8 years ago
All posts by Dan Schindel
“Jimmy’s Hall”
In Jimmy’s Hall, Irish politics circa the 1930s have set the stage for something like Footloose, though with brogues instead of Kevin Bacon. Based on the real-life tribulations of communist rouser of rabbles Jimmy Gralton (played by Barry Ward), the film follo...
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“Fresh Dressed”
When I began reviewing movies online by watching a documentary every day, I strongly believed that every doc, even not-too-great ones, still had intrinsic, significant worth. “Even if it didn’t move me too much,” I thought, “at least I learned something new." ...
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“The Yes Men Are Revolting”
For over 15 years, activists Jacques Servin and Igor Vamos (aka Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno) have pulled multiple high-profile culture-jamming stunts as the Yes Men. The Yes Men Are Revolting, co-directed by Bichlbaum and Bonanno alongside Laura Nix, is th...
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“A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence”
Together, the three films of Swedish writer/director Roy Andersson’s “trilogy about being a human being” are like a parody of European art cinema brought to life. Each has been a co-production mainly between Scandinavian countries, featuring the whitest white ...
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“When Marnie Was There”
When Marnie Was There may end up being the final work from Studio Ghibli. Hence, there’s a strong temptation for a critic to tie the movie’s themes and story with some sense of finality or closure. But as far as I know, no one making the film was aware of the ...
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How Documentaries and Fiction Films Can’t Handle The Truth
There are many, many hoary quotes one could pull out in regards to the malleability of history, most obviously the one about how it’s written by the winners. But we must acknowledge that the past isn’t an actual, tangible narrative—it’s only what we remember. ...
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“Slow West”
When working in a genre as well-worn as the Western, the temptation is strong to toy with storytelling form. We’ve seen this in efforts as varied as the revisionist Unforgiven (1992) and last year’s parodic A Million Ways to Die in the West. But John Maclean’s...
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“Maggie”
In a grim, vaguely future-ish American Midwest, crops are burned and cities are on lockdown under the threat of a zombie plague. Of course, the word “zombie” is never used, but the audience knows what’s up -- rotted victims shamble around moaning and biting pe...
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“Welcome To Me”
If a mad scientist merged all of Kristen Wiig’s oddest Saturday Night Live personas into one, and then that new being experienced a grand mal cerebral short-circuit, the result would be maybe half as off-kilter as Alice Klieg, the character Wiig plays in Welco...
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“Avengers: Age of Ultron”
The Avengers was a full-blooded event -- its sketchy opening aside, the film truly felt like the culmination of five years’ worth of buildup throughout the then-new Marvel Cinematic Universe. Avengers: Age of Ultron is the team’s obligatory triennial meetup. I...
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