Features
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Tuesday, Mar. 5, 2024
Review: Director Nuri Bilge Ceylan's "About Dry Grasses"
Nuri Bilge Ceylan makes long films, by movie standards, but short ones by Russian literature standards. There may be no filmmaker more consciously working in a novelistic tradition. The Turkish director counts reading "Crime and Punishment" as a formative experience. His Palme d'Or-winning 2014...
Thursday, Feb. 29, 2024
Review: Noora Niasari Makes Directorial Debut With "Shayda"
Noora Niasari's delicately moving "Shayda" puts the viewer in the shoes of an Iranian woman in Australia living in a women's shelter with her 6-year-old daughter. The violence happens before we enter the story, and yet actor Zar Amir Ebrahimi's face and body tells us everything we need to know...
Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2024
Review: Writer-Director Julio Torres' "Problemista"
The hero of "Problemista" sees the world differently. He's an aspiring toy designer named Alejandro who thinks today's toys are too fun. He proposes a toy truck with a deflating tire to teach kids they're running out of time. Alejandro is the creation of Julio Torres, who stars, directs and has...
Thursday, Feb. 22, 2024
Review: Director Denis Villeneuve's "Dune: Part Two"
Three firm thumps into the Arrakis sand is all you need to summon a sandworm in Denis Villeneuve's "Dune: Part Two." It's almost as easy as hailing a cab or calling for the check. The big buggers can't resist the sound, which is a little like how I feel taking in all the vibrations of Villeneuve's...
Friday, Feb. 16, 2024
Cinematographers & Cameras: Oscar Nominees Shed Light On "Maestro," "Oppenheimer" and "El Conde"
One cinematographer recently earned his third career Oscar and ASC Award nominations. Another scored his second Academy Award nod and third ASC Award nom. And our third DP became an Oscar nominee for the third time, and an ASC Award nominee for the fourth. Here are insights from Matthew Libatique,...
Thursday, Feb. 15, 2024
Directorial Takes From Sundance: Natalie Rae and Angela Patton Reflect On Award-Winning "Daughters"
It’s been an eventful Sundance Film Festival for directors Natalie Rae and Angela Patton as their Daughters earned major distinction with not only the Festival Favorite Award, voted on by event attendees, but also the Audience Award in the U.S. Documentary competition. Furthermore, after Sundance,...
Monday, Feb. 12, 2024
Monday Morning Quarterbacking: Agency Pros Assess Super Bowl Commercials
With the Kansas City Chiefs prevailing in overtime over the San Francisco 49ers to claim their second consecutive Super Bowl championship, Super Bowl LVIII on Sunday (2/11) held viewer interest throughout--which is a good thing for advertisers who paid some $7 million for a :30 time slot on CBS. At...
Wednesday, Feb. 7, 2024
Review: Writer-Director Pawo Choyning Dorji's "The Monk and the Gun"
"Why are you teaching us to be so rude?" the elderly village woman asks a Bhutanese election official in "The Monk and the Gun." It's a question both poignant and biting, because the "teaching" this woman is resisting is something much of the outside world considers a basic human right: the right...
Monday, Feb. 5, 2024
Review: Wim Wenders' "Perfect Days"
Wim Wenders' "Perfect Days" is set among the crowded skyscrapers of Tokyo and the quiet urban parks that Hirayama (Kôji Yakusho) traverses daily in his job cleaning public toilets. But where the movie resides, really, is Yakusho's face. In this gently sublime film, Hirayama steps outside his humble...
Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2024
Review: Writer-Director Molly Manning Walker's "How to Have Sex"
For women of a certain age who grew up being told that if they wore the wrong thing, drank a little too much, or gave the wrong signals that they were "asking for it," it might seem like the youths of today have it good, or at least quite a bit better. Consent seems to matter. Clothing coverage...