The grand Austrian director Michael Haneke famously stated, to paraphrase, that a film is 24 lies per second in service of the attempt to find the truth. In this sense, cinema is a mere representation of the reality. This conceptualization allows multiple directors to experiment with the understanding of the …
Ritual Union Festival is a yearly, one-day event taking place in the heart of Bristol, one of the UK’s cultural capitals, to shine a spotlight on some of the brightest up-and-coming musicians in the scene now. Taking place over four venues – the iconic SWX; Rough Trade and Strange Brew, …
The sophomore effort in the Napo River (Toroboro) in Manolo Sarmiento’s diptych about the local communities is La Consulta Popular, or The People’s Referendum. He focuses on the political aspect of the situation. With this film, he shifts his lenses to the isolated tribes, who decided to continue far from …
When it comes to the Indian film industry, there are only a few actors who don’t need to do extravagant promotional events to sell tickets. One such actor is Suriya, and fans go berserk whenever he announces his next movie. However, some of his previous films haven’t turned out to …
Italian director Yuri Ancarani declares in his Venice Film Festival statement that “Atlantide is a film that began without a screenplay.” It could very well be said that it still hasn’t got one. There are, perhaps, 15 lines of dialogue in Ancarani’s ridiculous and amateurish film about Daniele, (Daniele Barison) …
The Ecuadorian director Manolo Sarmiento is a crucial figure in the local documentary community. He is the co-founder and executive director of EDOC, Encuentros del Otro Cine, a singular festival for Ecuadorian cinema. Sarmiento produced a diptych, a two-piece work on the native people of the Rio Napo. The indigenous …
Lúcia Murat is a noteworthy filmmaker in Brazilian History. She engaged in an armed fight during the Brazilian dictatorship – She was jailed and tortured. Murat became a journalist and then a film director. Forty years later, she is still directing films and splitting her filmography between non-fiction and fiction. …
In 2016, the press revealed an espionage scheme for the asbestos industry. A hired person would infiltrate the anti-asbestos organizations and leak their plans to the hirers. That man is Robert Moore, a former TV producer of popular prank shows like Da Ali G Show and Candid Camera. After a …
What happens throughout this episode is, in the very best sense of the word, adult. Carême’s understanding that people’s motivations and people’s desires do not necessarily reflect their best selves is unknown in American art. But the French are perhaps more capable of acknowledging the gap between their best and …
The sumptuous Carême hits two basic needs for a high-end television series. One is for sex, but the other is rarer in fictional television: food porn. This combination is an absolutely wonderful idea, because god knows our appetite for something good to eat doesn’t always get its due from a …
In its second week, Andor’s second series has again jumped a year forward, covering a span of mere days in BBY 3. The jump can be disorientating at first, as the cast of characters finds itself in largely new configurations. However, the show is confident enough to hint at what …
Pitchfork Music Festival London is a multi-day highlight of the best music has to offer. Pitchfork are the taste-makers – their reviews having been the point of discussion alone; expertly curated tastemakers. It was only a matter of time before they put on a festival and it expanded to cities …
Doctor Who is back on our telly (and streaming) screens as of a few weeks ago. If you haven’t watched the series yet, don’t fret. You still have plenty of time to catch up before the four remaining episodes air. We are going to talk about every episode of series …
Edgar Wright, acclaimed cult director of Baby Driver and Hot Fuzz fame, directs Last Night In Soho with a breezy smoothness, but this vibrant, pulpy horror is disappointingly toothless. In contemporary Cornwall, naive and fresh faced 18 year old Eloise ‘Ellie’ Turner (Thomasin McKenzie) is standing in her room. Fashion …
In recent years, there has been a massive influx of movies and TV series that showcase the reality of the entertainment industry and how youngsters navigate the world of showbiz. Most importantly, these titles exhibit how young people navigate through life while trying to achieve something, which makes them raw …
As Makeup Department Head on the Hulu hit Deli Boys, Nesrin Ismail is behind some of the most interesting looks on television. She’s an expert in both beauty and special effects makeup and puts all that to use on the comedy about fish out of water drug kingpins in an …
The trouble with writers is that our work is not very cinematic. Watching someone type down their thoughts is only marginally more interesting than watching someone read a book. So it helps if the writer is easy to watch, whether that’s by being good-looking or from providing excellent archival footage …
Hacks season 4 continues to underwhelm as it comes on with episode 3, What Happens in Vegas. Despite two absolutely electric leads and a primary story that has the ability to highlight some of the inequities in late-night television, specifically, and women in entertainment more broadly, it continues to pit Ava …
Thunderbolts* is the latest chapter in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), directed by Jake Schreier (Paper Towns) with a screenplay by Eric Pearson (Black Widow) and Joanna Calo (The Bear). At a time when the MCU feels overwhelmed by a seemingly endless ocean of characters, storylines, variants, and multiversal concepts, …
The Max Original comedy series Hacks is back for season 4, and this critic couldn’t be happier. Jean Smart’s renaissance has been an absolute delight, and of her many roles, Deborah Vance is a favorite. While the second season ended in a way that allowed the show a satisfying end …