Conducted every ten years since 1952, the British Film Institute has surveyed film critics, filmmakers, programmers, curators, archivists and academics for their Greatest Films of All Time list. Up until 2012, the vast majority of films in these lists came from the United States, Britain, and Europe, with India being represented only by Satjayit Ray [...]
Who is Joe Badon? Is he the 46th President of the United States? No, that would be Joe Biden. Is he an independent filmmaker based in New Orleans who makes strange films that will change your perception of reality? Yes, that’s who Joe Badon is…a one of a kind original voice in the cinematic landscape [...]
Most biopics about Hollywood icons follow a traditional rise and fall story arc, as we witness the meteoric rise of a star, their inevitable fall, and a cathartic moment of salvation and redemption. With his bold new film “Blonde," based on the Joyce Carol Oates fictional novel of the same name about the life of [...]
When Michael Mann's iconic film "Heat" first came out in 1995, it was critically acclaimed and commercially successful, and went on to influence many subsequent filmmakers. Now, twenty-seven years later, Michael Mann, in collaboration with the Edgar Award winning writer Meg Gardiner, has released the novel “Heat 2,” which is both a prequel and a [...]
“Domains” (2019), directed by Natsuka Kusano, is an innovative and startling examination of the nature of performance in cinema. A single plot summary cannot encompass the many ways in which Kusano dissects the multiple layers of the cinematic medium in her groundbreaking film. “Domains” is about the various degrees of truth and perception which film [...]
Although she is mostly known for her visually extravagant and surreal Broadway theatrical productions and film work, Julie Taymor created a more conventionally structured biopic with her film “The Glorias” (2020). The result is one of her most emotionally resonant works of art, and a further evolution in Taymor's increasingly accomplished cinematic projects. While Taymor's [...]
The German filmmaker Werner Herzog has always been interested in exploring non-Western based cultures, within his larger interest in the tumultuous relationship between nature and man. With his film “Family Romance, LLC” (2019), which is set in Japan with Japanese actors speaking in their own native language, Herzog has once again created a fascinating portrayal [...]
The immigrant experience has been explored before in film, but “Farewell Amor” (2020) takes the cinematic depiction of immigration to new artistic heights. “Farewell Amor” is the feature debut of the Tanzanian-American filmmaker Ekwa Msangi, and it is an astonishingly assured film that recalls the domestic dramas of such cinematic giants as Yasuiro Ozu and [...]
Throughout her filmmaking career, Jane Campion has always examined the theme of societal repression and its effects on an individual, whether it be through the lens of sexuality or psychological issues. While her previous films focused on female characters and their experiences, Campion switches to the male perspective with her staggeringly powerful film “The Power [...]
In an age when so many major films have escalating budgets that rely on soulless, artificial digital CGI effects to tell their stories, it is refreshing when a micro-budget film like Sister Tempest arrives to remind us of the exciting possibilities still inherent in cinematic storytelling. Using a budget that is only a fraction of [...]
