Currently Browsing: October 2016
Triggered by the death of his grandmother, Andre Malaev Babel follows the trail left behind in the unfinished writings and diary notes of his late grandfather, the acclaimed Soviet writer, Isaac Babel, who was executed by the government for supposedly criticizing the Communist movement. (EML: 3.5/5) Review by FF2 Associate Eliana M. Levenson Liev Schreiber’s […]
Ewan McGregor’s new adaptation of Philip Roth’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel American Pastoral is a noble failure. The screenplay has a complicated structure which keeps Nathan Zuckerman (Roth’s alter ego) two steps removed from his subject Seymour Levov (aka “Swede”). Thus reduced in the screenplay to a framing device, the Nathan Zuckerman character is unable to provide adequate context for a […]
Dani Menkin’s spin on the traditional road trip movie, Is That You? delivers a poignant bittersweet quality as a man searches far and wide for his long lost sweetheart. In the vein of An Affair to Remember, Menkin’s film captures vulnerability and hope in a quiet way that makes the audience reflect on their own […]
Using predominately still photos, voiceover, and talking heads style interviews, Ken Burns & Artemis Joukowsky’s documentary Defying the Nazis: The Sharps’ War retells of the Sharps’ heroism as they sought to help Jews flee Eastern Europe prior to World War II. While often succumbing to the biographical blackhole of fact, the film provides glimpses of true […]