I have the fondest memories of watching Top Gun back in 1986. It was a great year, I was in my second year in Junior College and had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. I was just living in the moment and hanging around with friends every chance I got. My […]
Listening to a Russian oligarch and an American luxury yacht captain drunkenly exchange clichés about socialism versus capitalism over the ship’s PA system strikes me as farce without tragedy — and the joke is that it’s Woody Harrelson as the captain whose aggressive about socialism and the Russian who sounds like an OAN reporter. Good […]
Ship of fools: ‘Triangle of Sadness’
By: Amanda Guarragi “Find out who you are and do it on purpose.” – Dolly Parton When we think about Dolly Parton, we think of a beautiful, intelligent, witty blonde bombshell with an angelic singing voice. She is a woman who inspires others to be themselves and not care about what others think. Listening to […]
The Academy Award nominations were announced on January 24. We have until March 12 to consider these films, including the 10 films nominated for Best Picture. Among this year’s nominees were some of my favorites of the year. Below is my personal ranking of all 10 Best Picture Nominees in ascending order. For those enjoying […]
Binge Watch: Best Picture Nominees
Paul Thomas Anderson once again returns to the San Fernando Valley in the 1970s — however, unlike his previous film set there, Boogie Nights (1997), his latest effort, Licorice Pizza, is a gentler and hazier movie that rests its heart on its sleeve in numerous ways. The year is 1973, and fifteen-year-old […]
I remember the first time I saw “West Side Story.” I watched the 1961 film during class at my Catholic elementary school decades later — on a square TV on a rolling cart — and it was transformative. I immediately loved the music, choreography, dancing, characters, and storytelling. I watch that version from time to […]
Musical Masterpiece: Steven Spielberg’s “West Side Story”
The Washington D.C. Area Film Critics have announced their nominees for the best of 2021! The winners will be announced tomorrow so that means you have exactly one day to see all the nominees. GET TO IT! Best Film Belfast The Green Knight The Power of the Dog tick, tick…BOOM! West Side Story Best Director […]
Here Are the 2021 Nominations of the Washington D.C. Area Film Critics!
The National Board of Review just announced their picks for the best of 2021 and, while many thought they might go with West Side Story or The Power of the Dog, the NBR instead announced that their pick for Best Picture was Paul Thomas Anderson’s Licorice Pizza! In fact, Power of the Dog went curiously […]
The National Board of Review Names Licorice Pizza The Best of 2021
Dobromir Dymecki, Agnieszka Zulewska Ruben Östlund `s “Force Majeure” was one of the first films that showed us the true image of our selfishness. Nothing comes before our needs. What we want, what we should do or what should be done to us is the highest priority for us. Therefore, […]
Film Review: “Silent Land” (2021)
Papiro & Mint is back to talk about one of the most exciting moments of the year: film festival season! This will be the first time I’ll be attending the São Paulo International Film Festival in person since 2019 due to the Coronavirus pandemic, while I’ll also be watching many titles online since the festival […]
São Paulo International Film Festival | 2021
The world of horse racing is explored in Clint Bentley‘s “Jockey” (2021). Jackson (Clifton Collins Jr.) is an aging jockey, eager to experience one last glorious lap before his ailing body finally gives in to […]
Reporting from the Denver Film Festival. The animation is stunning. Fluid lines connect all different styles and textures: pencil drawings, cutouts, and computer-generated images. Some of them are on black backgrounds; some of them overlap archival footage of Montreal—the second-largest French-speaking city in the universe—and the thousands of islands that make up the archipelago. Over […]
Reporting from the Denver Film Festival. It opens with sex: Explicit, hardcore sex in the bedroom. The woman before the camera is Emilia (Katia Pascariu), a teacher at a local private school. The man holding the camera is Eugene (Stefan Steel), Emilia’s husband. Looking to spice up a regular evening of rumpy-pumpy, they pull out […]
BAD LUCK BANGING OR LOONY PORN
A crowded field of screenwriters, including several newcomers, will duke it out for five slots. (Constantly updated.)
Oscars 2022: Best Adapted Screenplay Predictions
Titane is a complex film, one that doesn’t hold back in its portrayal of unconditional love. The bold and sometimes intense imagery of the human body put on display in the film is an unwavering/uncompromising vision. That is the vision of the director, Julia Ducournau. Released to critical acclaim and even winning the palm’d’or at the […]
‘Titane’ and the Politics of Dancing
Hamouda and his cousin Ismail are Palestinian Bedouins living in the town of Yatta. With few ways to make a decent living, they offer a unique taxi service, driving Palestinian workers across the Negev desert to a southern gap where Israel’s border wall hasn’t been finished. Or smuggling Palestinian workers, I should say, as this […]
The Toronto International Film Festival kicked off with a rocky start. However, the first films to initiate the festival were anything but disappointing. As in Heaven (Du som er i himlen), Tea Lindeburg’s directorial debut, was nothing short of an artistic dream. On a farm in the 1800s, a young 14-year-old girl named Lise (Flora […]
‘As in Heaven’ Review: “The Curse of Femininity”
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Rating: 5 out of 5. There are always moments when we think we are misunderstood, blamed and judged for something we had nothing to do with. Also, people think if we are emotional, loud and extremely cheerful or angry from the outside, we are bad and should be ignored. Evan Hansen (reprising his role […]
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Rating: 5 out of 5. Japanese cinema is always exquisite, deep and insightful. It knows how to play with words and carefully translate them into actions. And actors? Oh boy! How marvelous they all are. If you find me exaggerating, then you probably haven’t seen “Drive My Car” yet. Yusuke and Oto are a […]
Direct from Montreal’s premiere genre film festival, Fantasia, may I present: Agnes. Sphenisciphobia is the fear of nuns. That’s going to be relevant very shortly. Are you afraid of nuns? I don’t find them particularly scary myself, but there is something creepy about them, stripped of identity and personality, existing outside of society, of culture, of […]