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Why?
ForsakenAt the start of his career, the French-Israeli filmmaker of the short Why? [Lama? in Hebrew, 2014], Nadav Lapid, provided us already the biggest question for his protagonist, his audience, the...
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The Security Guard from Hell (aka "The Guard from Underground")
An Early Work by the "Other" KurosawaNothing comes close to modern-day security! I had just awakened from a dream in which the drone's POV had taken over my own and within the cheap eye-display the...
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Haganenet (aka "The Kindergarten Teacher")
IDF Animals (continued but not contained), and the Oracle WunderkindMy favorite of the three Lapid films I've seen to date (Synonyms might be the best; Ahed's Knee will mark my fourth), 2015's...
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Synonyms
Israel and Palestine / No True I started forgetting even in the course of watching — I remembered things related to the situation in Palestine. Forgetting or suppressing? One scene wipes out the...
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Cosmos
Macro and MicroShow me a cosmos, a deep-focus woods, a young woman standing in relief against a rather ancient garden wall creating by an ivy network running from the edge of one frame to the other....
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De Sade
Barbs Were TradedCy Endfield grew up in Wilkes-Barre, PA, about twenty minutes from my hometown, Scranton. (Wilkes-Barre: the hometown too of Dan Sallitt.) De Sade, exhibited by Roger Corman's American...
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Dance Party, USA
This Is Serious Early 'Mumblecore'Dance Party, USA [2006], the debut from Aaron Katz, depicts an early-20-something/late-teens house party, and all the house parties out there, all the Americas within...
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Blue Skies
On the FritzStuart Heisler's rather tame 1946 Technicolor-musical Irving Berlin revue is well worth seeing — this does come, after all, from the director of the mighty Smash-Up: The Story of a Woman of...
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Million Dollar Mystery
Fleischer's Last Stand (I Stan for Fleischer)The final film by Richard Fleischer, Million Dollar Mystery [1987], places the emphasis on "mystery." To elaborate: a passage from the film's Wiki page:...
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I'm Back for Now
– What about the time I chipped my tooth on the bathroom urinal?! What the FUCK is so comical about that?!– It was a back tooth, Hank.(The Larry Sanders Show)===
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Quiet City
Quiet Is Loud, Loud Is Quiet, a Movie That Found Me Too Tired to Untie ItI've been away dealing with some recurring health issues that have persisted for about a year. Just before I was hospitalized a...
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Nationtime — Gary
1972. 2024.In 1972, state delegations for the recently-formed Congressional Black Caucus decamped to Gary, Indiana, for a convention (hosted by a Gary high school) that sought to unify the disparate...
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The All Golden: The Polyamorous Soap Opera
A Dream SoapFilmmaker Nathaniel Wilson wrote a press blurb for his 2024 film The All Golden: The Polyamorous Soap Operat, which reads:"Our feature film The All Golden is having an exciting, totally...
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Queen of Lapa
Shadow RoyaltyLuana Muniz was the queen of the brothels in the Lapa neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro. Note the past-tense: a final title card informs the viewer of her passing in 2017. Further research...
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Palookaville
Show ReelLess regularly than in Queen of Lapa, Collatos and Monnerat's 2022 15-minute Palookaville throws an off-kilter quality inside of its frames, angles that perhaps might better lie (mapped?)...
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Give Me a Riddle
Sort of a Magic Lantern On the eve of the 1967 Nigerian Civil War, filmmaker David Schickele arrived in a remote village for a multi-year stint courtesy of the Peace Corps's diplomatic relations and...
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Bushman
Revolutions Can't Be TelevisedBushman picks up where David Schickele's Give Me a Riddle left off a few years earlier; it's 1971 now. The self-proclaimed Nigerian "bushman," Paul, has made his way to...
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Tuscarora
UntouchableTuscarora, Nevada, zero-mile marker, end of the road. Seems like the end of the world based on its isolation alone.Vast horizon murals of lowering clouds; sometimes something near a cyan. At...
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Little Sister
Coming HomeColleen (Addison Timlin) used to be splatter-goth; now she cleans up in modern ash cardigan accented by a silver crucifix. She's come to Asheville to visit her brother (Keith Poulson) who...
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What Doesn't Float
Water EverywhereYou couldn't quite call What Doesn't Float [Luca Balser, produced by Pauline Chalamet] an aquatic odyssey through the plunge of the New York City waterworks — there's bongwater on the...
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Kiss Kiss Fingerbang
"So Gimme the Title of The Picture...""Well it's 'bout a dame can't help it"— "Thinking Roger Avary, eh?"— "Nah, this Horvat character. Gillian Wallace Horvat."— "Sounds a Wiltshire heiress, like a...
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Whiskey Fist
"You Know, a Companion Piece. Throw Me the Title.""That would be Whiskey Fist."—"What's the angle?"— "Late night, house party, more twentysomethings and shit when our lead decides to rawdog this chick...
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I Blame Society
"What's the Showstopper?""A feature, of course. The other two, calling cards or proof of concept. This is the biggie."— "It's got evyerthing from the previous films?"— "All that and more. I mean, it's...
View ArticleThe Books I Read in 2024
These are the books I read in 2024. The list would have been longer, but health-issues were a hindrance for the best part of the year. My Lunches with Orson: Conversations Between Henry Jaglom and...
View ArticleThe Films I Saw in 2024
First Seen of the Year:Charlie Victor Romeo [Robert Berger, Patrick Daniels, and Karlyn Michelson, 2013]Last Seen of the Year:Last Embrace [Jonathan Demme, 1979]===Le 15/8 [Chantal Akerman, 1973]35...
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