Herschel Goldberg wants you to see Liyana. “The core message is something that everybody needs to see,” Goldberg says. “Or feel. It’s more about the feeling, not just the seeing.” And that’s why Goldberg and good friends Maputo Mensah and Merilee … Continue reading Herschel Goldberg and Amanda Kopp on LIYANA
Where we had thought to slay another, we shall slay ourselves … And where we had thought to be alone, we will be with all the world. —Joseph Campbell, The Hero With a Thousand Faces 2008’s Iron Man may have been a small … Continue reading AVENGERS: END GAME
Open Secret—a nearly forgotten and difficult-to-find B-programmer from 1948—ought to be seen by everybody. In it, newlyweds John Ireland and Jane Randolph go calling on Ireland’s old army buddy, only to become entangled in subterranean hell, where anti-Semitism is alive … Continue reading Those Wonderful People Out There in the Dark: Dispatches from the 10th annual TCM Classic Film Festival
The legacy of Orson Welles looms large in the history of cinema. So large, even Welles himself fell into its blackness. “The word genius was whispered into my ear—the first thing I heard—while I was still mewling in my crib,” … Continue reading A Matter of Persistence: Orson Welles
Birds of Passage—from Colombian directors Cristina Gallego and Ciro Guerra—is a masterpiece. See it. Need more? Very well, here’s the story: Set in Colombia and spanning the years 1969 to 1980, Birds is divided into five sections, songs really, that recount the … Continue reading BIRDS OF PASSAGE (PÁJAROS DE VERANO)
For one week each spring, throngs of people overrun the University of Colorado’s picturesque campus seeking the pleasure of a good conversation at the Conference on World Affairs. Despite the highfaluting name, the Conference on World Affairs (CWA to regulars) … Continue reading The Pleasure of a Good Conversation: Previewing the 2019 Conference on World Affairs
Ash is Purest White is a gangster movie. Well, sort of. Sure, the movie opens with a room full of low-level gangsters gambling, but openings can be deceiving. From there, it’s only a matter of minutes before one gangster pulls a … Continue reading ASH IS PUREST WHITE (江湖儿女)
Paris, modern-day: The cleanses are coming. Staying one step ahead, the passenger (Franz Rogowski) flees Paris, stowing away on a train bound for Marseilles. There he picks up the name, “Georg.” Georg is known, even revered for his political writing, … Continue reading TRANSIT
It’s hard to overstate the significance of 1939 in American cinema. Even though the movies were nearly four decades old, a series of events and artistic developments conspired to bring Hollywood into maturity. Some of these advancements were technological: sound … Continue reading 1939: Hollywood’s Golden Year
Michael J. Cinema 
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