Monthly Archives: January 2022

Today’s Around the World with Netflix outing is a novel experience — for me, anyway. It’s a Turkish tearjerker. Sentimental and often uncertainly so, “My Father’s Violin (Babamin Kemani)” touches on issues of abuse and poverty, family schisms and family … Continue reading →

Roger DVDSeed spreads a little more cinema to libraries far and wide today, with a MovieNation donation — thanks to IndiePix — of this recent Harriet Tubman documentary. The beneficiary? The downtown library in historic Georgetown, SC, on the Low … Continue reading →

“The Midnight Swim” is a modestly-spooky example of that mumblecore unicorn — “mumblecore horror.” It’s a talk-talk-talk indie drama about the lack of closure when a mother drowns and no body was found, about mythology and reincarnation, all set at … Continue reading →

Getting the French to admit “Journey to Greenland” was inspired by the Steve Coogan/Rob Brydon “The Trip” mockumentaries might be as difficult as filming this series turned into a movie. Because, you know, they filmed it in GREENLAND. Pair up … Continue reading →

Marin Alsop was the only child of two accomplished freelance classical musicians — a violinist and cellist — who gigged all around New York during her childhood. They’re the ones who signed her up for piano lessons as a tyke, … Continue reading →

“Munich: The Edge of War” is a moderately suspenseful piece of historical revisionism, a thriller that dangles an intriguing “What if” in its fresh take on the shameful Munich Agreement, which delayed but did not prevent World War II. Handsomely-mounted … Continue reading →

It’s pitched as an Argentine “Waking Ned Divine,” and one can certainly see a couple of similarities between that beloved comedy and “The Finger (El Dedo).” There’s a death that could play a key role in the future of a … Continue reading →

One thing you could never accuse Michael Winterbottom of is sentimentalism. The British director of “Welcome to Sarejevo,” “24 Hour Party People,” “A Mighty Heart,” and those hilarious “The Trip” movies with Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon specializes in dramas … Continue reading →

Clint Bentley’s debut feature film is an elegiac tribute to the lonely, dangerous and tenuous life of a jockey. Filmed in “magic hour” glow, with almost every scene a beautifully backlit postcard, “Jockey” makes a fine star vehicle for one … Continue reading →

Justice in a controlling, secretive, theocratic oligarchy can be a slippery thing, and is every bit as fraught as one fears in “Photocopier,” a tightrope-walking thriller from Indonesia. It’s a film that gives an almost nodding assent to the Muslim … Continue reading →