After planetary disaster strikes the planet one naturally turns to country-music for solace. Wouldn't you? I would. The country song used in Jim Jarmusch's "The Dead Don't Die" was written by Grammy-nominated country music singer Sturgill Simpson for the movie and keeps making an encore throughout the film. The song is a mantra, something for the inhabitants of a small American town named ... more >
MOVIES
CANNES FESTIVAL – “The Dead Don’t Die,” a manichean take on our unraveling society
Bill Murray, Adam Driver and Chloe Sevigny
Directed by Jim Jarmusch
PARTING WORDS: “Amazing Grace”
The documentary “Amazing Grace,” the filmed version of an Aretha Franklin concert in a black church, was originally filmed in 1972 by Sidney Pollack. The problem—lack of synchronization between image and sound—that prevented the project from being completed, has finally been fixed thanks to digital technology. That which gives us a superb and moving moment of music and film history and ... more >
WE’RE NOT IN WONDERLAND ANYMORE, ALICE, revisiting the Manson family murders with “Charlie Says” filmmaker Mary Harron
Matt Smith, Hannah Murray, Sosie Bacon and Marianne Rendón
Directed by Mary Harron
Director Mary Harron has had a fascinating journey on her way to the Tribeca Film Festival. Her earlier film “American Psycho” tells the story of a demented killer. “The Notorious Bettie Page” was a historic period piece. With “Charlie Says,” a historic period piece about a demented killer, she’s completed the circle. The story of Charles Manson and his infamous crimes has been told before, ... more >
What everybody ought to know about “Blindspotting”
Daveed Diggs and Raphael Casal
Race, class, social injustice. Our country has struggled with these since forever and cinema provides the means to address issues and heed the call of activism and resistance through art. In these dangerously unstable times “Blindspotting” has led the charge and turned the camera on us. When the film came out last year, it was a striking debut for first-time filmmaker Carlos Lopez Estrada ... more >
Editorial: Happy Birthday, Wes Anderson
Wes Anderson turns fifty today. 50 is a big deal. If you've come this far it probably means one, or both, of two things: (1) you've got awesome survival skills and (2) you're the type of person who looks forward to whatever comes next. I wonder how the passage of time has affected Wes Anderson, our great American filmmaker. Does the spark to create more easily? Or, rather, do he fall into a new ... more >
Editorial: Spielberg spoke. Nobody listened.
In an odd reactionary display, Steven Spielberg had recently called for a change in the Academy Awards eligibility criteria in order to rule out any chance for the streaming platform Netflix to be able to throw nominees in the race for an Oscar. He lost. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), which is responsible for handing down the Oscars, announced last week that it ... more >
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: “Birds of Passage”
Carmiña Martínez, José Acosta and Natalia Reyes
Directed by Cristina Gallego and Ciro Guerra
With "Birds of Passage" Ciro Guerra, alongside co-director Cristina Gallego, continues his work as historiographer of South America. Guerra is known for his previous work, “El Abrazo de la Serpiente” (“Embrace of the serpent” in the Spanish original), in which a shaman from the Amazon teams up with scientists in searching for a sacred healing plant. This is the first time that Gallego goes behind ... more >