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  • Travis Mathews – Discreet (2017)

    2011-2020DramaMysteryQueer Cinema(s)Travis MathewsUSA

    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    Quote:
    From Travis Mathews the acclaimed director of I WANT YOUR LOVE and INTERIOR.LEATHER BAR. comes this eerie and powerful psychological thriller that offers a disturbing insight into the dark heart of Trump’s America.

    Filmmaker and recluse Alex lives in a van. He sets up his camera in rural areas in the US, in the no-man’s land near highways. During a rare visit to his distant mother, she reveals a dark truth hidden since his childhood that threatens to unravel him. Confused and unstable, Alex sets out to confront the looming shadow he has been running from all his life. But as he delves deeper in search of answers, Alex’s grip on reality becomes increasingly more tenuous and before long he finds himself unable to determine right from wrong.Read More »

  • Woody Allen – Don’t Drink the Water (1994)

    1991-2000ComedyUSAWoody Allen

    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    The second film to be made from Woody Allen’s successful stage comedy (following a 1969 feature starring Jackie Gleason), Don’t Drink the Water is a made-for-television adaptation directed by and starring Allen himself. The fish-out-of-water premise remains the same: Allen plays Walter Hollander, a caterer from New Jersey who takes his family on vacation to a fictional Eastern European country. The trip turns sour when, thanks to a series of misunderstandings involving some inopportune snapshots, they are accused of espionage. The family goes on the run, taking refuge in the American Embassy. There, with the help of a wily young diplomat, they try to figure out a way to return to America without sparking an international incident. Though this version is set 25 years later than the original film, the changes are mostly cosmetic: the visual style is hand-held and more frantic, and the script replaces numerous references to the Cold War with a few glancing nods to present-day politics. Another notable change, the addition of an opening montage parodying newsreels, was reportedly the result of network pressure after Allen’s initial cut proved too short for the planned time slot.Read More »

  • Daniel Clowes – Eightball (1989-2004)

    ComicsDaniel ClowesUSA

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    Eightball is an alternative comic book series written and drawn by Daniel Clowes. The first issue was published by Fantagraphics Books in 1989. It has, since the 1990s, consistently been among the best-selling independently authored comics.

    Alienation is a recurring theme in the series. Clowes is also known for nuanced dialog and character delineation that is distinctly at odds with the broad approach stereotypically associated with comics.

    The first extended piece serialized in Eightball was Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron. This work featured a disjointed, surrealistic storyline. Subsequently, Eightball has featured fewer short comedic and surreal stories in favor of longer storylines with more focus on character and interpersonal relationships. Ghost World, released as a graphic novel after being serialized in Eightball, is an example of this later approach. Ghost World was adapted by Clowes into a full-length feature film; Clowes (with his collaborator, director Terry Zwigoff) was nominated for an Academy Award for screenplay writing.Read More »

  • Robert Altman – Short Cuts [+Extras] (1993)

    Drama1991-2000ArthouseRobert AltmanUSA

    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    Quote:
    From two American masters comes a movie like no other

    Quote:
    While helicopters overhead spray against a Medfly infestation a group of Los Angeles lives intersect, some casually, some to more lasting effect. Whilst they go out to concerts and jazz clubs and even have their pools cleaned, they also lie, drink, and cheat. Death itself seems never to be far away, even on a fishing trip.Read More »

  • Ben Safdie & Joshua Safdie – Heaven Knows What (2014)

    2011-2020Ben Safdie and Joshua SafdieDramaUSA

    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    Based on the experiences of Arielle Holmes — a homeless teenager with a ferocious Jersey accent — the film stars Holmes as Harley, a fictionalized version of herself: a heroin-hooked panhandler unable to get either the junk or her wicked boyfriend Ilya (wan Hollywood star Caleb Landry Jones, startlingly unrecognizable) out of her system. Locked into the relentlessly repetitive cycle of the addict’s life — the never-ending search to score, the squabbles with dealers and fellow junkies, the violence ever ready to erupt as either farce or tragedy — she is still driven by a strange (and surely self-destructive) desire for beauty, the explosive moments of rapture that puncture the drabness of her existence.Read More »

  • Robert Z. Leonard – Grounds for Marriage (1951)

    USA1951-1960MusicalRobert Z. LeonardRomance

    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    In the film, Grayson plays Ina Massine, an opera diva, and Johnson is her ex-husband, Dr. Lincoln Bartlett, who is now engaged to Agnes Young (Paula Raymond), the daughter of a doctor. Ina wants Lincoln back and pulls all kinds of shenanigans to get her man. The film was really just an excuse to watch Grayson sing selections from La Bohème, although curiously, she was not the first actress cast in the role. June Allyson had the part but was later replaced. Likewise, Robert Walker was set to play Lincoln Bartlett but was replaced with Van Johnson.
    Read More »

  • Allan Dwan – Sweethearts on Parade (1953)

    1951-1960Allan DwanMusicalUSA

    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    Plot: Ray Middleton and Bill Shirley, Republic Pictures’ answer to Hope and Crosby, star in Sweethearts on Parade. Middleton and Shirley play Cam Ellerby and Bill Gamble, the featured singers in a travelling medicine show. While stopping over in a small town, Cam renews his acquaintance with his former wife Sylvia (Eileen Christy), who now has a pretty, grown-up daughter — Kathleen — played by Lucille Norman. When Kathleen makes noises about a show-business career, Sylvia won’t hear of it — nor does she approve of her daughter’s romance with Bill. One gets the sneaking suspicion that everything will turn out all right in the end for all four protagonists. With 26 songs in the picture, how could things not turn out all right? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie GuideRead More »

  • Robert Altman – Tanner ’88 (1988)

    1981-1990ComedyRobert AltmanTVUSA

    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    Summary: In 1988, renegade filmmaker Robert Altman and Pulitzer Prize–winning Doonesbury cartoonist Garry Trudeau created a presidential candidate, ran him alongside the other hopefuls during the primary season, and presented their media campaign as a cross between a soap opera and TV news. The result was the groundbreaking Tanner ’88, a piercing satire of media-age American politics, in which actors Michael Murphy (as contender Jack Tanner) and Cynthia Nixon (as his daughter) rub elbows on the campaign trail with real-life political players Jesse Jackson, Gary Hart, Bob Dole, Ralph Nader, Kitty Dukakis, and Gloria Steinem, among many others. The Criterion Collection is proud to present the complete eleven-episode television series—more relevant today than ever. Read More »

  • John Huston – The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)

    1941-1950AdventureDramaJohn HustonUSA

    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    Humphrey Bogart plays Fred C. Dobbs, down-on-his-luck American in Mexico—he cadges the odd peso out of friendly passersby and countrymen, just so he can fill his stomach every now and again. He pals around with Curtin (Tim Holt), and after the two of them get cheated out of their wages by an American unethical even by the standards of this film, they exact their revenge, but their pockets are still empty. At the local flophouse, they overhear talk of an old codger called Howard (Walter Huston), who promises that in fact there is gold in them thar hills. If only they had enough scratch to buy the necessaries, they could be making themselves a fortune.Read More »

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