AltWeeklies Wire
An Algerian immigrant teaches Canadian children in Monsieur Lazharnew
The film is a tale of healing—for the children, who despite their material comfort are suffering from emotional neglect, and for Lazhar, who is applying for political asylum after suffering a terrible trauma in Algeria.
Tags: Monsieur Lazhar
Whit Stillman returns with Damsels in Distressnew
When Stillman's first film appeared in 1990, he was hailed as New York's WASP answer to Woody Allen. His movies reflect a conservative New England sensibility, of private schools, good manners, and unfashionable social and political opinions argued eloquently and amusingly.
The Kid With a Bike is a moving tale from the great Dardenne brothersnew
While I'm grateful for any opportunity to see a film by les Dardennes, this latest makes me wonder if they've become risk-averse.
Strikingly similar stories from Israel and Japan in Footnote and Jiro Dreams of Sushinew
One is a fiction feature from Israel; the other is a documentary about a Tokyo sushi chef. The dissimilarities end there. Both films feature an aging father and a middle-aged son, and both depict the lifelong obsession of the older man and the pitfalls of passing the torch to his heir.
Tags: Jiro Dreams of Sushi
Ross McElwee talks his latest film, his Full Frame program and his sonnew
"Savor the experience of sitting in that dark room with other strangers and relating to a world that is not completely your own—in some ways, the opposite of Facebook."
INDY Week |
Craig D. Lindsey |
04-15-2012 |
Profiles & Interviews
For Jesse Owens, What Happened After the Olympics Is Its Own Storynew
The son of Alabama sharecroppers and grandson of a slave, Jesse Owens won a record four gold medals at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin. Five months later, he was racing a gelding for money on a dirt track in Cuba.
Polish film In Darkness Digs Deeper into WWII anti-Semitismnew
In Darkness is an unhappy portrait of humanity flailing about in the sewers, and things didn't get much worse than Poland and Ukraine in 1943: Virtually all of the 200,000 Jews in the vicinity of Lvov were annihilated.
Health Care's Problems, and Possible Solutions, in Two Filmsnew
While we wait for the Supreme Court to declare whether the Affordable Care Act is constitutional, The Waiting Room and Escape Fire remind us that our health care system is an enormous scam and scandal of very long standing.
Tags: The Waiting Room
Every parent's nightmare in We Need to Talk About Kevinnew
The bulk of Kevin is art house horror; Swinton confers its humanity.
The human beast in Bullhead and Thin Icenew
The Belgian crime drama Bullhead, which was among this year's foreign film Oscar nominees, is as clumsy and misshapen as its unfortunate protagonist, a bulked-up cattle farmer and gangster named Jacky Vanmarsenille.
Documentary filmmakers investigate Frank Matthews, 1970s East Coast heroin kingpin and Durham nativenew
"You almost get the impression in Durham that people think he's on the outskirts of town, waiting to hear something bad about him and he's gonna come in and do something."
African Diaspora Film Festival seeks perspective on hip-hopnew
"We want this to be an opportunity for people to talk about not only the positive impact of hip-hop, but also things that aren't so positive about that experience." — Sheila Smith McKoy, director of the NCSU African American Cultural Center
A metaphor that's all too easy to follow in Salmon Fishing in the Yemennew
The only way to appreciate this movie about going against the current is to value how effortlessly it flows in exactly the direction you'd expect.
Prolonged adolescence in Jeff, Who Lives at Homenew
In the second mainstream release from the Duplass brothers, the pieces fit conveniently together; but when the puzzle is so easy, that's not much of an accomplishment.
Tags: Jeff, Who Lives at Home
Not Your Reagan-era 21 Jump Streetnew
This remake is more deconstruction than devotion, and if you don't believe me, wait and see how it handles a particular high-profile cameo.
