Before we dive into the narrative of Lou Pearlman, a pop music kingmaker who built his empire on a Ponzi Scheme, there is something I need to mention about Netflix’s three-part docuseries “Dirty Pop: The Boy Band Scam.” Technology is advancing; hence, non-fiction filmmaking has to be subjected to more and more scrutiny. That leaves …
This is a drama set at a conference for “thought leaders,” called “The Way We Speak” in which its cameras zoom into a few individuals who are entering an intellectual arena of combat that is accompanied by personal difficulties that are capable of breaking down them. There is no weak link in the acting. It …
I haven’t had a drink in almost fifteen years, and during the last days of my drinking champagne certainly wasn’t doing the job for me anymore. So upon being called to consider Widow Clicquot movie, I feel a little like a more extreme version of Dos Equis’ “Most Interesting Man in the World” character, who …
When some of us think about a holiday in the Mediterranean, we would rather dream of the beautiful blue-green transparent waters that it boasts, the idyllic coastal towns and the kind of sea food you can walk to. That might be what led lead singer John Allman (Harry Connick Jr.) into a delightful rest in …
In August 2021, when the U.S. pulled out of Afghanistan, the world could hardly miss the international press coverage of this massive event which gave back power over the country to Taliban. The story did not end after the last plane had gone and journalists had returned home. This is where Ibrahim Nash’at came in: …
It is very clear that Kei Chika-ura’s “Great Absence” is a personal film of his own, the kind of drama where one feels a connection to the material in its subtlety. Anyone who has lived through watching their parents deteriorate will recognize something in Chika-ura’s movie, it can at times feel indulgent in terms of …
Mc Carthy’s first movie titled Caveat is just as disconcerting. Furthermore, his subsequent film titled Oddity has even been more unsettling. He creates a creeping sense of dread and sheer terror sometimes by pointing the camera at a door that is slightly open in Caveat. Mc Carthy knows how to wait for it. He doesn’t …
In just two minutes into “Lady in the Lake,” one of the main characters dies. She eventually goes under the water as she is thrown by an unidentified man into a lake. Although Cleo is dead, her monologue through voiceover shows that she will live on as a ghost in this tale and those who …
In 2020, Luke Gilford released National Anthem, a monograph on the queer population in the International Gay Rodeo Association. His pictures are arresting and exquisite. A Southwest native himself, Gilford’s childhood love for rodeos faded as he grew up because the macho and often homophobic culture did not seem to afford him an opportunity to …
Among other things, Brian Eno is a pioneer in what’s called “generative art.” He began working as an artist in the field while playing for Roxy Music, where he was then a rock star. While he made many boomy noises on his early synths with those chaps; speaking of tapes, according to this interesting documentary …
