Adrián García Bogliano’s SCHERZO DIABOLICO can best be described as a near-perfect engine of human cruelty. Any other attempt to qualify it within the terms of established genre traditions are futile. Is it an abduction procedural? A psychological character study of a criminal à la John McNaughton’s HENRY: PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER (1986)? A female revenge thriller? SCHERZO DIABOLICO is all ... more >
Archives for April 2015
ARCHIVES
TFF2015 | SCHERZO DIABOLICO, “a screenplay as airtight as a Hitchcock thriller”
A US/Mexico production
Francisco Barreiro, Daniela Soto Vell and Jorge Molina
Directed by Adrián García Bogliano
TFF2015 | WE ARE YOUNG, WE ARE STRONG
Currently showing at the 2015 Tribeca Festival
On August 24, 1992 the German city of Rostock was slammed by a wave of xenophobic riots which culminated in the burning of a residential building housing over 120 Vietnamese immigrants. Known as “The Night of Fire,” it was a defining moment in post-reunification German history. 23 years later, Burhan Qurbani reconstructs the events of that terrible night with his film We Are Young. We Are Strong. ... more >
TALKING MOVIES | THE ROAD WITHIN, gentle comedy about affliction
[2014]
Zoë Kravitz, Robert Sheehan and Dev Patel
Directed by Gren Wells
On Friday Gren Wells's "The Road Within," a low-key dramedy about affliction adapted from the 2010 German film "Vincent Goes to Sea," opened in New York and Los Angeles. It stars the young, promising Irish actor Robert Sheehan as a teenager stricken with Tourette's, whose cold-hearted father (Robert Patrick of "Terminator 2": Judgment Day") installs him in a mental clinic after his mother dies. ... more >
TFF2015 : Laura Bispuri’s SWORN VIRGIN (from the FEATURE NARRATIVE section)
Original title: "Vergine Giurata" [Vivo Films]
Alba Rohrwacher, Emily Ferratello and Lars Eidinger
Directed by Laura Bispuri
Laura Bispuri's SWORN VIRGIN ("vergine giurata" in the original italian title) feels incomplete, a partial film missing a final reel. SWORN centers on Hana (Alba Rohrwacher), a young Albanian woman who invokes the traditional right for females to become honorary males known as “burrnesh” in exchange for taking an oath of virginity. Years later Hana, now known as "Mark," flees the countryside to ... more >
ASIF KAPADIA’S AMY, TODD HAYNES, GUS VAN SANT … CANNES SELECTION UNVEILED!
This year’s Cannes Selection was announced this week during a press conference held here in Paris and in fact features a less american-centric selection of films than in years past. That’s not to say Cannes's programmers haven't indulged a little of their flair for filmmakers representative of the commercially-viable but frankly-independent fringe "made in USA": two of our best filmmakers alive ... more >
FILM BY A FRENCHWOMAN FILMMAKER TO OPEN THE CANNES FESTIVAL
For the first time in its history a female director will open the Cannes Festival. "La Tête haute," ("head held up high" in the original French) a film by a Frenchwoman, Emmanuelle Bercot, will open the 68th edition of the Cannes Festival, according to the press release received just moments ago from the festival's press office. "La Tête haute" is a coming-of-age story about a juvenile ... more >
ROSS KATZ’S ADULT BEGINNERS comes out at the end of the month
I'm sorry, but any movie with Nick Kroll in it gets instant props where I'm concerned: the guy's hilarious, and probably won't disappoint in the upcoming Ross Katz-directed film ADULT BEGINNERS, slated for release in theaters, on-demand and iTunes on April 24th. Kroll plays a hipstrepreneur who crashes and burns on the eve of his company’s big launch. With his life in disarray he leaves Gotham to ... more >