Film Reviews
Suicide Squad: The latest comic book film
By David Walsh, 10 August 2016
David Ayer’s film concerns a team of psychotics and criminals recruited by the US government as part of a top-secret program to combat terrorism.
Captain Fantastic: An anti-establishment superhero?
By Joanne Laurier, 30 July 2016
Writer-director Matt Ross’s film is a semi-anarchistic tale about a family’s “off-the-grid” existence in the Pacific Northwest.
Chasing Asylum: Exposing Australia’s brutal refugee-detention regime
By Richard Phillips, 29 July 2016
The feature-length documentary is a harrowing account of the systematic cruelty and de-humanisation of asylum-seekers in Australia’s offshore detention centres.
Documentary director Eva Orner discusses Chasing Asylum
By Richard Phillips, 29 July 2016
The filmmaker explained to the WSWS why she decided to lift the veil of secrecy on Australia’s offshore refugee detention centres.
Alexander Sokurov’s Francofonia: The Louvre during the Nazi occupation
By Dorota Niemitz, 27 July 2016
The film traces the history of the Louvre Museum’s art collection under conditions of war, while proposing a pessimistic view of human culture and its future.
Our Kind of Traitor: Going with the current
By Joanne Laurier, 21 July 2016
Our Kind of Traitor, a British spy thriller directed by Susanna White, is based on the 2010 novel of the same name by John le Carré, the veteran novelist.
Wiener-Dog: Todd Solondz continues to look critically at American life
By David Walsh, 20 July 2016
The new film comprises four stories, loosely linked by the presence of a “wiener-dog” (dachshund). Each has at least one or more satirical, telling moments or elements.
The life and career of Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami
By David Walsh, 14 July 2016
The Iranian director will be best remembered and long honored for the series of feature films, including documentaries, that he made between 1987 and 1997.
Michael Cimino, director of The Deer Hunter and Heaven’s Gate, dead at 77
By David Walsh, 7 July 2016
Cimino is best known as the director of The Deer Hunter (1978), which won numerous Academy Awards, and Heaven’s Gate (1980), which was denounced by leading critics, lost a great deal of money and severely damaged Cimino’s career.
Genius: “Just simply corny”
By David Walsh, 2 July 2016
British director Michael Grandage’s film is about American novelist Thomas Wolfe (Jude Law) and his famous editor, Maxwell Perkins (Colin Firth).
Charles Blow of the New York Times
The right-wing, racialist attacks on the film Free State of Jones
By David Walsh, 30 June 2016
Free State of Jones, about a white farmer in Mississippi who led an insurrection against the Confederacy from 1863 to 1865, has come under sharp attack from the “new right” of identity politics advocates.
Free State of Jones: Three cheers!
By Joanne Laurier, 28 June 2016
Gary Ross’s film is a fictional account of an intriguing, but little known chapter in American history.
Alf Sjöberg’s Miss Julie (1951) and G. W. Pabst’s The Threepenny Opera (1931): Films worth noting … and seeing
By Joanne Laurier, 23 June 2016
Swedish filmmaker Alf Sjöberg’s Miss Julie is based on the play by August Strindberg. Austrian filmmaker G.W. Pabst’s film The Threepenny Opera is an intricate movie version of the legendary Bertolt Brecht-Kurt Weill work.
Censored Voices: A snapshot in time reveals war crimes
By Fred Mazelis, 22 June 2016
An Israeli filmmaker has brought 50-year-old tape recordings about the Six-Day War and their implications to life on the screen.
“All the terrifying things all really happened”
Toyen: A film about the Czech surrealist painter and her times
By David Walsh, 18 June 2016
Czech director Jan Němec, who died in March 2016, made a film about the surrealist painter Toyen in 2005, which is now available. The film is intriguing and sometimes deeply moving.
The Nice Guys: Something, but not very much
(And, briefly, Terence Davies’ Sunset Song and Hany Abu-Assad’s The Idol.)
By David Walsh and Joanne Laurier, 17 June 2016
The Nice Guys is set in 1977 and follows the investigation into a disappearance, which turns out to be part of a broader conspiracy. Sunset Song and The Idol have recently opened in movie theaters in the US.
