The Making of a Silent Legacy: Early Buster Keaton

A Book Review by Thomas Gladysz. A detailed, well-wrought look into the comedian’s early career(s)….” Like Charlie Chaplin, there are more than a handful of books about Buster Keaton – the stone-faced comedian who sported a pork-pie hat. And like Chaplin, Keaton remains one of the truly great performers of […]

Imperfect Storms: Berlinale 2026

By Ali Moosavi. 2026, a year of apolitical comments and walkouts, featured many standout selections.” The Berlin Film Festival, or Berlinale, started with pouring rain but a storm was brewing in the press conference hall. In response to a question about the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine, the International […]

Now a Believer: Caroline Golum’s Revelations of Divine Love

By William Blick. Made for about $200,000 through crowdfunding via way of Brooklyn, Revelations achieves the scope necessary for a fascinating, faithful telling of the spiritual and historic journey of Julian of Norwich.” Different stories of religious faith and suffering have manifested themselves in one way or another in cinema […]

Power of Solitude: Chen Deming on Always (Cong Lai)

By Yun-hua Chen. The film records the solitude of childhood and shows the power of poetry within that solitude.” Black and white, left-behind children, rural China – Director Chen Deming, in Always, uses a familiar formula to bring out a unique layer of poetry and coming-of-age. The Chinese title, Cong […]

Dead Souls on the U.S. Border: On Alex Cox’s “Final Film”

By Jenny Paola Ortega Castillo. Alex Cox, in what may be his final film, smartly reconfigures the classic theme of bureaucratic greed in Tsarist Russia into a bold, timely political Western situated in the borderlands of the 19th-century American West.” Alex Cox’s newest release Dead Souls (2025), stands as a […]