I love watching different film adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays for the same reason that I love listening to different jazz musicians improvise off of old standards. The basic elements — whether it’s plot points or musical notes — may be the same, but the distinctive contributions of individual artists give it a particular character which… Read more »
With her mesmerizing debut feature Faya Dayi, Ethiopian-Mexican filmmaker Jessica Beshir returned to her hometown of Harar to document its rural Oromo community of farmers and the harvesting of the khat plant, the country’s most desired export. Photographed in swooning black and white, Beshir’s Oscar-shortlisted film is both a loving tribute to Ethiopia and a… Read more »
When we first find William Douglas Street Jr., he is newly married and thoroughly bored. There’s a drudgery to his life and he finds little enjoyment languishing in cars while his father installs burglar alarms. He also resents living at home with his family still, but he’s stuck with both the job and the domestic… Read more »
Four years ago, the whole world seemed to hold their breath when a group of boys and their soccer coach became trapped in a flooded cave in Thailand. It was an unimaginable, terrifying event to watch unfold, with no guarantee of a happy ending. In their new documentary The Rescue, which was recently placed on… Read more »
Contains some light spoilers, though I try not to give too much away. At first glance, Lamb (Valdimar Jóhannsson, 2021) is a film about grief so powerful it conjures the past into the present. Sheep farmers Maria (Noomi Rapace) and Ingvar (Hilmir Snær Guðnason) sit at their kitchen table, and Ingvar remarks, “They’re saying time… Read more »
Guest post by Dr. Alicia Kozma, Director of IU Cinema. In 1956, film scholar John Twomey surveyed his contemporary film exhibition landscape and noticed a change was taking place: small, independently run theaters across the country were turning away from the usual mainstream film fare, focusing instead on what he termed “films of quality.”[1]… Read more »
