If you read my festival coverage, you?ll know that I am a proponent for short films. I enjoy the chance to take in a program or two of shorts when I attend film festivals. Shorts are more than just practice for aspiring filmmakers. Shorts get to the point quickly and...
All of life has been reduced to the inhabitants of a 1001 car long train that continually circles the earth where the outside temperature is -119? C. In TNT?s new drama series Snowpiercer, that train becomes a microcosm for society. The series is based on the 2013...
?I was and remain a man of honor.? Tommaso Buscetta (Pierfrancesco Favino) claimed to be an honorable man. But what he meant by that may mean something different than you think. The Traitor is the story of how in the 1980s, he (and some others) began to bring down the...
?A person needs a job to survive, but you need work to feel like you?re worth something.? Working Man, from writer/director Robert Jury, reflects a story that has been playing out in many communities, especially in Middle America. When plants close, putting people out...
The aftermath of the Guatemalan Civil War and genocide is the background for Our Mothers (Nuestras Madres) from Belgian-Guatemalan writer/director Cesar Diaz. The film received attention at various festivals, including winning the Camera d?Or at Cannes Critics? Week....
The Royal Palace at Versailles was perhaps the most magnificent place on earth in the 17th and 18th centuries. To this day it is still amazing to walk through the halls and gardens. Can the splendor of Versailles be translated to modern minds through the medium of...
There?s something about the smell of a used bookstore that just makes me happy. That smell was missing from The Booksellers, but watching this documentary about antiquarian book stores in New York City and book collectors was an enjoyable experience in many other...
It is amazing how complicated heist movies can be. That?s their nature. Pulling a gun and asking for money doesn?t really make for a movie plot. But if you can steal something through various steps, and then twist things up with double and triple crosses, you have a...
Independent and foreign films can often be hard to find unless you live in a big city or college town that has an art house. But with theaters closed during the COVID-19 pandemic, there are lots of new indie films that are available for streaming. Distributers and art...