Portuguese Nobel Prize laureate Jose Saramago is a contemporary Kafka, spinning existential fantasies built around his obsessions with the nature of vision, insight, perception, and imagination. In his books he grounds these philosophical preoccupations through everyman characters and settings so vibrant, distinct, and outlandish they confound attempts to connect them to any specific time and … Read more
Sebastian Junger’s career resembles, at times, an Indiana Jones movie. As a journalist he’s traveled to war zones in Sarajevo, Sierra Leone, and Afghanistan–in that last country, he tracked down Ahmad Shah Massoud, leader of the Taliban resistance, shortly before he was killed. He’s also immersed himself in often-harrowing vocations like smoke jumping and commercial … Read more
It’s always been something of a feat for Minnesota Film Arts, a small but stalwart nonprofit, to pull off this annual, all-you-can-eat buffet for cinephiles. It’s been in large part a labor of love on the part of the legendary Al Milgrom, who only recently underwent bypass surgery. Considering that, along with the financial trials … Read more
Photographer Sharon Lockhart is better known for her still images, which she stages as meticulously as a filmmaker might set up a shoot. Rather than capturing the moment, her work creates the moment, igniting different stories for each viewer. Likewise, her films ride this tension between truth and fiction, even when she’s in documentary mode. … Read more
A feller employs a crack marketing team to dress him up as a modern-day cowboy, and the whole shebang works like a charm–gets him elected, even. But then those dang movie folks come along to cause trouble. First it was those gay shepherds, passed off as cowboys, and now this movie by some German guy, … Read more
Sophie Scholl was one of the few female members of The White Rose, a resistance group that waged its war against Hitler with leaflets and graffiti at the University of Munich. Marc Rothemund’s Oscar-nominated picture re-imagines the final six days of her life–from the mission that got her arrested to her execution just six days … Read more
The sweat dripping off the guitarist’s nose, the brand of beer the singer swigs between songs, the exact wording of the rude phrase on the drummer’s T-shirt: These are details you just won’t catch from your seat at the bar. Concert films are great for filling in those gaps, and for preserving the inspired mix … Read more
Jeff Feuerzeig appears to have plenty of years left, but he feels he’s already completed his life’s work: the film The Devil and Daniel Johnston. Since first encountering Johnston’s music more than twenty years ago, Feuerzeig has felt it was his divine duty and unique privilege to make a film about its creator. He began … Read more
The public mourning here for Kirby Puckett and Dana Reeves last month was matched by millions of music lovers in Africa grieving for Ali Farka Toure, the Grammy-winning Malian bluesman. Toure’s powerful, polyrhythmic, multilingual music served in its way as an agent for peace among warring subgroups in that Saharan nation; fortunately, Tinariwen is still … Read more
As shown in the documentary Fearless Freaks, the front lawn of Lips frontman Wayne Coyne appears normal, even though his backyard is littered with pieces of a full-sized spaceship in his backyard, something he’s building for a film project. Coyne may be a devoted homeowner, friend, and son, but ultimately his mind is elsewhere–on another … Read more