Film-Forward

Arts

Ai Weiwei: The Fake Case

Directed by Andreas Johnsen Produced by Katrine A. Sahlstrom Released by International Film Circuit English and Mandarin with English subtitles Denmark. 89 min. Not Rated Ai Weiwei: The Fake Case overlaps and then follows-up Alison Klayman’s Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry (2012). But it stands alone as an intimate portrait of a stubborn artist inspired to […]

Llyn Foulkes One Man Band

Edited, Produced, and Directed by Tamar Halpern and Chris Quilty Released by Tamaroland Pictures USA. 88 min. Not rated Halfway through Llyn Foulkes One Man Band, the title subject is at a gallery staring at one of his paintings. Actually it’s a photograph of a rock formation blown up to about 8 by 10 feet […]

Flex Is Kings

Directed by Deidre Schoo and Michael Beach Nichols Produced by Schoo, Nichols, and Christopher K. Walker Released by Baxter Brothers Film Releasing USA. 86 min. Not rated In Brooklyn, there’s a dance style known as flexing. Its practitioners claim there are “no rules and no boundaries.” They use everything they can think of—costumes, stunts, masks, […]

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 […]

Elaine Stritch: Shoot Me

Directed by Chiemi Karasawa Produced by Karasawa & Elizabeth Hemmerdinger Released by Sundance Selects USA. 81 min. Not rated In the twilight of her career, veteran actress Elaine Stritch has won both an Emmy and Grammy for her 2002 one-woman Broadway show, Elaine Stritch at Liberty, her tell-all song and dish about this broad’s life […]

Peter Brook: The Tightrope

Directed by Simon Brook Produced by Mr. Brook, Ermanno Olmi, Luigi Musini & Jean-Pierre Eklou Attisso Released by Brook Productions, Cinemaundici & ARTE France in association with the International Center for Theatre Research English & French with English subtitles Italy/France. 86 min. Not rated Theater legend Peter Brook sprang to international prominence decades ago by […]

Tim’s Vermeer

Directed by Teller Produced by Penn Jillette & Farley Ziegler Released by Sony Pictures Classics USA. 80 min. Rated PG-13 Hailing from the Iowa cornfields, high school graduate, self-taught techie inventor, and self-made millionaire Tim Jenison turns his life over to a wonky but accessible pursuit. He spends his considerable resources and time traveling the […]

Shepard & Dark

Directed by Treva Wurmfeld Produced by Amy Hobby Edited by Sandra Adair Released by Music Box Films USA. 89 min. Not rated Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and Academy Award nominated actor Sam Shepard accepts a proposal to publish decades-worth of correspondence between himself and best friend Johnny Dark. He looks at the opportunity as a new creative venture. […]

Herb & Dorothy 50×50

Produced & Directed by Megumi Sasaki Released by Fine Line Media USA. 86 min. Not rated Here’s a superhero sequel movie worth seeing! The Vogels, mild-mannered retirees Herb the postal worker and Dorothy the librarian, thrilled viewers in director Megumi Sasaki’s first documentary feature, Herb & Dorothy (2008), and won more admirers after it was […]