8 years ago
All posts by Dan Schindel
“Truth” is Better Than “Fiction”: Documentaries That Trump Their Fictional Equivalents
Biopics are as beloved by Oscar voters as they are joked about by almost everyone else. And many a thinkpiece has been written about why Hollywood loves biopics, and why so many of them are so very samey. But I come not to mourn the biopic. Nor do I come to bu...
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“V/H/S: Viral”
Anthology film series often dip and peak in quality from one installment to the next, just as each individual anthology features segments of varying quality. Each series is bound to the caprice of film production, as they depend on whatever filmmakers they man...
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AFI Fest Review: “Felt”
Felt might be more vitally of the moment than any other film that people aren't likely to see (though it\ was picked up by Amplify out of AFI, so fingers crossed). Right now, a very necessary conversation about rape culture and the myriad ways that society is ...
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AFI Fest Review: “Girlhood”
There’s a moment around two-thirds of the way through Girlhood where it seems as though the movie is winding up. It isn't. In fact, it goes on for another 30-40 minutes. But every single event that takes place in that time is redundant, in light of what the fi...
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AFI Fest Review: “Wild Tales”
Six films, six twisted tales of vengeance. An Argentine anthology film with a dark sense of humor and a gruesome streak, Damian Szifron's Wild Tales links its six vignettes together through a single, common theme: revenge. Not revenge in the grand, Shakespeare...
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AFI Fest Review: “The Tribe”
At the post-screening Q&A for The Tribe, one Concerned Citizen asked director Miroslav Slaboshpitsky whether deaf people might take the film as an unflattering depiction of their culture. Which immediately calls to mind the similar complaint that a Sundanc...
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“Open Windows”
Open Windows is a found-footage film, although it purports to be something “more.” The movie is built around the gimmick of showing all of its events happening, in their entirety, on a single computer screen. But after the first half-hour or so, all constraint...
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“Why Don’t You Play in Hell?”
Sion Sono originally wrote the script to Why Don’t You Play in Hell? back in the late ‘90s, but it may have ended up being a boon that the film was not made until now. The story deals heavily in nostalgia and broken dreams, and being able to tie that in with t...
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“Force Majeure”
What if you took the premise of the Seinfeld episode “The Fire,” doused it in Scandinavian seriousness (though still with a sense of humor, but of a more wry, subdued flavor), and made it about marriage? That would be an inelegant but accurate descriptor for F...
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