— by RON WILKINSON — This documentary is a firsthand account of the Egyptian revolution in the setting of Cairo’s Tahrir Square in 2011 through Mohamed Morsi’s overthrow in 2013. Screened at the 2013 New York Film Festival, it is directed by Jehane Noujaim, who also directed indie favorites “Control Room” and “Startup.com.” Filmed in […][...]
Review: 12 Years a Slave
— by JAMES SHAW — This year already has delivered several Oscar nominee-type films — including “Fruitvale Station,” “Gravity,” “Prisoners” and “Captain Phillips” — but Steve McQueen’s “12 Years a Slave” has moved right to the top of the list. In my opinion, “12 Years a Slave” is easily the best film of the year. […][...]
Review: Tall as the Baobab Tree
— by BEV QUESTAD with ARDELLE ANDERSON — After a son falls from the village baobab tree and breaks his leg, there is no money for the necessary medical care – unless dad sells a daughter off for marriage. This re-enactment film is based on a true story, acted out by local rural Senegalese villagers […][...]
American Hustle: Feature Trailer
— by ADAM POYNTER — The second trailer for David O. Russell’s “American Hustle” is here and it looks phenomenal, giving us much more narrative and plot points than the first trailer did. This is a film that can pretty much combines the casts of “The Fighter” and “Silver Linings Playbook,” and adds even more […][...]
All Wifed Out: First Trailer
— by SEAN GERSKI — When a movie starring Marc Maron, Metta World Peace, Dustin “Screech” Diamond and Eve came to my attention, my first thought, of course, was WTF? (pun intended). How can there be a movie that includes these four personalities, and yet I have never heard of it? I checked out the […][...]
Review: Carrie
— by JAMES SHAW — It is very hard to make original movies these days, so Hollywood tends to re-make, create sequels or spin-off from past popular films. The original 1976 version of “Carrie” was based on the 1974 Stephen King Novel, a story about an out-cast teenage girl named Carrie White who uses her […][...]
Review: Camille Claudel 1915
— by RON WILKINSON — Nominated for the Golden Bear, the top award at the Berlin Film Festival, Bruno Dumont has added another bitter pill to his weighty list of accomplishments with “Camille Claudel 1915.” He has either won or been nominated for most of the top European film awards. The one major nomination missing […][...]
Review: Concussion
— by JAMES SHAW — I am not one for clichéd movies and the following scene is all too familiar. A married couple with kids has their relationship tested either through personal complications or temptations. The relationship loses its spark and gets dull and repetitive. One person usually seeks sexual thrills elsewhere while the other […][...]
Review: Enzo Avitabile Music Life
— by BEV QUESTAD — So often there are docs about musicians with frustratingly little of their music to demonstrate why a film was made about them in the first place. But it isn’t this way with “Enzo.” This portrait film of his musical gifts is more like going to an actual concert interspersed with […][...]
Review: The Network
— by RON WILKINSON — To 99 percent of Americans, Afghanistan is a battlefield. It is a place of misery and horrendously bad memories for hundreds of thousands of US service members and their loved ones. The number of Afghan casualties is at least double that of the Americans, not even including the armies of […][...]