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.

Easy Money: Hard to Kill

Directed by Babak Najafi
Produced by Fredrik Wikstrom Nicastro
Written by Maria Karlsson with Peter Birro, Najafi & Nicastro, based on books by Jens Lapidus
Released by Cinedigm
Swedish & Spanish with English subtitles
Sweden. 100 min. Not rated
With Joel Kinnaman, Matias Varela, Dragomir Mrsic, Fares Fares, Madeleine Martin, Dejan Cukic, Joel Spira & Lisa Henni

The second entry in a […]

By |February 13th, 2014|Crime, Foreign, Thriller|0 Comments

Live-Action Oscar Shorts 2014

Released by ShortsHD
97 min. Not rated

“Do I Have To Take Care of Everything?”

The briefest, by half, of this year’s Oscar nominated live-action shorts makes more of an impact than its tone and brevity might suggest. The Finnish short covers a morning in the chaotic life of the Ketonin family, scrambling like mad to get to […]

By |February 12th, 2014|Comedy, Drama, Satire, War|0 Comments

Mitt

Produced & Directed by Greg Whiteley
Streaming on Netflix
USA. 91 min. Not rated

Get ready to like Mitt Romney. The new documentary Mitt may make some of us regret how easily we dismissed him during the 2008 and, especially, the 2012 presidential campaigns. It’s a somewhat bitter catch-22, as it couldn’t have been released during his active […]

By |February 9th, 2014|Documentary, DVD/Streaming/On Demand, Featured, Political|0 Comments

Visitors

Directed by Godfrey Reggio
Produced by Lawrence Taub & Reggio
Released by Cinedigm
USA. 87 min. Not rated

The films of Godfrey Reggio have no dialogue, mainly because, to paraphrase the director, he believes that language is an artifact constructed thousands of years ago which does not describe our lives today. So he rejects it, and presumably awaits the […]

By |January 22nd, 2014|American, Experimental, Top Picks|0 Comments

Lone Survivor

Written & Directed by Peter Berg, based on the book by Marcus Luttrell & Patrick Robinson
Produced by Mark Wahlberg, Mr. Berg, Sarah Aubrey, Randall Emmett, Norton Herrick, Barry Spikings, Akiva Goldsman, Stephen Levinson & Vitaly Grigogoriants
Released by Universal Pictures
USA. 121 min. Rated R
With Mark Wahlberg, Taylor Kitsch, Emile Hirsch, Ben Foster, Ali Suliman, Alexander Ludwig […]

By |January 9th, 2014|Afghanistan, Top Picks, War|0 Comments

Out of the Furnace

Directed by Scott Cooper
Produced by Jennifer Davisson Killoran, Leonardo DiCaprio, Ryan Kavanaugh, Ridley Scott & Michael Costigan
Written by Cooper & Brad Ingelsby
Released by Relativity. 116 min. Rated R
With Christian Bale, Woody Harrelson, Casey Affleck, Forest Whitaker, Willem Dafoe, Zoë Saldana & Sam Shepard
The opening scene of Out of the Furnace is one of the best […]

By |December 5th, 2013|Crime, Drama, Top Picks|0 Comments

Oldboy

Directed by Spike Lee
Written by Mark Protosevich, based on the Korean motion picture by Park Chan-wook
Produced by Roy Lee, Doug Davison & Nathan Kahane;
Released by Film District
USA. 98 min. Rated R
With Josh Brolin, Elizabeth Olsen, Sharlto Copley, Samuel L. Jackson, Michael Imperioli, Linda Emond, James Ransone & Pom Klementieff
It’s difficult to discuss Spike Lee’s Oldboy, […]

By |November 27th, 2013|Crime, Psychological thriller|0 Comments