Review: "The Fabelmans" is a 'love letter to cinema' done right

by Cláudio Alves

Around the holiday season of 1952, a Jewish couple takes their son to the movies in New Jersey. It's his first time watching a picture on the big screen, and the experience will change him forever. As Cecil B. DeMille's The Greatest Show on Earth unravels at 24 frames per second, the kid's eyes watch everything in starry awe, growing fearful as a massive train crash marks the narrative's climactic set piece. In the coming days, he'll ask for a trainset as his Hanukah present, growing obsessed with restaging the calamity he saw projected big on that magical place, the movie screen. So he doesn't ruin the expensive toy with multiple crashes, his mom suggests the boy films the crash with the dad's 8mm camera. And thus begins a love story bigger than life itself.

In reality, the boy's name was Steven Spielberg. In this latest memory play turned film fantasy, or private secret elevated to public spectacle, he's Sammy Fabelman…

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The glorious Danielle Deadwyler in "Till"

by Nathaniel R

Danielle Deadwyler in "Till"

Often times Oscar buzz arrives before a performance seen on the basis that the role will be a) meaty b) important-feeling and c) feature typically awards-friendly elements. There's a reason this happens frequently. Voters of all awards bodies, not just the Academy, are sometimes guilty of awarding the role in question rather than thinking about what the actor actually did with their big opportunity. The unfortunate byproduct of this is that sometimes, no matter how much an actor elevates it, people might assume "well, it was the role". In these scenarios even the enthusiasm around the performance can feel a little rote because it's expected. It arguably happens with most biopic roles now. The role of Mamie Till-Mobely, the mother of Emmett Till who channeled her grief at her son's murder into Civil Rights activism, meets all those pre-release requirements for buzz and a likely nomination even if Danielle Deadwyler hadn't been incredible. The very good news is that she most definitely is...

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Review: Skolimowski's "EO" is a miracle!

by Cláudio Alves

Can donkeys dream of heaven? One hopes so, for they need not search for hell in sleepy fantasy – they live it every day, wide awake. A world defined by human cruelty demands dreams of something better, something beyond the pain. Is it peace, love, a state of joy? Maybe it's red.

EO all starts in red. Bathed in scarlet light, skin touches fur, human hands over the animal's body, a trance-like choreography that's both intimate and public. There's a closeness to these touches that transcends their physical softness, a beauty that's more than mere performance for circus audiences – it's that heaven we spoke about, but maybe it's hell, too. Red will linger, a memory, perhaps a reverie. Dreams are nightmares by another name, and so is EO, both nightmare and dream right from the beginning…

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Streaming: Argentina’s Oscar Submission ‘Argentina, 1985’

By Abe Friedtanzer

One of the benefits of screening selections for Best International Feature is not only to see different worldwide approaches to filmmaking but also to get to understand national histories. European entries, for instance, often engage with the Holocaust, while a finalist from a few years ago, Truth and Justice, was based on a highly influential book in Estonia known throughout that country. Argentina, 1985, now streaming on Amazon Prime, confronts a more recent period in that nation’s history, documenting an unprecedented reckoning with the crimes of its military leaders in a trailblazing civil case.

Ricardo Darín, a familiar face from Argentinian cinema and its recent nominees, The Secret in their Eyes and Wild Tales, stars as Julio César Strassera, the lead prosecutor in the Trial of the Juntas. It was an undesirable assignment given the extraordinary influence of the military dictatorship that had only recently been replaced by a new democratic government...

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AFI Fest: Guillermo Del Toro dazzles with his take on “Pinocchio”

by Eurocheese

One of the most exciting debuts of the festival was Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio. The first thing that stands out about his adaptation, unsurprisingly, is the stunning visuals. Imagine a puppet show with a lush background where frames are so beautiful, singled out shots could easily serve as postcards. Well known characters such as the cricket (given the name Sebastian here) and the Blue Fairy mix deep blues with the monsters that always seem to lurk in Del Toro’s imagination. Think of it this way: If you crossed the animals from Isle of Dogs with the radiance of a stained-glass window, you’d get images like this. 

Del Toro came to present the film and spoke to having total control over the project, not allowing studio notes to mess with his vision (he used stronger language than "mess with")...

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