Simplicity. There a few films made today that act upon the word. They instead feel the need to fill space with the unnecessary, oftentimes to mask the problems that lie within the story being told. Mexican Director Gabriel Ripstein’s 600 Millas (600 Miles) takes the simplistic route to produce a film worthy of the art […]
Film Festival
Edinburgh 2015: Richard Gere Puts On An Eccentric Show In ‘Franny’
If you have ever wanted to see Richard Gere (Pretty Woman, The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel) at his eccentric best, watch Franny. Gere stars as the title character Franny, a wealthy philanthropist who has always been a tad outlandish. His behavior becomes altogether erratic after he loses his best friends in a car crash and […]
Edinburgh 2015: The Thought-Provoking Future Of ‘Index Zero’
Italian Director/Screenwriter Lorenzo Sportiello has a very unique vision of the future, as seen in his debut feature film Index Zero. It is the year 2035, and gone are the European Countries we know so well; in their place is the United States of Europe. How this came to be we shall never know. It […]
Edinburgh 2015: Hirschbiegel’s Outstanding WWII Thriller ’13 Minutes’
A mere 13 minutes would have changed the world forever, and one of the greatest atrocities in history could have been avoided. In German director Oliver Hirschbiegel’s (Downfall, Das Experiment) newest film, the WWII-centered thriller 13 Minutes (Elser), he tells the true story of how one man, working alone, tried to change the world in […]
LA Film Fest: ‘Caterpillar’ (‘Kyatapirâ’) (d. Wakamatsu Kōji, 2010)
One of the most satisfying things about film festivals can be the sidebar of retrospectives or, in the case of the LA Film Festival, the intermittent “Films That Got Away”. There was only one such this year, but it was a good one – Wakamatsu Kōji’s follow-up to United Red Army (2007), and his penultimate […]