Month: August 2019
American Factory: The price of globalization
by Matt Ward
There have been a number of exceptional documentaries released in 2019 covering a range of political, historical and pop culture topics. Perhaps none sits quite on the threshold of where the United States stands currently in an everchanging global economy than the latest Netflix release, “American Factory.” A top non-fiction film and award winner to come out of this year’s Sundance Film Festival, this … Read More American Factory: The price of globalization
Blinded By The Light: Connecting through good tunes
by Matt Ward
Pop culture can transcend all sorts of boundaries. People from different walks of life can identify with one another over a favorite sports team, the filmography of a terrific actor or director or a classic album by a prized musical artist. It’s this cultural bridge building that’s at the heart of director Gurinder Chadha’s latest feature, “Blinded By The Light,” inspired by the true … Read More Blinded By The Light: Connecting through good tunes
Good Boys: Super bad on a sixth grade reading level
by Matt Ward
Why is “South Park” an animated series? Couldn’t creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker have made their crude and frequently violent show about prepubescent boys a live action series just as easily, if not cheaper? The reason they don’t is simple: an animated overweight boy using expletives every other sentence while making sex jokes is funny because the animation separates the joke from reality. … Read More Good Boys: Super bad on a sixth grade reading level
The Souvenir: Love and other drugs
by Matt Ward
Joanna Hogg doesn’t make life easy on her audience. Subtlety and layers of hidden context abound in her latest feature, “The Souvenir,” a semi-autobiographical drama she wrote and directed about a young film student’s destructive love affair with an older man set in the 1980s. Audiences are shown bits of Julie and Anthony’s time together in a piecemeal, fragmented way that’s part slice of … Read More The Souvenir: Love and other drugs
Where’d You Go, Bernadette: Charmingly quirky
by Matt Ward
Film adaptations of popular novels are pretty commonplace. There’s an agreed upon story structure, character development and even dialogue to pull from source material for the screenplay. Films become the living embodiment of the images we get in our heads while reading. But what happens when you’re traditionally adapting untraditionally written storytelling? Such is the case with director Richard Linklater’s newest film, “Where’d You … Read More Where’d You Go, Bernadette: Charmingly quirky
The Farewell: The value of a good lie
by Matt Ward
Many of the best films are personal, whether they be exact recreations of past events in the lives of those making them or simple adaptations of real life. Writer/director Lulu Wang took a unique cultural moment from her own life for her second feature film, “The Farewell.” “Based on an actual lie” as the film’s title card states, “The Farewell” fictionalizes a pivotal moment … Read More The Farewell: The value of a good lie
Hobbs And Shaw: 2 Fast 2 Furious 2 Care
by Matt Ward
Remember that small dramatic action flick from 2001 about boosting cars? Seven movies later, it’s harder and harder to remember that “The Fast and the Furious” was about a Los Angeles cop going undercover to infiltrate a gang of automobile thieves. A prime victim of the money-hungry quest of studios to franchise everything, a small crime drama has become an international box office sensation … Read More Hobbs And Shaw: 2 Fast 2 Furious 2 Care
Cinematic Considerations 