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“I GOT A MONSTER”; documentary filmmaker Kevin Abrams on dissecting on film one of the American East Coast’s most egregious police corruption scandals | TALK

Documentary available for streaming and download

When Kevin Abrams started work on his documentary “I Got a Monster” in 2018, he was determined that retelling the story of Baltimore’s corrupt Gun Trace Task Force not traffic in “ruin porn,” a staple of the HBO series “The Wire.” “It’s nicknamed Charm City, and I really got why,” Abrams, a New Jersey native, said from his home in Los Angeles.  “As an East Coast guy, going there and feeling the ... more >

Is there anything more important than cinema?

"Empire of light" gave us a thought to ponder as to what this medium does

Critics have not been kind to “Empire of Light,” the film about cinema.  Sam Mendes’s film is not a “Cinema Paradiso” redux nor, I think, does it aim to be, but comes across as a more unequal treatment of what the medium gives us and has always given us, this immediate entry into our dreams, the world as we see it, remember it, as it affects us, the images that in certain films become so iconic as ... more >

‘Inside’ director Vasilis Katsoupis discusses creating an environment for Willem Dafoe to thrive

Dafoe plays an art thief who becomes trapped inside a luxury penthouse

Willem Dafoe is no stranger to unhinged performances. Perhaps that’s why he plays both creepy and villainous so damn well. But what if a filmmaker were to take that extraordinary talent and energy, and force the Oscar-nominated actor to act alone, essentially portraying a character who is penned up? That’s the starting point for “Inside,” which sees Dafoe’s art thief Nemo become trapped inside ... more >

“It defied everything that you thought about them”; the Cheech Marin “CHAMPIONS” interview

Mush, you filthy huskies
Starring Woody Harrelson, Kaitlin Olson and Matt Cook
Directed by Bobby Farrelly

Cheech Marin loves sports, both in movies and real life. In 1996 he paired up with Kevin Costner for the golf romp “Tin Cup,” and in the weeks to come he will be seen in “The Long Game,” a real-life tale about a young Chicano golf team in Del Rio, Texas, in the fifties. Meantime, Marin is co-starring with Woody Harrelson in “Champions,” a touching basketball comedy in which Harrelson plays a ... more >

The last of Sundance, on the horror tip: “SORCERY”; “IN MY MOTHER’S SKIN”

Foreign language horror double feature

In Christopher Murray’s artfully grim “Sorcery,” justice and revenge walk hand in hand for Rosa (newcomer Valentina Véliz Caileo) after her father is murdered by their employer. The tragic tale unfolds on the island of Chiloe, off southern Chile. Young Rosa is a servant at the house of Stefan (Sebastian Hulk), head of a German immigrant family. One morning Stefan finds his entire flock of sheep ... more >

Sundance: “MURDER IN BIG HORN”

Premieres

Razelle Benally and Matthew Galkin’s harrowing “Murder in Big Horn” sounds an alarm, one that has been going off for decades. So many Indigenous women and young girls from the Cheyenne and Crow Nations have vanished from Montana’s Big Horn and surrounding counties; an area that has been dubbed the most dangerous place for Indigenous women in the U.S. As one woman says, “I fear for my daughter. ... more >

Sundance: “THE STARLING GIRL”

U.S. Dramatic Competition

Coming of age in a strict religious sect, sinners and saints, right and wrong, impossible expectations, unwanted crushes and dangerous love, this is the imperfect storm hitting seventeen year-old Jem Starling (Eliza Scanlen) in writer/director Laurel Parmet’s “The Starling Girl”. A member of a rigid Kentucky fundamentalist Christian community, Jem has given her soul to God and her dedication to ... more >