Of all the sick Nazis whose names have gone down in history as an unforgettable reminder of that period’s infamy, surely one of the very worst is the Auschwitz doctor Josef Mengele. One can only imagine this mad “scientist” given thousands of live subjects he could submit at will to his experiments, pulling out eyes, cutting out hearts and other organs without anesthesia, conjoining twins, ... more >
ARCHIVES
The German Doctor
"Wakolda" [Samuel Goldwyn Mayer]
Natalia Oreiro, Àlex Brendemühl and Diego Peretti
Directed by Lucia Puenzo
Blue is the Warmest Color
Quat'sous Films, Wild Bunch
Adèle Exarchopoulos and Léa Seydoux
Directed by Abdellatif Kechiche
PARIS - Abdellatif Kechiche’s new film is well-made, possibly deserving its Palme d’Or at the last Cannes Film Festival, but It. Is. Too. Long. The first hour is breathtaking in its precise description of Adèle (played by the remarkable Adèle Exarchopoulos--PROFILE), adrift in adolescent yearnings and not having found her foothold in the real world, who becomes conscious of her attraction to ... more >
Salinger
An extraordinary tale about an extraordinary author
Philip Seymour Hoffman, Edward Norton and John Cusack
Directed by Shane Salerno
To say that critics have not been kind to Shane Salerno’s “Salinger” is an understatement. They call it subjective to the point of hagiography, bloated and overlong, the ultimate intrusion in the life of an author who lived on the equivalent of a mountaintop in order to be left alone by the myriad fans enthralled for the last two generations by his single book, “The Catcher in the Rye.” ... more >
BRAVO TIFF
A bite-size take on the Toronto Fest that was
Film excellence at the Toronto International Film Festival which ended Sunday was on full display, reminding us why cinema is also called the seventh art, a qualifier a critic can’t always use nowadays. British director Steve McQueen’s superb “12 Years a Slave” which won the prestigious audience award is already a front-runner contender for an Academy Award. Other great films were Geoffrey ... more >
The Patience Stone
The successful film adaptation of the namesake novel
Golshifteh Farahani and Hamid Djavadan
Directed by Atiq Rahimi
The Persian story goes, when your heart is filled with sorrow, find a patience stone or syngué sabour that will listen as you talk to it until it can take no more and bursts into pieces, lifting that weight from your shoulders and leaving you free. This well-known legend has been written up any number of times, including by Iranian novelist Sadegh Chubak, and filmed at least once, in 1968. It is ... more >
Museum Hours
On the power of art to shape our lives
Mary Margaret O'Hara, Bobby Sommer and Ela Piplits
Directed by Jem Cohen
Jem Cohen’s “Museum Hours” is a contemplative, leisurely look at the world of art as a parallel to ours. A loose narrative pulls together the director’s musings on the correspondence between the two. The story, such as it is, introduces us to a Canadian woman (singer Mary Margaret O'Hara) who travels to Vienna to visit a cousin she hasn’t seen in years and who has fallen in a deep coma ... more >
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: STARLET
[Cre Film]
Dree Hemingway, Besedka Johnson and Boonee
Directed by Sean Baker
In the department of gems to discover, “Starlet,” by Sean Baker. Once in a while we’re lucky enough to come upon an excellent film that had somehow slid under our radar screen. I’m thinking “Tiny Furniture,” showered with awards at indie film festivals, written about, lauded but attracting only a small audience. As a writer, I was green with envy when I finally saw it. How can an ... more >
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