8 years ago
All posts by Dan Schindel
Sundance NEXT Review: ’12 O’Clock Boys’
I've long believed that anything in this world can be made the subject of a good documentary. Yet there are a lot of docs tackling interesting phenomenas that are mildly interesting at best and overlong slogs at worst. Like in all filmmaking, involving an audi...
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History of Film: Terry Gilliam’s ‘Brazil’
Editor's note: Brazil is one of the ten best films of the 1980s voted on by staff, friends, and readers of Movie Mezzanine. For the sake of surprise and building anticipation, we'll wait to reveal where this and every other film ranks on the list until the ver...
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The Wandering, Wondering ‘Prince Avalanche’
Many cinema fans have wondered what happened to the David Gordon Green they knew and loved ever since the indie darling went Hollywood. It turns out he's still around, that more sensitive soul buried under the purveyor of weed jokes and Danny McBride. Prince A...
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‘Blackfish’: An Equally Horrifying and Problematic Documentary
The only reason Blackfish isn't the most disturbing documentary of the year is that this is the year The Act of Killing came out. But while the latter film focused on existential horror of the evil that people are capable of inflicting on one another, Blackfis...
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Outfest Review: ‘Test’
We've all experienced it. Something is off about your body. You can't precisely articulate the problem, but you know there is one. And you're hesitant to get it checked out, because what if the doctor confirms all your darkest, most paranoid suspicions? It's o...
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‘Drug War’ – Johnnie To Plays Gangster Chess
A lot of critics have tossed around the term "genre exercise" (or something similar) in regards to Drug War. It's accurate, but I feel like that phrase is too reductive, and not just when applied to this film, but in general. Think about what it suggests. "Oh,...
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‘Computer Chess’: A Wholly Original Comedy
There's no other movie like Computer Chess. It's an idiosyncratic beast that plays by its own rules and no one else's. Very, very few people are going to like it, but those who do will cherish it forever, and probably keep it alive on the cult circuit for year...
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From Outfest: ‘Who’s Afraid of Vagina Wolf?’, ‘Valencia’ and More
Outfest wraps up today, but reviews of the film will continue to come throughout this week! For now, here are three capsule reviews of various films from the fest that I've seen.
Who's Afraid of Vagina Wolf?
Director Anna Margarita Albelo crafts a semi-autob...
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‘The Act of Killing’: A Maddening and Unforgettable Documentary
The Act of Killing is one of the best documentaries of the year, and I don't ever want to see it again.
Watching this film is both ideologically riveting and morally repulsive. From very early on, I wanted to walk out of the theater, but I couldn't. It'...
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Truth, Facts, and ‘Fruitvale Station’
Film is an exceptional art form to convey truth.
Film is a shoddy art form to convey facts.
Whenever a high-profile film that's based on recent events comes out, without fail, at least a small part of the conversation around the film is devoted to how "t...
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