The Lobster: Relationships forced on—or forbidden—people
By David Walsh, 11 June 2016
In Yorgos Lanthimos’ film, individuals without a mate are sent to a “hotel” where they have 45 days to find a partner or be turned into an animal. Then, there are those who escape.
HBO’s All the Way: Lyndon B. Johnson and the civil rights movement
By Charles Bogle, 10 June 2016
HBO’s All the Way is a serious effort, devoid of contemporary identity politics, to portray a significant moment in American history.
Love & Friendship: An early Jane Austen work adapted
By Joanne Laurier, 8 June 2016
In England in 1790, Lady Susan Vernon, widowed and penniless, schemes to reverse her fortunes.
Sing Street from Ireland, A Bigger Splash from Italy: Neglected realities
By Joanne Laurier, 28 May 2016
John Carney’s Sing Street is a musical comedy-drama set in Dublin in the mid-1980s. Italian filmmaker Luca Guadagnino’s A Bigger Splash, based on a 1969 French thriller, takes its name from a painting by British artist David Hockney.
High-Rise: A film version of J.G. Ballard’s novel
By David Walsh, 27 May 2016
Like the novel, the film—set in the mid-1970s—begins with its central character calmly sitting on the balcony of his 25th floor apartment eating roast dog.
Cash Only: What interests contemporary filmmakers and what doesn’t
By David Walsh, 25 May 2016
Cash Only is an independent American film set in the Detroit area. The film takes place in the Albanian community.
Captain America: Civil War—A waste of resources, technology and human skill
By David Walsh, 23 May 2016
What are these performers doing in this film? Is there any major film actor at present who would say “No” to this sort of project?
San Francisco International Film Festival—Part 4
Maggie’s Plan, Frank & Lola, along with Dreyer’s Vampyr (1932)
By Joanne Laurier, 20 May 2016
Some not very good new films—and better old ones.
Money Monster: Who are the criminals?
By Joanne Laurier, 18 May 2016
Money Monster is the latest film to depict the consequences of the 2008 financial crash and the criminal manipulations of the financial elite.
San Francisco International Film Festival—Part 3
Radio Dreams, about Iranian Americans—and the problem of images without insight
By David Walsh, 17 May 2016
Radio Dreams is a pleasurable experience. Other films at the San Francisco festival––The Event, No Home Movie, Counting, Five Nights in Maine––fared less well.
An interview with Babak Jalali, director of Radio Dreams
By David Walsh, 17 May 2016
The WSWS spoke to Babak Jalali during the recent San Francisco International Film Festival.
San Francisco International Film Festival—Part 2
The Return, about released prisoners, and other social dramas (or comedies)
By Joanne Laurier, 13 May 2016
In a number of the films screened at the festival, their creators were evidently overwhelmed by the disintegrating social structures in some of the most impoverished parts of the world.
San Francisco International Film Festival—Part 1
Look at today’s filmmaking … then look at the world
By David Walsh, 11 May 2016
The recent San Francisco International Film Festival, in its 59th edition, screened some 175 films, including approximately 100 feature-length films, from 46 countries.
Everybody Wants Some!!—Richard Linklater goes to college
By Hiram Lee, 10 May 2016
Everybody Wants Some!! is the latest coming-of-age tale from the American independent film director.
Looking for Grace—a strangely cold story about a teenager leaving home
By John Harris, 9 May 2016
The movie centres on the efforts of a lower middle-class couple to find their runaway teenage daughter and only child.
Retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in New York
Are the films of Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet a genuine alternative to contemporary filmmaking?
By David Walsh, 7 May 2016
The Museum of Modern Art in New York City, beginning May 6, is presenting a retrospective of the films of Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet, the Franco-German filmmakers.
Elvis & Nixon, A Hologram for the King: Trivializing culture, history
By Joanne Laurier, 6 May 2016
Two ostensible comedies, Elvis & Nixon and A Hologram for the King, drain their stories of their most important social and historical content.
Papa: Hemingway in Cuba—The banalization of the novelist and his art
By David Walsh, 4 May 2016
The film follows the relationship that develops after a young American journalist in Miami in the mid-1950s writes an admiring letter to novelist Ernest Hemingway, then living in Havana, Cuba.
