Category: Reviews
Trevor Graham’s Monsieur Mayonnaise: Getting Mora out of History
It will come as no surprise to regular readers that over the last year I’ve become increasingly interested in the films of Australian director Philippe Mora, most particularly his films focused on the representation of history. From Swastika (1974) to Snide and Prejudice (1997), each of Mora’s historically centered works is part of a life-long…
Folksy ‘Pete’s Dragon’ charms with homespun feel
The original Pete’s Dragon was a 70s family musical produced by a different Disney in a different era, complete with singing villagers, a lighthouse, Helen Reddy and a cartoon gentle giant dragon spliced into the landscape of a live action film (taking a page from the Mary Poppins playbook). The film has a fan base…
Reviewing Shemi Zarhin’s The Kind Words: Is Perfection Enough?
How important is scope when determining a movie’s value? I am taunted by this question every time I get into an argument with someone over the relative worth of a virtually perfect smaller movie – say, The Full Monty – and a highly flawed, grand endeavour – say, Gangs of New York. At the risk…
Revisiting Jennifer Chambers Lynch’s ‘Boxing Helena’
David Lynch is an undeniable master of his craft, a true maverick and one the greatest surrealist filmmakers of all time. In 1993 his daughter, Jennifer Chambers Lynch, would attempt to follow in his footsteps with her bizarre and disturbing directorial debut, Boxing Helena. However, after a harsh critical response and poor box office returns…
Matt Wechsler’s Sustainable: Changing the American food system
As the world deals with the ever increasing challenges that come with maintaining the lives of a growing human population (around 7.4 billion people by recent estimates) at the same time that many of the planet’s most populace nations are lifting literally hundred of millions of people out of poverty, the need to find new…