The Sonora Desert in Arizona is freezing at night, brutally hot in the day. The documentary Who Is Dayani Cristal? reveals that the infrastructure dealing with illegal immigration into the United States from points south is likewise hot, cold, and unnecessarily deadly. We meet Americans dedicated to identifying, even humanizing,…
The sexual politics of Nick Cassavetes’ decidedly un-romantic comedy The Other Woman are intriguingly European and, at their core, kind of groovy. Wronged Connecticut wifey-wife Kate (Leslie Mann) seeks out her husband’s mistress, sexy city-slicker and high-powered lawyer Carly (Cameron Diaz), looking to her for answers: Why is my husband…
The genre of dystopian fiction and film has been around forever, and it sure isn’t stopping. Recent years have shown an abundance, and they’ve come in all kinds of forms; from adaptations of young adult literature (Hunger Games, Divergent) to visually stunning original works (Oblivion). While we can’t forget a…
Daniel Armando is a director and art director best known for Boys Like You (2011). His MGLFF debut, What it Was, tells the story of Adina, a successful Latina actress who returns to New York after devastating life events, only to find herself lost in a dreamscape. The highly-stylized film…
Club King, directed by Jon Bush, is one of three world premieres at this year’s Miami Gay and Lesbian Film Festival (MGLFF), and it is sure to get a global party started. Bush’s film grants viewers a behind-the-scenes peek into the life of Mario Diaz, the club king known for…
It’s rare that a first-time feature director can make as competent a film as Brooklyn-based Daniel Patrick Carbone with Hide Your Smiling Faces. New York Times critic Stephen Holden compared him to the philosopher-turned-filmmaker Terrence Malick, and it’s not a stretch. His film follows two young brothers who do not…
When Wally Pfister won an Oscar for Inception, his sixth film with Christopher Nolan, he went home and put the statuette on his mantel. “And then it moved to the corner, and then my office, and then the closet because you go away for a few months, and then it…
Consider the space you’re occupying as you read this. It exists because someone you’ve probably never thought about envisioned and created it. So, go home tonight and instead of watching some of the crap that passes for late night TV, catch the public television premiere of Cool Spaces! The Best…
Sometimes it’s helpful to know certain details about how a film has come together. And sometimes it’s just so much information. Transcendence, the directorial debut of Christopher Nolan’s go-to cinematographer, Wally Pfister, was shot on film rather than digitally, as most big Hollywood movies (and nearly all small ones) are…
We’ve been told to never judge a book by its cover, but we always secretly judge a movie by its teaser image. In last month’s Miami International Film Festival program, one image stood out — a man in a royal-blue suit. It was Jude Law as we’ve never seen him…
When Wally Pfister won an Oscar for Inception, his sixth film with Christopher Nolan, he went home and put the statuette on his mantel. “And then it moved to the corner, and then my office, and then the closet because you go away for a few months, and then it…
As its subtitle suggests, one reason Errol Morris’s 2003 documentary The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons From the Life of Robert S. McNamara proved so resonant is that its subject was partly a proxy for his most notorious professional successor, the decidedly less available Donald Rumsfeld. “I don’t do quagmires,”…
Imagine your last one-night stand (and if you’ve never had one, do us heathens a favor and keep your mouth shut). Now imagine how you left. Did you sneak out in the middle of the night? Did you make awkward small-talk over breakfast, then dip? Did you even give them…
It’s rare to find work in television or films that manage not to exploit a character with a developmental disorder. More often than not, every opportunity is taken to remind the audience that they’re not “normal,” and it’s incredibly unfortunate. Writer-director Louise Archambault leaves no question as to her main…
To say people are excited about the return of Game of Thrones is an understatement. More viewers are tuning in to watch the HBO series than ever before. The promise of another colorful wedding is only part of the appeal; the furthering of unexpected relationships and the welcome presence of…
There is something about a terrified Marlon Wayans that America loves. He made the first two Scary Movies, the memorable ones, and a decade later the people demand more of Marlon losing his shit. He returns in fine form for A Haunted House 2, a follow-up to 2013’s found-footage spoof,…
Celebrate the Miami Gay and Lesbian Film Festival’s Sweet 16 starting Friday, May 2, with its opening night feature, The Way He Looks, at the Colony Theatre in South Beach. MGLFF is one of the largest LGBT film festivals around, and this year’s line up proves it. Featuring 64 films…
It’s been 5 million years since humanity hauled itself from the swamp, and according to Joe director David Gordon Green, we’re devolving back into muck. While the stoners of Green’s Pineapple Express regressed from men to boys after a few puffs of weed, this grimly beautiful drama starring Nicholas Cage…
The promise of seeing Scarlett Johansson fully nude is probably enough to lure lots of people into Jonathan Glazer’s alien-among-us fantasy Under the Skin, and the vision doesn’t disappoint: Her figure, seen in long shot, is a grand and glowing thing; she has one of those butts shaped, adorably, like…
A grave has been freshly dug in the opening shot of director Gareth Evans’ ultraviolent Indonesian flick The Raid 2. It’s a start, but Evans is going to need 400 more. In the first few minutes, Evans dispenses with three-quarters of the survivors of 2012’s The Raid: Redemption, the writer/director’s…
As video-on-demand continues to become the preferred route of distribution for a certain kind of independent film, much is being made of Nicolas Cage’s willingness to slum for a paycheck, with recent examples including already-forgotten, small-screen-friendly items like Seeking Justice, Trespass, Stolen, and The Frozen Ground. (His character names in…
Most of you might recognize her as Sheldon Cooper’s equally awkward girlfriend on The Big Bang Theory. Some of you might even pinpoint her for the quirky, ’90s golden child who wore oversized sunflowers on her head from the TV sitcom Blossom. Or, if you really want to throw it…
