“The Wobblies” opens at the Metrograph
Why hasn’t Hollywood ever made an epic film about the history of the Wobblies, the radical labor union (the I.W.W. or International Workers of the World) that thrived from 1905 to the mid-1920s, only to be crushed by the U.S. government and rival unions? The story has colorful characters like Big Bill Haywood, ...
“Delta Space Mission”
Last year Deaf Crocodile (a partner label of Vinegar Syndrome) released a Blu-Ray of a 4K restoration of “Delta Space Mission,” the first Romanian animated feature, originally released in 1984. The film is now available for streaming. It’s a limited animation film with psychedelic colors (that recall artist Peter ...
“Stanleyville” opens at the Metrograph
Maxwell McCabe-Lokos’ “Stanleyville,” which opens today (April 22) at the Metrograph in Manhattan, is a satire with elements of stunt/dare challenge TV shows, “The Squid Game,” “Black Mirror,” pop philosophy and theater of the absurd. It opens as Maria (Susanne Wuest) is at work in a corporate office in a high ...
“Hit the Road” opens at the Film Forum
“Hit the Road” is a riotously funny family comedy tinged with the sadness of the political oppression endured by the people of Iran. Four people and a dog are driving in a rented SUV through a flat stretch of Iranian highway. The father (Hassan Madjooni) sits in the back, left leg in a cast. His child (Rayan ...
“New Directors/New Films Festival 2022 at Film at Lincoln Center & MOMA”
The 51st edition of the New Directors/New Films festival begins April 20 and runs until May 1. The festival has a long track record for identifying first-time directors who later went on to have exalted careers: Pedro Almodóvar, Kelly Reichardt, Atom Egoyan, Spike Lee, Richard Linklater, Sally Potter, John Sayles, ...
“The Girl And The Spider” opens at Metrograph & Film at Lincoln Center
(above: Liliane Amuat and Henriette Confurius in Ramon & Silvan Zürcher's THE GIRL AND THE SPIDER) In 2013 Swiss film director Ramon Zürcher had a festival hit with “The Strange Little Cat” that invented a unique formal language for telling a rich story of interpersonal relations in a cramped living space. His ...
Personal Shopper: Spring 2022 Gift Guide
Here's our selection of some of the best film-related books, Blu-Rays, DVDs and CDs released recently. A rapturous bio of a famous and troubled movie star marriage. A new reissue of a concert classic with tons of extras. P. T. Anderson's beloved masterpiece from last year out on Blu-Ray. A memoir by the star of "Mr. ...
Monthly Anime Classics at Japan Society in NYC
New York, NY (Mar. 31, 2022) Japan Society is pleased to announce the launch of Monthly Anime on April 15, 2022, which will kick-off with a screening of Mamoru Oshii’s seminal cyberpunk classic, Ghost in the Shell. Offering an eclectic range of classic, underseen, and contemporary visions from Japanese animation, ...
Four by Valentyn Vasyanovych at MOMI
“If we don’t resist the Russian invasion,” Valentyn Vasyanovych told Leonardo Goi, “Ukraine will disappear as an independent state, and the countries of the former Socialist Bloc will be next.” The 50-year-old Ukrainian film director is in Kyiv right now, doing just that, while the Museum of the Moving Image is ...
“The Apartment” new 4K and Blu-Ray release
Billy Wilder got the idea for “The Apartment” from a scene in David Lean’s classic 1945 film “Brief Encounter” in which a cheating couple uses a friend’s apartment for a tryst. The situation violated the Hollywood production code and he didn’t get around to using it in a film until 1960. (It was released the same ...
MOMI First Look Highlights
The Museum of the Moving Image’s eleventh First Look Festival, devoted to “innovative new international cinema” takes place Wednesday, March 16 to Sunday, March 20. Here are five features I highly recommend. Go here for more information about the festival, a complete list of films and ticket information. The ...
Yujiro Harumoto “A Balance”
Yujiro Harumoto’s “A Balance” is both a sensitive Japanese family drama and a powerful indictment of the myth of balanced investigatory journalism and its unfortunate contribution to public shaming. It is playing at Manhattan’s IFC Center beginning Friday, March 11 for one week as part of the ACA Cinema Project ...