A personal journal of film and documentary reviews, and reviews of anything else that intrigues me.
Nora Barrows-Friedman, “Why ‘Wonder Woman’ is Banned in Lebanon” (Electronic Intifada, 8 June 2017) With every passing year, the commercial movie industry in the United States,…
Hirokazu Kore-eda, “Shoplifters / Manbiki Kazoku” (2018) In this slow realist drama about an impoverished family in Tokyo, surviving by its wits through a combination of…
Clayton Swisher, “The Lobby (Episode 4: The Takedown)” (Al Jazeera, 2017) In the last episode of Qatar TV station Al Jazeera’s series on Israeli infiltration of…
Clayton Swisher, “The Lobby (Episode 3: An Anti-Semite Trope)” (Al Jazeera, 2017) In this third episode of the four-part series focusing on the Israeli government’s infiltration…
Northern European Films, South African Films
Jean van de Welde, “An Act of Defiance” (2017) Quite a hard-hitting and confrontational film this historical drama on the incidents and trial that sent political…
Ford Beebe, “The Invisible Man’s Revenge” (1944) It could have been an interesting character study about various individuals’ motivations and greed, and how far they’re prepared…
Clayton Swisher, “The Lobby (Episode 2: The Training Session)” (Al Jazeera, 2017) Continuing on from Episode 1 “Young Friends of Israel”, in this episode Al Jazeera’s undercover…
Italian and Italian-language Films
Lucio Fulci, “Don’t Torture a Duckling / Non si sevizia un paperino” (1973) Fret not, no ducklings, nor indeed any animals, were harmed in the making…
Clayton Swisher, “The Lobby (Episode 1: Young Friends of Israel)” (Al Jazeera, 2017) In recent years, a movement known as the BDS (Boycott, Divest, Sanction) movement…
Bryan Singer, “Bohemian Rhapsody” (2018) Astonishingly, given the rich source material and the fact that so many people are knowledgeable (or fancy themselves to be) about…