Songs My Brothers Taught Me: The plight of a Lakota youth
By Norisa Diaz and Kevin Martinez, 2 May 2016
The film is a lyrical and honest look at the poverty and social neglect that affects one of the most historically oppressed communities in the United States.
Class Divide: A close-up look at gentrification, inequality in New York City
By Fred Mazelis, 29 April 2016
Children of hedge fund managers attend private school on Manhattan’s Tenth Avenue, across the street from one of the city’s public housing projects.
Demolition: Take an investment banker apart, and what do you find?
By Carlos Delgado, 20 April 2016
The film tells the story of Davis Mitchell (Jake Gyllenhaal), a New York investment banker who experiences an emotional unraveling after his wife dies in an automobile accident.
Midnight Special: “Shining the light” on unfreedom in America
By Joanne Laurier, 15 April 2016
Jeff Nichols’ Midnight Special is a disturbing science fiction thriller that conveys deep anxiety about the state of the world.
The Program: The success and calamitous failure of Lance Armstrong
By David Walsh, 9 April 2016
The latest film from veteran British director Stephen Frears dramatizes the saga of cyclist Lance Armstrong’s rise to the top and his subsequent disgrace in a doping scandal.
Born to Be Blue and Miles Ahead: Why so much fiction when life is fascinating enough?
By John Andrews, 7 April 2016
Films based on the lives and personas of post-World War II jazz musicians Chet Baker and Miles Davis have been released recently.
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice—Doom and gloom, with capes
By Carlos Delgado, 6 April 2016
The price tag of the film, including production and marketing costs, approaches half a billion dollars, and some analysts believe it would need an $800 million box office to recoup its investment.
San Diego Latino Film Festival 2016—Part 3
From Cuba a grim drama (La obra del siglo) and from Argentina a political thriller (El Clan) and a road trip (Camino a La Paz)
By Kevin Martinez and Toby Reese, 1 April 2016
The festival showcased films and documentaries from throughout the Spanish-speaking world, including Cuba, Spain, Mexico, and South and Central America.
Eye in the Sky: The liberal war on terror
By Joanne Laurier, 31 March 2016
Eye in the Sky is a political-military thriller in which British and American officials weigh the consequences of a drone strike in Nairobi, Kenya.
San Diego Latino Film Festival 2016—Part 1
Films from Argentina, Spain and Guatemala: El Movimiento, Hablar, Ixcanul and Tras Nazarin
By Kevin Martinez and Toby Reese, 28 March 2016
The festival showcased films and documentaries from throughout the Spanish-speaking world, including Cuba, Spain, Mexico, South and Central America.
I Saw the Light: A biography of country singer Hank Williams
By David Walsh, 26 March 2016
Marc Abraham’s film is an account of the last decade in the life of American country music performer Hank Williams (1923-1953), who died tragically at the age of 29.
Atom Egoyan’s Remember: A Nazi criminal hunted…
By Joanne Laurier, 25 March 2016
Two Auschwitz concentration camp survivors plot to kill the SS guard who murdered their families in Atom Egoyan’s latest film, Remember, a psychological drama.
Terrence Malick’s Knight of Cups: It is impossible to learn anything from this
By David Walsh, 19 March 2016
Thematically and stylistically, Malick’s latest film follows in the footsteps of his two previous efforts, The Tree of Life (2011) and To the Wonder (2012).
66th Berlin International Film Festival—Part 4:
Flight and persecution—yesterday and today (The Diary of Anne Frank and Meteorstraße)
By Bernd Reinhardt, 14 March 2016
A new adaptation of the immortal Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank, about Nazi persecution, and a film about Palestinian refugees in contemporary Germany.
A Perfect Day: 24 hours in the Bosnian War
By Joanne Laurier, 12 March 2016
Spanish filmmaker Fernando León de Aranoa’s movie A Perfect Day deals with international humanitarian aid workers in the Balkans near the end of the war in the mid-1990s.
Race: Jesse Owens and the 1936 Berlin Olympics
By Alan Gilman and David Walsh, 10 March 2016
Stephen Hopkins’ film centers on critical events in the life of African-American track and field legend Jesse Owens.
