Venice 2025: “Calle Malaga”

There’s a stigma around growing old, isn’t there? A perception that the elderly lack purpose in the absence of a job, lack their full cognitive abilities, lack physicality, lack sensuality. It’s such ageist notions that writer/director Maryam Touzani’s Calle Malaga— both a warm hug and a sorrowful reflection on the passing of time— seeks to […]

Venice 2025: “The Kidnapping of Arabella”

The Kidnapping of Arabella isn’t about a kidnapping— at least, not in the usual sense. For one, the parties involved have their roles reversed. Arabella (Lucrezia Guglielmino, a great find with her crooked smile and discerning squint), the little girl who’s supposedly captured, not only willingly goes with her captor— she begs her to take […]

Venice 2025: “Bugonia”

A banal chamber-piece whose broad critiques of corporate greed, tech-based paranoia, ecological disaster, and humanity’s overall uselessness as a species feel tired and dated on arrival, Yorgos Lanthimos’ Bugonia sits in some gray middle zone of his filmography, merging the uncomfortable humor, off-kilter realities, and distressing violence of his early films (Dogtooth, The Lobster) with […]

Venice 2025: “La Grazia”

Who owns our days? That question is posed by Dorotea (Anna Ferzetti) to her father, Mariano De Santis, the President of the Italian Republic (Toni Servillo), about a quarter of the way through Paolo Sorrentino’s La Grazia, and— following the Italian filmmaker’s established pattern— is repeated several more times throughout the film’s runtime. Sorrentino has […]

Notes on “Red-Headed Woman” (1932)

Below, you can find some of my notes from a brief talk I recently gave preceding a screening of 1932’s Red-Headed Woman at East Central College in Union, Missouri. This was actually the second time I’ve had the chance to present this movie— a true pillar of pre-Code cinema, for many reasons— and it was […]

True/False 2025: “Seeds,” “Deaf President Now!,” “The Track”

Inspiring stories make great fodder for documentaries, and such is the case with the following three films that screened at the 2025 True/False Film Festival: Seeds, a gorgeous and moving portrait of Black farmers in the American South, and Deaf President Now!, a rousing tale of student protest told through a bounty of archival footage, […]

True/False 2025: “The Wolves Always Come at Night,” “The Silence of My Hands,” “Make It Look Real”

Image are an integral part of any movie, but particularly the following three films that screened at the True/False Film Festival in Columbia, Missouri this past week. The Wolves Always Come at Night blends documentary with fiction to craft a haunting and contemplative portrait of a Mongolian family’s past and present lives. The Silence of […]

True/False 2025: “Wishing on a Star”

It’s like something out of a fairytale: the tall tower of a rustic Italian castle framed against a sunny sky. Suddenly, a chair flies out of an open window, crashing to the ground below. Other objects follow: more chairs, and other bits of furniture and knickknacks. Accented by a breezy, horn-driven score, this opening sequence […]

True/False 2025: “Writing Hawa,” “Requiem for a Tribe,” “A Want in Her”

Among the many reasons why the True/False Film Festival, Columbia, Missouri’s annual celebration of the documentary form, is my favorite festival to attend is that it highlights fresh (and frequently side-lined) perspectives. The three films I’ve written about below— Writing Hawa, Requiem for a Tribe, and A Want in Her— all swirl around topics of […]

True/False 2025: “How Deep is Your Love”

It’s funny that so many people are fascinated— perhaps even obsessed— with the notion of looking to the stars to locate life beyond Earth, when 70 percent of our planet is covered with water, the majority of which remains untouched and unseen by humans. That may not be the case for long, however: the alien-like […]