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.

The Witness

The murder of Kitty Genovese is one of the most famous cases in the history of sociology and criminology, and this documentary accomplishes something remarkable by making us reconsider a story, and a concept, that we’ve long taken for granted as true.

By |June 3rd, 2016|Crime, Documentary, Top Picks|0 Comments

Weiner

During his 2013 campaign for New York City mayor, politician Anthony Weiner allowed two filmmakers to follow him around the clock. Entertaining, revealing, and occasionally funny, the result will give psychotherapists around the country, armchair and otherwise, ample fodder.

By |June 2nd, 2016|Documentary, Top Picks|0 Comments

The Family Fang

The Family Fang rises above standard family dysfunction fare and is fearless about pursuing some of its darker themes to the fullest.

By |April 29th, 2016|Book adaptation, Family drama|0 Comments

Elvis & Nixon

A fictionalized meeting that is very funny at times and boasts actors fully committed to communicating the bizarreness of a particular time and place in American history.

By |April 21st, 2016|Biopic, Top Picks|0 Comments

H.

Some sort of alien invasion may be transpiring as a result of a meteor strike, but the characters are already peculiar enough to be fairly alien themselves. When weird things happen to weird people, it feels almost expected, rather than unsettling.

By |April 3rd, 2016|DVD/Streaming/On Demand, Indie, Sci-fi|0 Comments

The Brainwashing of My Dad

This film examines the effects of Fox News through a highly personal lens, with filmmaker Jen Senko documenting how her father was transformed from a Kennedy Democrat to a certified Rush Limbaugh “ditto head.”

By |March 18th, 2016|Documentary|0 Comments

Creative Control

A stylish, unique piece of speculative dystopian filmmaking, set in Brooklyn at some indeterminate time in the near future.

By |March 11th, 2016|Indie, Sci-fi|0 Comments

Eye in the Sky

Gavin Hood's new movie sets the benchmark for depictions of drone warfare in film. Helen Mirren, Aaron Paul, Alan Rickman, and Barkhad Abdi star in this global tragicomic dance of uncertainty, fear, and godlike power.

By |March 11th, 2016|Top Picks, War|0 Comments

Rolling Papers

On January 1, 2014, Colorado became the first state in the nation to make recreational marijuana sales the law of the land. No longer were people required to go through the motions of obtaining bogus prescriptions for medicinal marijuana. Now, healthy people can just walk into a store and buy pot simply because they want […]

By |February 22nd, 2016|Documentary|0 Comments