Daisy Ridley is Rey and Adam Driver is Kylo Ren in STAR WARS: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER The first words in the scrolling text that opens Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker are ?The dead speak!? It continues on with a few things to remind us where the story left...
Director/co-writer Sam Mendes used stories his grandfather told about World War I, plus others? stories from the Imperial War Museum archives, for the foundation of 1917. It is the story of friendship, loyalty, determination, and courage. But it also touches at times...
When I first heard that Quenton Tarantino was going to be making a movie that involved the Manson Family killings, I assumed the violence and blood would be overwhelming. But Once Upon a Time . . . in Hollywood turns out to be his least violent film. All of...
Hala is the story of a young woman caught between two world?her parents? and the culture she has grown up in. It is a stereotypical coming-of-age story with the additional conflict of having to live by additional rules that grow out of her parents? values. But it also...
Terrance Malick creates films that are spiritual experiences. Sometimes, it is more about the experience than story. (Personally, I love going through those experiences, but understand why some find it difficult.) In A Hidden Life, Malick creates an experience that...
For over thirty years, a woman in Philadelphia taped up to eight channels of television twenty-four hours a day. Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project tells the story of how a collection of 70,000 VHS tapes chronicle the worlds from the Iran hostage crisis until her...
AFI Fest 2019 Presented by Audi has announced the winners of the Audience Awards, as well as the Grand Jury Prizes for short films. Following the awards listing, I?ll chime in with my own favorites from the festival. Audience Award ? Feature I AM NOT ALONE (DIR...
As AFI Fest 2019 Presented by Audi draws to a close, it is time to thank the festival and it?s press office for allowing me to attend and report on the festival. I also want to thank the countless volunteers who helped to make the festival run smoothly and make sure I...
There has been a major change at AFI Fest 2019 Presented by Audi. For the last few years, tickets for most screenings and events at the festival were free. This year, the public needs to buy tickets, although there are some films that had free screenings. While the...