIEW: FICTION VS. NON-FICTION IN “WOODPECKER” AND OTHER FILMS

Late last night, after jumping from IFC’s My Morning Jacket / Yo La Tengo concert to the wide-open SXSW Closing Night party and finally onto Joel Heller‘s birthday, I wound up at the Magnolia diner, eating scrambled eggs and discussing scrambled documentaries. I was there with Dan Nuxoll from Rooftop, Joel, and Alex Karpovsky and […]

SXSW REVIEW: “MEDICINE FOR MELANCHOLY”

SXSW REVIEW: “MEDICINE FOR MELANCHOLY”

Is Barry Jenkins‘ “Medicine for Melancholy” the first African-American “Mumblecore” movie? Hell yeah! And, uh, maybe not. Jenkins’ engaging and entertaining low-budget love story certainly fits many of Mumblecore’s thematic ideas, and premiered at SXSW, the cauldron that supposedly brewed the movement. The film takes place over the course of one dreamy day, from the […]

SXSW REVIEW: “THE PLEASURE OF BEING ROBBED”

SXSW REVIEW: “THE PLEASURE OF BEING ROBBED”

The pleasure of “The Pleasure of Being Robbed” is the joy of discovering a bag full of kittens (and watching them playfully flip through the air); the bliss of an unexpected overnight road trip with a friend; the warmth of a frolic with a polar bear. Josh Safdie’s film is filled with a carefree awkwardness, […]

SXSW REVIEW: A NECESSARY DEATH

SXSW REVIEW: A NECESSARY DEATH

In a certain way, this entire review is a spoiler, so if you don’t want to know too much, skip my writings and go see the film. Herein, I don’t really tell you the plot–an exciting and gripping drama–but I do get at the essence of the film.  I highly recommend it. In Daniel Stamm’s […]

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