Film-Forward

About Ted Metrakas

Ted Metrakas is a Brooklyn-based writer and philosopher and longtime contributor to Film-Forward. You can find his other keen observations and sharp cultural critiques on his website, tedmetrakas.substack.com, or find and read his philosophy books Another New Word and Underground Horizon at these links.

    Deepsea Challenge 3D

    Directed by John Bruno, Andrew Wight, and Ray Quint
    Produced by Wight and Brett Popplewell
    Released by National Geographic Entertainment
    USA. 90 min. Rated PG
    People often grow up fantasizing about  outer space and/or the Earth’s oceans, the two great canvasses available for boundless possibility and discovery. James Cameron is at the far end of the spectrum in both of […]

    By |August 7th, 2014|American, Environmental|0 Comments

      Life Itself

      Directed by Steve James
      Produced by Zak Piper, James and Garrett Basch
      Released by Magnolia Pictures
      USA. 118 min. Rated R
      Perhaps the most shocking thing about the Roger Ebert documentary Life Itself is the revelation that Ebert became a full-time paid film critic at a major newspaper in the third largest city in the United States as a […]

      By |July 26th, 2014|Film History, Pop Culture|0 Comments

        Evergreen

        Produced & Directed by Riley Morton
        Released by First Run Features
        USA. 86 min. Not rated
        Evergreen: The Road to Legalization is an in-depth film documenting all of the difficulties and nuances activists faced on the road to passing I-502, a piece of legislation in Washington State legalizing small amounts of marijuana. It is a no frills, serious […]

        By |June 13th, 2014|Documentary, Political|0 Comments

          Ivory Tower

          Written & Directed by Andrew Rossi
          Produced by Josh Braun & Rossi
          Released by Samuel Goldwyn Films/Participant Media
          USA. 90 min. Rated PG-13
          There are few things more enjoyable than to critique the American higher education system, and Ivory Tower is one of the most slickly produced and entertaining cracks at it yet. Here, colleges are widely described as […]

          By |June 12th, 2014|Documentary, Education, Top Picks|0 Comments

            God’s Pocket

            Written by Slattery and Alex Metcalf, based on the novel by Pete Dexter
            Produced by Sam Bisbee, Jackie Kelman Bisbee, Lance Acord, Slattery, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Emily Ziff
            Released by IFC Films
            USA. 88 min. Rated R
            With Philip Seymour Hoffman, Richard Jenkins, Christina Hendricks, John Turturro, Caleb Landry Jones, Domenick Lombardozzi, Joyce Van Patten, and Glenn Fleshler

            If […]

            By |May 8th, 2014|Book adaptation, Crime|0 Comments

              Dom Hemingway

              Written and Directed by Richard Shepard
              Produced by Jeremy Thomas
              Released by Fox Searchlight Pictures.
              UK. 93 min. Rated R
              With Jude Law, Richard E. Grant, Demian Bichir, Emilia Clarke and Kerry Condon
              Not quite as smart as it needs to be, yet smarter than it may seem, Dom Hemingway is a timely film, and an unmistakable sign that Jude […]

              By |April 2nd, 2014|Comedy, Crime, U. K.|0 Comments

                Finding Vivian Maier

                Written, Produced and Directed by John Maloof and Charlie Siskel
                Released by Sundance Selects
                USA. 83 min. Not rated
                If you put aside the deep knowledge Finding Vivian Maier imparts about an undeniably powerful contributor to photography, and the stark sense of the wildly eccentric character behind the images, you are left with one of the funniest, […]

                By |March 27th, 2014|Arts, Top Picks|0 Comments

                  Jimmy P.

                  Directed by Arnaud Desplechin
                  Written by Mr. Desplechin, with Kent Jones & Julie Peyr, based on Reality and Dream by Georges Devereux
                  Produced by Jennifer Roth, Pascal Caucheteux & Grégoire Sorlat
                  Released by IFC Films
                  France/USA. 114 min. Not rated
                  With Benicio Del Toro, Mathieu Amalric, Gina McKee, Larry Pine, Joseph Cross, Michelle Thrush and Misty Upham

                  Psychoanalysis, for its hundred […]

                  By |March 9th, 2014|Book adaptation, Drama, French, War|0 Comments

                    Stalingrad

                    Directed by Fedor Bondarchuk
                    Written by Ilya Tilkin & Sergey Snezhkin, based on the novel by Life and Fate by Vasily Grossman
                    Produced by Alexander Rodnyansky, Anton Zlatopolskiy, Dmitry Rudovskiy & Sergey Melkumov
                    Released by Columbia Pictures/Imax 3D
                    Russian & German with English subtitles
                    Russia. 135 min. Rated R
                    With Mariya Smolnikova, Yanina Studilina, Petr Fedorov, Thomas Kretschmann, Sergey Bondarchuk, Dmitry […]

                    By |February 28th, 2014|Epic, Foreign, War|0 Comments