66th Berlin International Film Festival—Part 3:
Alone in Berlin—a working class couple opposes the Nazis
By Bernd Reinhardt, 7 March 2016
Vincent Pérez’s film is a new adaptation of Hans Fallada’s novel Every Man Dies Alone (published posthumously in 1947).
Two poor films on the Afghanistan war—Whiskey Tango Foxtrot and A War—and Jonás Cuarón’s Desierto
By Joanne Laurier, 5 March 2016
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot is a semi-comic treatment of the tragic Afghan conflict; A War from Denmark is ostensibly a more serious effort. Desierto takes up the war against Mexican immigrants.
Deadpool: An anti-superhero?
By Kevin Martinez, 3 March 2016
Although Deadpool tries to subvert the clichéd conventions of the superhero genre, the film is more than anything a conformist effort.
Eighty-eighth Academy Awards: Hopeful signs amidst reactionary “diversity” campaign
By Fred Mazelis, 1 March 2016
The Oscar awards ceremony Sunday night included some welcome notes and surprises, and generally, despite the disorienting campaign waged under the Twitter hashtag #OscarsSoWhite, revealed a more humane side of Hollywood.
66th Berlin International Film Festival—Part 2:
A critique of Europe’s refugee policy: On the Berlinale’s Golden Bear for Fire at Sea
By Verena Nees and Bernd Reinhardt, 27 February 2016
This is the second in a series of articles on the recent Berlin international film festival, the Berlinale, held February 11-20, 2016.
66th Berlin International Film Festival—Part 1:
Refugee crisis takes centre stage at the Berlinale
By Stefan Steinberg, 22 February 2016
The main prize of the festival went to Fire at Sea (Fuocoammare) by Gianfranco Rosi, dealing with the fate of refugees attempting to enter Europe.
Jia Zhangke’s Mountains May Depart: Three periods in modern China, a good deal of confusion
By David Walsh, 13 February 2016
Veteran independent Chinese filmmaker Jia Zhangke’s Mountains May Depart is opening in theaters in the US this week.
The Coen Brothers’ Hail Caesar!: The “Passion” of a film studio troubleshooter
By Joanne Laurier, 9 February 2016
Hail Caesar!, directed by Joel and Ethan Coen, is a comedy about Hollywood set in the early 1950s.
45 Years: A nightmare on the brain of the living?
By David Walsh, 5 February 2016
In Andrew Haigh’s 45 Years, a childless, middle class couple living in a provincial English town, are on the eve of their 45th wedding anniversary.
Flint pre-screening of the documentary MisLEAD: America’s Secret Epidemic
Parents fighting lead poisoning denounce government inaction and lies
By Tim Rivers, 4 February 2016
Following a preview screening of the film MisLEAD: America’s Secret Epidemic, which documents the epidemic spread of lead across America, a panel of parents was joined by the director of the film and a state expert for lead risk assessment.
Racialism, art and the Academy Awards controversy
By David Walsh, 30 January 2016
It is no exaggeration to point out that, in ideological terms, Cara Buckley in the New York Times and others, in their obsession with race, are spouting a conception of society and art identified historically with the extreme right.
13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi—Michael Bay’s mythmaking
By Kevin Martinez, 30 January 2016
Hollywood’s latest propaganda piece tells the story of the 2012 attack on a US base in Libya from a right-wing perspective, with predictable results.
Drone, a Norwegian-made documentary: “We just made orphans out of all these children”
By Joanne Laurier, 29 January 2016
The documentary brings together opponents of the CIA drone program and includes interviews with two former US Air Force drone pilots.
A modern Antigone: Son of Saul by László Nemes
By Dorota Niemitz, 28 January 2016
The debut film of Hungarian director László Nemes depicts the horrors of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp during the prisoner uprising of October 1944.
Charlie Kaufman’s often charming, moving Anomalisa (and Michael Moore’s feeble Where to Invade Next)
By Joanne Laurier, 23 January 2016
Anomalisa is an adult animated film created with stop-motion puppetry centering around an angst-ridden, self-help author. Where to Invade Next is a non-comment on Washington’s never-ending wars.
