Amazing but true stories, alas, seldom make for amazing films. In Juan Antonio Bayona’s eco-disaster flick, the 2004 tsunami that devastated Thailand sets the stage. It strikes not once but twice: first, near the beginning, to…
Seven years ago the photographer James Balog was something of a climatechange skeptic. In his view, nature was far too vast and supreme a force for mere mortals—in their puny insignificance—to have any lasting effect on.…
On April 21, 1989, one day after the attack on the woman known ever since as the Central Park Jogger, mayor Ed Koch proclaimed: “I think that everybody here—maybe across the nation—will look at this case…
Skyping with a cute girl while she removes her shirt can be a turn-on. Doing so while she surgically mutilates herself—not so much (for most people). Both situations occur in “The Sick Thing That Happened To…
To call this “the latest” film from Leos Carax is slightly misleading since that would imply some degree of regularity. (The director has made three features in the last 21 years.) To call it a “love…
Picture this: Chiara Mastroianni catches Milos Forman and Catherine Deneuve in flagrante delicto. Yes, indeed, a bit of selfreflexive playfulness is afoot. Mastroianni’s real-life mother (Deneuve) is playing her onscreen counterpart, while the Czech-born Forman plays…
André Téchiné is no Jean-Jacques Beineix (duh). But there is one curious degree of separation: cult Gallic scribe Philippe Djian wrote the books that became Beineix’s Betty Blue and Téchiné’s latest, Unforgivable. The new film’s plot…
It’s pretty hard to say something bad about Charles Eames—or at least make it stick. This lively, informative, and exceedingly reverent documentary doesn’t really, but it leaves enough suspect dots for the viewer to connect. Apparently, Charles and Ray…
Shortly after arriving at the 15th installment of the Fantasia International Film Festival—Montreal’s beloved three-week freak show—I found myself in a stare-down with Udo Kier. He continued to eye me suspiciously while he wrote down his e-mail address. I…
