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.

    Boulevard

    Directed by Dito Montiel
    Produced by Monica Aguirre Diez Barroso, and Mia Chang
    Written by Douglas Soesbe
    Released by Starz Digital
    USA. 88 min. Rated R
    With Robin Williams, Kathy Baker, Roberto Aguire, Giles Matthey, Eléonore Hendricks and Bob Odenkirk
    Robin Williams’s last role, in the bleak yet engrossing Boulevard, is unlike any other dramatic turn in his vast filmography. It […]

    By |July 9th, 2015|GLBT, Indie, Top Picks|0 Comments

      Dope

      Written and Directed by Rick Famuyiwa
      Produced by Forest Whitaker and Nina Yang Bongiovi
      Released by Open Road Films
      USA. 105 min. Rated R
      With Shameik Moore, Kimberly Elise, Chanel Iman, Diggy, Jib, Roger Guenveur Smith, Forest Whitaker, Blake Anderson, Quincy Brown, Zoë Kravitz, and ASAP Rocky
      This Sundance darling is being praised as fresh and revolutionary, but it’s anything […]

      By |June 28th, 2015|Comedy, Teen|0 Comments

        Escobar: Paradise Lost

        Written and Directed by Andrea di Stefano,
        Produced by Dimitri Rassam
        Released by Radius-TWC
        English and Spanish with English subtitles
        France/Spain/Belgium. 119 min. Rated R
        With Benicio Del Toro, Josh Hutcherson, Claudia Traisac, Brady Corbet, Carlos Bardem, Ana Girardot, and Micke Moreno
        Pablo Escobar is probably history’s most successful, and notorious, drug dealer/narcoterrorist. At its height, his Colombian cocaine empire made […]

        By |June 25th, 2015|Biopic, Crime|0 Comments

          Heaven Knows What

          Directed by Josh and Benny Safdie
          Produced by Oscar Boyson, Sebastian Bear McClard, Josh Safdie and Benny Safdie
          Written by Ronald Bronstein and Josh Safdie, based on the novel Mad Love in New York City by Arielle Holmes
          Released by Radius-TWC
          USA. 93 min. Rated R
          With Arielle Holmes, Caleb Landry Jones, Buddy Duress, Necro, and Eléonore Hendricks
          One of the […]

          By |June 13th, 2015|Book adaptation, Top Picks|0 Comments

            Our Man in Tehran

            Directed by Drew Taylor and Larry Weinstein
            Canada. 85 min. Not rated

            This 2013 documentary retells the real-life story of the six U.S. Embassy workers who sought refuge from the Canadian ambassador while their co-workers were taken hostage in Iran in 1979. This saga was depicted in Oscar-winning fashion by director/star Ben Affleck in his 2012 political […]

            By |June 7th, 2015|Documentary, Middle East|0 Comments

              Adult Beginners

              Directed by Ross Katz
              Produced by Sam Slater, Paul M. Bernon, Jared Ian Goldman, Karrie Cox, and Marcus Cox Written by Jeff Cox and Liz Flahive
              Released by Radius-TWC
              USA. 90 min. Rated R
              With Rose Byrne, Nick Kroll, Bobby Cannavale, Paula Garces, Jane Krakowski, Joel McHale, Bobby Moynihan, Mike Birbiglia and Josh Charles

              A selfish late twenties/early thirties Manhattan […]

              By |April 24th, 2015|Comedy, Family drama|0 Comments

                Emptying the Skies

                Directed by Douglas Kass and Roger Kass
                Produced by Roger Kass
                Released by Music Box Films
                English, Italian, French & German with English subtitles
                USA/Italy/Germany/France/Cyprus. 77 min. Not rated
                In 2010, famed novelist and occasional essayist Jonathan Franzen published a long piece in The New Yorker titled “Emptying the Skies,” about the illegal trapping of migratory songbirds, like warblers, wrens, […]

                By |April 23rd, 2015|Environmental|0 Comments

                  True Story

                  Directed by Rupert Goold
                  Produced by Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner and Anthony Katagas
                  Written by Goold and David Kajganich, based on the book by Michael Finkel
                  Released by Fox Searchlight Pictures
                  USA. 99 min. Rated R
                  With Jonah Hill, James Franco, Felicity Jones, Robert John Burke, Gretchen Mol and Ethan Suplee
                  On the heels of HBO’s fantastic The Jinx, the true […]

                  By |April 16th, 2015|Book adaptation, Crime|0 Comments

                    Spring

                    Directed by Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead
                    Released by Drafthouse Films
                    USA. 109 min. Not rated
                    With Lou Taylor Pucci and Nadia Hilker
                    In this new supernatural romance film, an isolated, directionless young American named Evan (Lou Taylor Pucci) flees to Italy to find himself. It’s obvious that he needs a chance to make a fresh start in new […]

                    By |March 26th, 2015|Horror, Indie|0 Comments