With No Future, All That’s Left is the Past: Paul Schrader’s Oh, Canada

By Jonathan Monovich. An enthralling existential piece by one of cinema’s greatest talents.” Oh, Canada, Paul Schrader’s latest film, continues his ongoing exploration of the transcendental style. Schrader’s monumental book, Transcendental Style in Film: Ozu, Bresson, Dreyer, recognized that cinema and spirituality were interconnected via style, time, and movement. It’s an […]

How Coca-Cola Stole Christmas, 2024

By Gary D. Rhodes. Once upon a time, Coke actually had cocaine in its formula. New ingredient: lumps of coal.” Coca-Cola’s controversial new series of Christmas commercials are literally inhuman, the results of A.I. Human intelligence created artificial flavoring; artificial intelligence created these ads’ “humans” and iconic “polar bears,” as […]

Exploring Collective Fear, with a Solar-Powered Cellphone: Bruce Wemple’s The North Witch

By Andrew Montiveo. Imperfect and occasionally clunky, its slow-boil tension, isolation-driven horror, and cerebral elements make it a compelling watch….” Recently, witches have become conduits for exploring folklore and collective fear, as in The Blair Witch Project (1999), where ambiguity reigns, blurring the lines between reality and myth. These varied […]

Camp with a Heart: Vera Drew’s The People’s Joker (2022)

By Thomas M. Puhr. This is the kind of movie that begs to be experienced in a packed theater, preferably with the smell of marijuana wafting down the aisles. It may very well be this century’s answer to The Rocky Horror Picture Show.” Although only two years have passed since […]

Transport for Survival: Arash Rakhsha’s All the Mountains Give (DOC NYC)

By William Blick. A survivalist story and an unobtrusive, objective gaze into the bleak lives of dedicated, seemingly forgotten people….” In a time when the arts and culture are under assault from all angles, artists find a way to survive and thrive. Such is the case with Kurdish film director, […]