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The Wall

Written & Directed by Julian Roman Pölsler, based on the novel by Marlen Haushofer Produced by Rainer Kölmel, Antonin Svoboda, Martin Gschlacht & Wasiliki Bleser Released by Music Box Films With Martina Gedeck English & German with English subtitles Austria. 109 in. Not rated With Martina Gedeck I find it almost impossible not to compare […]

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. […]

Out in the Dark

Directed by Michael Mayer Produced by Lihu Roter & Mayer Written by Mayer & Yael Shafrir Released by Breaking Glass Pictures Hebrew & Arabic with English subtitles Israel/Palestine/USA. 96 min. Not rated With Nicholas Jacob, Michael Aloni, Alon Pdut, Jameel Khouri & Loai Noufi Out in the Dark takes an intensely intimate look beyond the […]

Toronto International Film Festival

Programming a vast array of some 288 features films, the Toronto International Film Festival offers a varied and overwhelming selection. One course of action is to see films by known directors or that have played at other festivals, with some allowance for happenstance, taking a chance on a movie based on the very brief synopsis […]

Ain’t Them Bodies Saints

Written & Directed by David Lowery Produced by Lars Knudsen, Jay Van Hoy, James M. Johnston, Toby Halbrooks, Cassian Elwes & Amy Kaufman Released by IFC Films USA. 105 min. Not rated With Rooney Mara, Casey Affleck, Ben Foster, Keith Carradine & Nate Parker It takes a filmmaker with strong courage to make what on […]

Smash & Grab

Directed by Havana Marking Produced by Mike Lerner Released by Doppelgänger Releasing UK. 90 min. Not rated Wow. Talk about free publicity. The July 28th robbery of an estimated $137 million worth of jewelry on the French Riviera (at the Carlton International hotel, coincidentally a location in Hitchcock’s To Catch a Thief) occurred just days […]

Cannes Film Festival Winners

The main difference that sets the Cannes Film Festival apart from other fests is the anticipation: you want to see the films debuting in the competition, especially if they are directed by the likes of the Coen brothers, Alexander Payne, Roman Polanski, and Asghar Farhadi, to name four. Few shots in the dark here. There […]

The Angels’ Share

Directed by Ken Loach Produced by Rebecca O’Brien Written by Paul Laverty Released by Sundance Selects UK.  101 min.  Not rated With Paul Brannigan, John Henshaw, Roger Allam, Gary Maitland, Jasmin Riggins, William Ruane & Siobhan Reilly The Angel’s Share reunites Ken Loach with his longtime collaborator, Scottish screenwriter Paul Laverty, for their 10th film, […]

Renoir

Directed by Gilles Bourdos Produced by Olivier Delbosc & Marc Missonnier Written by Jérôme Tonnerre & Bourdos, with the contribution of Michel Spinosa, based on the book Le Tableau Amoureux by Jacques Renoir Released by Samuel Goldwyn Films France. 111 min. Rated R French with English subtitles With Michel Bouquet, Vincent Rottiers, Christa Théret, Thomas […]