KAILI BLUES (on Cine-File)

This week over at Cine-File under "Also Recommended," I wrote about Bi Gan's KAILI BLUES. It's Bi-guiling! (See what I did there?) For anyone craving a deep, specific dive into this picture, I commend to your attention an ingenious article called Poetics and the Periphery: The Journey of Kaili Blues by Jiwei Xiao and Dudley Andrew, over at Cineaste. They analyze the film as a kind of "camera obscura," and offer, well, ingenious analyses of its visual and aural rhymes. 

SAINT FRANCES (on Cine-File)

This week, I recommend SAINT FRANCES. Here's hoping it plays in Alabama and Georgia. To check it out, surf the web to Cine-File.

MEETING GORBACHEV (on Cine-File)

A film about a singular figure. I was tickled by the way our Herzog, renowned for his drolly dour teutonic aphorisms, is positively ebullient talking to Gorbachev. There are reasons for that, as we see. To read my writeup, click on over to Cine-File and scroll down to "Also Recommended."

THE WILD PEAR TREE (on Cine-File)

Over at Cine-File, I wrote on Nuri Bilge Ceylan's latest, THE WILD PEAR TREE. I found myself impressed by how Ceylan sustains this dynamic in which the picture seems to wander, while in fact every effect is carefully deployed. Check out my writeup over here, way way down under "Also Recommended."

KNOCK DOWN THE HOUSE at DOC10 2019 (on Cine-File)

This week at Cine-File I recommend KNOCK DOWN THE HOUSE, which kicks off this year's Doc10 Film Festival. Do check this picture out. I don't think it's too much to say that the future depends on groups like Brand New Congress, Justice Democrats...and you and me.