Neorealism: We Were Not Just Bicycle Thieves—a documentary on Italian cinema
By Richard Phillips, 19 January 2016
The 72-minute film provides a general outline of neo-realist cinema, but it is a seriously limited one.
The Revenant: Are we all savages? (And Paolo Sorrentino’s Youth )
By Joanne Laurier, 16 January 2016
The Revenant is a sensationalized account of the life of American fur trapper Hugh Glass, who famously survived a mauling by a bear. Youth is a banal meditation on aging.
The 88th Academy Awards nominations
By David Walsh, 15 January 2016
The Academy Award nominations revealed the usual muddle-headedness, liberal good intentions and severe limitations of the social grouping that decides these things.
Concussion: Highlighting the perils of American football
By Alan Gilman, 14 January 2016
Despite its limitations, Concussion serves to bring before a mass audience the grave risks inherent in playing America’s most popular sport.
Carol and The Danish Girl: Real problems, but the danger of exclusivism
By Joanne Laurier, 8 January 2016
The two films address significant subjects that could potentially shed light on society and its moral and psychological condition.
Racism and revenge: Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight
By Hiram Lee, 7 January 2016
Tarantino’s latest is a deeply unpleasant work, another in a long line of the director’s blood-soaked revenge fantasies.
Frank Capra: The Early Collection—The American filmmaker’s most ambitious and honest work
By Charles Bogle, 6 January 2016
The box set contains five pre-Code movies: Ladies of Leisure (1930), Rain Or Shine (1930), The Miracle Woman (1931), Forbidden (1932) and The Bitter Tea of General Yen (1933).
The failure of David O. Russell’s Joy, or, what any “sensible” person should know about modern society
By David Walsh, 5 January 2016
Russell’s film is loosely inspired by the life story of millionaire inventor and entrepreneur Joy Mangano, who created a self-wringing mop and other products.
The Big Short: The criminality of Wall Street and the crash of 2008
By Joanne Laurier, 31 December 2015
Adam McKay’s new film The Big Short is a hard-hitting comedy-drama about the 2008 financial meltdown.
Best films of 2015
By David Walsh and Joanne Laurier, 31 December 2015
The most interesting films we saw in 2015, both those that played in a movie theater in the US and those not yet distributed.
In Jackson Heights: Documentarian Frederick Wiseman on life in a New York City neighborhood
By Mark Witkowski and Fred Mazelis, 29 December 2015
If nothing else, Wiseman’s new documentary is a reminder of the fact that, even in this wealthiest city in the world, the working class makes up the vast majority of the population.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens: No real awakening
By Matthew MacEgan and David Walsh, 22 December 2015
The new Star Wars offering serves as the first part of a “sequel” trilogy that tells the story of the next generation by reusing many of the same ideas and visuals.
“Bloody instructions ... return to plague the instructor”
A new film version of Shakespeare’s Macbeth
By George Marlowe and David Walsh, 19 December 2015
A new version of William Shakespeare’s Macbeth with Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard emphasizes the bloody, barbaric times.
Legend and Room: Once again, celebrating the underworld—and a peculiar film about captives
By Joanne Laurier, 17 December 2015
Legend is a British crime drama about the Kray twins, London’s most notorious gangsters in the 1960s; Room concerns a mother and her five-year-old son held prisoner in a shed for seven years.
Who would celebrate Hitler today?: The German satirical film Look Who’s Back
By Bernd Reinhardt, 16 December 2015
The satirical film, based on the novel of the same title by Timur Vermes, has been seen by over two million people, making it one of the most watched in Germany this year.
Killing Them Safely: The big business of police tasers
By Kevin Martinez, 15 December 2015
The documentary is a disturbing look at TASER International, the company that has cornered the market for police electro-shock weapons.
Chi-Raq: A satire of social life in Chicago
By George Marlowe, 14 December 2015
In Spike Lee’s latest film, young women in Chicago seek to end gang violence and social breakdown by means of a sex strike.
Brooklyn: Irish immigration through rose-colored glasses
By Joanne Laurier, 10 December 2015
Brooklyn focuses on a young Irish girl who emigrates to America in the early 1950s and struggles with homesickness and adjusting to an alien environment.
