Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts Mouly Surya (director and writer), Rama Adi and Garin Nugroho (writers), Yunus Pasolang (cinematographer), Kelvin Nugroho (editor) Marsha Timothy, Dea Panendra, Egy Fedly, Yoga Pratama (cast) September 7, 2017 (Toronto International Film Festival 2017), May 24, 2017 (Cannes Film Festival) Warning: Spoilers Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts is described as an Indonesian contemporary feminist…
Backlight: TIFF, Hellboy Casting, and the State of Women in Hollywood
TIFF 2017: Great Films and the Famous Descend on Toronto Megan and I covered some of the films at TIFF 2017, so you can check out the reviews on the site. The festival is usually really great at being organized and making the process of purchasing tickets not a terrible experience. That said, this year…
A Fantastic Woman Is Fantastic
A Fantastic Woman Sebastián Lelio (director), Benjamín Echazarreta (cinematographer), Soledad Salfate (editor) Daniela Vega, Francisco Reyes, Luis Gnecco, Aline Kuppenheim, Nicolas Saavedra, Amparo Noguera, Nestor Cantillana, Antonia Zegers, Sergio Hernandez (cast) Released February 12, 2017 (Berlin), April 6, 2017 (Chile) Marina and Orlando enjoy a night out to celebrate their relationship, which is only a…
Professor Marston and the Wonder Women Is Not Wondrous
Professor Marston and the Wonder Women Angela Robinson (director and writer), Bryce Fortner (cinematographer), Jeffrey M. Werner (editor) Luke Evans, Rebecca Hall, Bella Heathcote, JJ Feild, Oliver Platt, Connie Britton (cast) September 9, 2017 (TIFF), October 13, 2017 (USA) I met Angela Robinson, writer and director of Professor Marston and the Wonder Woman, at San…
Angels Wear White Is Sun-Drenched Modern Day Noir
Angels Wear White Vivian Qu (director and writer), Benoît Dervaux (cinematographer), Hongyu Yang (editor) Wen Qi, Zhou Meijun, Shi Ke, Peng Jing, Geng Le and Liu Weiwei (cast) September 9, 2017 (Toronto International Film Festival 2017), September 12, 2017 (London Film Festival) My first screening at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival was quite the experience. This…
Tim League’s Redemption of Devin Faraci
Eleven months ago, after accusations of harassment were leveled against him, Devin Faraci resigned from his Editor-in-Chief post at Birth.Movies.Death. It was a quintessential “life comes at you fast” moment, wherein the allegations against Faraci were brought up specifically in response to his public condemnation of then-Presidential nominee Donald Trump’s statements about assaulting women. Prior to…
mother! Is Unbearably Corny
mother! Darren Aronofsky (director and writer), Matthew Libatique (cinematographer), Andrew Weisblum (editor) Jennifer Lawrence, Javier Bardem, Ed Harris, Michelle Pfeiffer September 5, 2017 (Venice), September 15, 2017 (USA) There are three ideas in mother! and they’re all garage sale specials, ground so well trod by Hollywood that the film’s last minute twist is both guessable early…
Presenting Dark Horse: Lady Killers, Lifeforms, and Hellboy
Welcome to the second installment of Presenting Dark Horse! First, I’d like to give a hearty hello to my new readers, who are surely eager to learn more about this esteemed comics publisher (if you need a quick introduction, check out my first post). Second, here’s a special shoutout to all the poor souls I’ve…
Backlight: Black Films And TV Shows To Shout About
This week gave us lots of announcements and news on amazing projects from all over the world. We heard progress updates on a bunch of projects from black creative teams, plus exciting Oscar news and queer film trailers.
Three Generations of Redemption in Hotel Salvation
Hotel Salvation (Mukti Bhawan) Shubhashish Bhutiani (director), Manas Mittal (editor), David Huwiler, Michael McSweeney (cinematography) Shubhashish Bhutiani and Asad Hussain (writers) Lalit Behl, Adil Hussain, Palomi Ghosh (cast) Released April 7, 2017 (India), August 25, 2017 (UK) Hotel Salvation (Hindi: Mukti Bhawan) is a slow, comic portrayal of grief, death, and letting go. This Indian film by…
SSFX Film Festival Is Finding The Humanity In Sounds From Space
The SSFX Film Festival has a compelling concept: the festival showcases several short films inspired by–and featuring–sounds from space. The festival is part of an astronomy and physics project at Queen Mary University of London, where sounds from space have been recorded. Dr Martin Archer, festival director and space physicist, tells the audience all about…
38 Films Directed by Women of Colour at TIFF 2017
It’s that time of year again! The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) is gearing up for another round of great films. I’ve been attending the festival since 2012 (except 2016 but that was mostly due to strep), and I’ve been tweaking the types of films I plan to see with my limited time and funds….