Set inside the notorious Najayo prison of San Cristobal, Dominican Republic—a place where the prisoners outnumber the guards roughly 266 to 1 and the right bribe can get you just about anything—Woodpeckers (Carpinteros) intimately follows Julián (Jean Jean), a petty criminal … Continue reading WOODPECKERS (CARPINTEROS)
Don Humberto (José Luis Gómez) has turned 80. He’s the head of a pharmaceutical company that has made him filthy rich. Still, he gets no respect. He knows this because he knows how others see him: obscenely wealthy with no … Continue reading OFFICIAL COMPETITION
Filmmaker John Sayles has been living on the fringes of independent cinema since his 1979 debut, Return of the Secaucus Seven, and even if he has lost a few steps over the decades, he regained his footing with 2013’s Go For Sisters, a “ripped … Continue reading GO FOR SISTERS
A jitterbug contest. Hot rods drag race on a mountain road. A violent car crash. A woman wanders the Hollywood Hills with a head injury. A man recounts a dream of meeting a monster living behind a diner dumpster. A film … Continue reading MULHOLLAND DRIVE
Hollywood cinema has had a complicated relationship with race and ethnicity since its very beginning. So opens Luis I. Reyes latest cinematic study, Viva Hollywood: The Legacy of Latin and Hispanic Artists in American Film. Complicated? You bet. But as Reyes points … Continue reading Luis Reyes on VIVA HOLLYWOOD
Shot by Stephen McCoy over five years, Nightcrawlers is a ground-level look at homelessness and addiction. McCoy—who ended up both homeless and addicted to heroin while making the documentary—offers no commentary, no Freudian causality, and no solutions. Instead, he simply watches others … Continue reading THE NIGHTCRAWLERS
On this week’s edition of After Image, I chat with Metro Arts’ producer Veronica Straight-Lingo about movies new in theaters (Moonage Daydream and Don’t Worry Darling) and new to streaming (Blonde). And if that wasn’t enough, there’s a new doc … Continue reading
I have been here before,But when or how I cannot tell:I know the grass beyond the door,The sweet keen smell,The sighing sound, the lights around the shore. Those are the first lines of “Sudden Light,” a poem by Rossetti—a favorite … Continue reading HOPE GAP
There’s a secret at the heart of Don’t Worry Darling, and that’s half the problem. You can glean that from watching the trailer, and even if you’ve skipped it, you pick up on it within the first five minutes of the … Continue reading DON’T WORRY DARLING
Michael J. Cinema 
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