Interview with Indian filmmaker Rahul Roy, director of The Factory
By Lee Parsons, 7 December 2015
Roy’s film chronicles the struggle of autoworkers at the assembly plant operated by Maruti Suzuki India, in Manesar, northern India.
Janis: Little Girl Blue–Amy Berg’s valuable documentary about singer Janis Joplin
By David Walsh, 5 December 2015
Singer Janis Joplin, born in Port Arthur, Texas, was immensely popular for the last several years of her life until her tragic demise from heroin and alcohol in October 1970.
Spotlight: A telling exposé of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church
By Joanne Laurier, 3 December 2015
Tom McCarthy’s Spotlight is a taut, quasi-political thriller that chronicles the Boston Globe’s 2002 exposure of child sexual abuse by Catholic priests in the Boston area.
The 33: A drama of the 2010 Chilean mine disaster
By Hiram Lee, 2 December 2015
The new film from Mexican-born director Patricia Riggen tells the story of the 2010 mine disaster in Chile, in which 33 miners were trapped underground for more than two months.
Trumbo and the history of the Hollywood blacklist
By Fred Mazelis, 30 November 2015
Jay Roach’s film about the anti-communist Hollywood witch-hunt, though politically limited and marred by the conventions of the biopic genre, deserves to be widely seen.
Sarah Gavron’s Suffragette: What do Mrs. Pankhurst and an East End laundress have in common?
By Joanne Laurier, 28 November 2015
British filmmaker Sarah Gavron’s Suffragette is a fictionalized account of the women’s voting rights movement in Britain in the pre-World War I period.
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay—Part 2: Worn seriously thin by now
By David Walsh, 26 November 2015
The new film treats the climax of the struggle in Panem between the rebels, morally led by Katniss Everdeen, and the forces of the Capitol, presided over by the tyrannical President Coriolanus Snow.
The Factory: Documentary brings Indian auto workers’ struggle to an international audience
By Sampath Perera, 25 November 2015
The documentary from filmmaker Rahul Roy sheds important light on the brutal conditions facing workers in India’s rapidly expanding, globally integrated auto industry.
The Holocaust as Via Dolorosa: The mysticism of Piotr Chrzan’s Klezmer
By Dorota Niemitz, 19 November 2015
Piotr Chrzan’s directorial debut deals with the subject of the organized search for the Jews, or the Judenjagd, in Nazi-Occupied Poland.
Force of Destiny—a thoughtful film about surviving cancer
By Richard Phillips, 16 November 2015
Australian filmmaker Paul Cox’s first dramatic feature in seven years explores some of the complex emotional issues confronting those fighting cancer.
“Cinema must have a social conscience”
Veteran filmmaker Paul Cox discusses his latest feature
By Richard Phillips, 16 November 2015
Australian writer and director speaks about Force of Destiny, his artistic approach, concerns about militarism and the commercial pressures on filmmakers.
The Wrecking Crew: The “secret star-making machine” of 1960s pop music
By Joanne Laurier, 14 November 2015
Denny Tedesco’s lively documentary is a heartfelt tribute to a group of studio musicians in Los Angeles, nicknamed the Wrecking Crew, who were behind some of the biggest hits of the 1960s.
Our Brand is Crisis: US political consultants at their dirty work in Bolivia
By Joanne Laurier, 9 November 2015
Based on a documentary, the new David Gordon Green movie, Our Brand is Crisis, is a comedy-drama about the activities of American political operatives in the 2002 Bolivian presidential election.
Benedict Cumberbatch at the Barbican in London
“Foul deeds will rise…”: Hamlet, in a world on the brink
By George Marlowe, 5 November 2015
The weight of our time is felt, even if unevenly, in the overall mood of the recent production of Hamlet with Benedict Cumberbatch.
Truth: The victimization of CBS’s Dan Rather and Mary Mapes
By Fred Mazelis, 4 November 2015
The film at least partly reveals the role of the media as a virtual propaganda arm of the military and the CIA.
Steve Jobs fails to transcend conventional mythologizing
By Kevin Reed, 2 November 2015
Based on Walter Isaacson’s authorized biography, the film presents its title character as a clairvoyant and brilliant business leader with significant character flaws.
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