Chagall-Malevich ★★★½ / ★★★★★ Director: Aleksandr Mitta ShiM-Film (Official Site) 117 Minutes Release Date: June 12, 2015 (limited) – “An artist should have his own world,” declares Marc Chagall in writer-director Aleksandr Mitta’s vibrant and playful Chagall-Malevich. Focusing on the first years of the Russian Revolution, this fictional account follows Chagall, played by the handsome…
Desire for Beauty ★★★✫✫ Director: Miguel Gaudêncio Green Box (Official Site) 91 Minutes Available at Vimeo On Demand – Several months after shooting for Desire for Beauty (2013) wrapped, actress and host Agata Kulesza, at the head of the table during a swanky dinner party for cast and crew, says that when she was approached…
Down, But Not Out! ★★★★✫ Director: Miguel Gaudêncio Greenbox (Official Site) 71 Minutes Available at Vimeo On Demand – Shot in gritty black and white and unafraid of its own silence, the amateur boxing documentary Down, But Not Out! has a compelling neo-noir feel. Following a small local group of boxers to a two-day competition…
Generation Baby Buster ★★★½ / ★★★★★ Director: Terra Renton Cinema Libre (Official Site) 91 Minutes On DVD and On Demand starting June 9, 2015 – When I had my first serious boyfriend in high school, I discovered that my parents had been secretly following me around on our dates. I started to see them parked…
After years of small roles in exploitation flicks, Pam Grier finally hit it big with the blaxploitation classic Coffy (1973). Written and directed by Jack Hill, who had directed Grier in low-budget flicks before, Coffy to modern eyes looks far less empowering than it does exploitative. Grier spends a significant amount of time in the…
Once again digging into their television vaults, Warner Archives brings us the complete first season of the surprise 2003 Fox comedy hit “Wanda at Large,” now out on DVD. Starring comedian Wanda Sykes as Wanda Hawkins, an outrageous stand-up comedian and local television personality in Washington, D.C., “Wanda at Large” was known for its combination…
It’s 2050, and creepy priest Father Clifford (Martin Short), at a location meant to look like a Christian orphanage, is talking young Roger (Ben Savage) out of running away. He understands that Roger is running away because something-something-intelligence-boredom, thus begins a heartfelt tale of his own struggles to deal with an overactive imagination when he…
Deep Web ★★★✫✫ Director: Alex Winter EPIX (Official Site) 90 Minutes Premieres at 8:00 PM Eastern Sunday, May 31st on EPIX – On Friday, Ross Ulbricht, the founder of the Silk Road, a so-called “hidden” site on the Deep Web that specialized in selling hard drugs and illegal services, was sentenced to life in prison…
Results ★★★½ / ★★★★★ Director: Andrew Bujalski Magnolia Pictures (Official Site) 105 Minutes Release Date: May 29, 2015 (limited) – Disheveled millionaire Danny (Kevin Corrigan) turns to Power 4 Life, the local fitness center owned by the buff and seemingly together Trevor (Guy Pearce), ostensibly to learn how to take a punch. Bored and lonely,…
The infamous 1983 film Yellowbeard, a zany spoof of adventure-packed swashbucklers of yesteryear, is known for its unbeatable cast and unbearable lack of humor. Meant to be a wacky smash-up of classic British and American humor, instead it’s a schizophrenic whirlwind of confusion and mayhem. The bad kind of mayhem, unfortunately, the kind that happens…