INVISIBLE BEAUTY – Documentary Review
Invisible Beauty is a thoroughly engaging autobiography documentary by and about Bethann Hardison, the Black fashion model, modeling agency owner and activist who challenged racist attitudes and practices in the fashion industry and changed ‘the look’ of runway shows, magazine spreads and other platforms for fashion marketing.
Read MoreBELLA! – Documentary Review
Bella! And, yes, be sure to include the exclamation point in the film’s title because the subject of Jeff L. Leiberman’s well researched and beautifully crafted documentary deserves emphatic punctuation. Bella Abzug (1920-1998) was a champion of civil rights for women in every aspect of our lives. She was the feminist activist politician who fought fiercely to enact laws to establish and protect equity in the workplace, in government representation, in family matters — all of the women’s civil rights that we are now at such high risk of losing in our nation’s current regressive climate.
Read MoreSUSIE SEARCHES – Movie Review
Susie Searches is an enjoyably affable coming of age thriller about a teenage girl who is known for her uncanny ability to solve seemingly unsolvable crimes, and who shares the details of her her super sleuth searches and suspicions on her popular podcast. She’s also determined to further investigations by the local sheriff’s office where she is an intern. But, up close and personal, Susie is actually rather shy and, wrapped up in the coming of age issues of self esteem and teenage sexual curiosity, she hides her vulnerability behind a smile that shines through aqua-colored braces.
Read MoreREVOIR PARIS – Movie Review
Alice Winocour’s beautifully rendered Revoir Paris is a compelling drama centering on Mia (Virginie Efira), a woman who is trying to process a calamity and recover from the trauma of having witnessed and survived a terrorist attack in a popular — hence crowded– Paris bistro. The film is a fascinating study of grief that focuses on how to recover from trauma and move on. Director Alice Winocour, who co-wrote the script, and the wonderful Virginie Efire, who plays Mia, do a brilliant job of engaging viewers in timely contemplation about the shattering consequences of terrorism — on those who survive.
Read MoreCHILE ’76 – Movie Review
Chile ’76 is a powerful political thriller. This first feature by actor-turned-director Manuela Martelli, who also co-wrote the script with Alejandra Moffat, is set in the atmosphere of dread that swept over Chile during the 1970s as the repressive measures of the Pinochet dictatorship became harsher and harsher day by day. The compelling story centers […]
Read MoreHILMA – Movie Review
Hilma is a sumptuous truth-based period drama that chronicles the life and work of Swedish artist Hilma aft Klint (1862 – 1944). Hilma was a brilliant and innovative artist whose abstract paintings preceded those of the better-known Russian painter Wassily Kandinsky (1866 – 1944), who has, until recently, been credited by art historians with the invention of abstract art.
Read MoreALI & AVA – Movie Review
While focusing on the very relatable human needs of Ali and Ava, the ever-masterful Barnard expresses and explores gripping socially relevant issues revolving around loneliness and grief, aging and personal transformation, ethnic prejudices, fidelity and the unfulfilled needs of the working class. It all adds up to a thoroughly engaging and rewarding watch.
Read MoreMovie Review: SKIES OF LEBANON
Skies of Lebanon opens the mind to deep consideration of the invasive impact that war and social strife have on families who work hard to contribute to society and, in return, just want to live in peace. Thanks to its genre-defying style, it is a lot of fun while it’s being quite serious in touching on themes that are currently relevant around the world, as well as right here, at home. The film is a must see.
Read MoreFANNY: THE RIGHT TO ROCK – Documentary Review
Fanny: The Right to Rock is filmmaker Bobbi Jo Hart’s completely captivating documentary about the first all-girl hard rock band, Fanny, and how this sisterhood of talented and tenacious Filipina women musicians almost became the female equivalent of The Beatles.
Read MoreMovie Review: LANGUAGE LESSONS
Language Lessons is a pandemic inspired two-character, two-location, two-screen, zoom-tech, dramedy born of the pandemic and imposed isolation, and produced during the lockdown. It is a film that reflects many of the personal issues brought on by the pandemic, but it is not about the pandemic per se — and that makes it a very special and utterly engaging entertainment.
Read MoreBRING YOUR OWN BRIGADE – Documentary Review
Bring Your Own Brigade is filmmaker Lucy Walker’s courageous and compelling documentary about an extremely hot topic: the ongoing inferno of wildfires in Southern California and elsewhere on the West Coast and, by extension, across the nation. Walker’s eye witness camera captures close up images of the uncontrolled fires cutting through affluent communities in wide paths of devastating destruction. She follows local residents who are fleeing their homes on car-congested bands of blacktop cutting through raging flames and she records up close and personal accounts of survivors whose property was miraculously spared and others who lost all of their worldly goods to the to the rampaging blaze.
Read MoreREBEL HEARTS – Documentary Review
Rebel Hearts is a compelling from-the-heart documentary that follows The Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, a sisterhood of devoted nuns who bravely stood up to the demeaning and oppressive patriarchy of the Catholic Church to fight for the right to be treated as equals, especially with regard to education and the expression of their credo through art, particularly the controversial graphics of Sister Mary Corita Kent.
Read MoreTHE ORPHANAGE Movie Review
A most compelling second feature from Afghan writer/director Shahrbanoo Sadat, The Orphanage had its first screening at Cannes Film Festival in 2019. It is the second installment in a planned cinema pentalogy that is based on the unpublished diaries of Iranian actor/writer Anwar Hashimi, who also plays a supporting character in The Orphanage. The film’s prequel, Wolf and Sheep, was also scripted by […]
Read MoreDocumentary Review: CODED BIAS
We might all be in need of and very keen on watching escapist comedies during the ongoing pandemic social restrictions, but this compelling documentary is an important and timely film. Knowledge is power, and Coded Bias delivers knowledge that can help us to resist/reverse the further deterioration of democracy and of human civilization as we know it.
Read MoreINTERVIEW – Miranda de Pencier on THE GRIZZLIES
Canadian filmmaker Miranda de Pencier is an award-winning actress, producer and director. She’s the founder of Northwood Entertainment. The Grizzlies, which premiered at TIFF and for which she won the DGC Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement, is her feature film directorial debut. She discusses making the film, the need for authenticity and the current status of women in film.
Read MoreMovie Review: THE GRIZZLIES
Canadian filmmaker Miranda de Pencier’s The Grizzlies, a truth-based sports narrative set in the Canadian arctic, is a story centered around the experiences of a recently graduated White teacher, Russ, working his first job as a high school history teacher in the isolated Inuit town of Kuluktuk, where the hardships of life far exceed its joys.
Read MoreMovie Review: MR. JONES
Agnieszka Holland’s Mr. Jones is not only an engaging and timely history lesson about the Soviet sanctioned Holodomor in Ukraine, it is also compelling reminder of the crucially important role that a legitimate, accurate and accountable free press plays in monitoring and mitigating events that impact the world’s well being.
Read MoreDILILI IN PARIS – Movie Review
The film’s writer/director Michel Ocelot’s distinctive style of animation and exposition has a simplicity and fluidity that allows for a beautifully rendered tour of Paris’ well known tourist spots, as well as the introduction of the leading cultural figures of the day and a surprising roster of other cultural references. And, all the while, there’s the mystery of the Male Masters, whose political leanings and agenda are, we learn, threateningly right wing and anti-female.
Read MoreReview: ASK FOR JANE
Ask For Jane is a must see film for women and for the men who truly love and respect us. It is essential viewing for those of us who were around pre-Roe v Wade and who fought for abortion rights and for younger women who’ve benefited from that struggle and are now at risk of having to go through the fear and anguish associated with being denied the right to choose.
Read MoreDocumentary Review: ASK DR. Ruth
Ryan White’s Ask Dr. Ruth is a thoroughly charming and entertaining biodoc about Dr. Ruth Westheimer, America’s famously beloved sex therapist. She has been a public figure for decades, but her personal story is actually full of surprises.
Read MoreMovie Review: WINE COUNTRY
Wine Country, a Netflix original directed by Amy Poehler and scripted by Liz Cackowski and Emily Spivey, stars Poehler, Rachel Dratch, Maya Rudolph, Maya Erskine, Tina Fey, Emily Spivey, Ana Gasteyer and Paula Pell in a thoroughly femme-centric turn at the familiar buddy road trip trope.
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