The Egyptian revolution of 2011 began on January 25. Less than one month later, President Hosni Mubarak stepped down and handed the leadership of the country over to the Supreme Council of Egyptian Armed Forces. One year later, Mohamed Morsi, … Continue reading CLASH (إشتباك)
Set in director Alfonso Cuarón’s hometown of Mexico City circa 1970, Roma follows Cleo (Yalitza Aparicio), a young Mixtec housekeeper caring for an upper-middle-class family in the Colonia Roma neighborhood. Life progresses with a day-in-day-out regularity: Father goes to work, Cleo takes … Continue reading ROMA
Truth is one, but the sages speak of it by many names. —The Rig Veda The Two Popes, directed by Brazilian filmmaker Fernando Meirelles, opens in 2005, with the election of Joseph Ratzinger (Anthony Hopkins) as Pope Benedict XVI, and closes in … Continue reading THE TWO POPES and THE BELLS OF ST. MARY
Let us raise our cups. Standing as some of us do on opposite ends of the river, and drink together. … To the movies. To good movies. To every possible kind.” —Orson Welles’ AFI Life Achievement Award acceptance speech, Feb. … Continue reading One last toast to the wunkerkind: Dispatches from the 2018 Telluride Film Festival
The Irishman begins in darkness. A small box of light at the center of the frame opens like an iris, and we see nurses and doctors. It looks like a hospital, but this is no beginning; this is the end: A … Continue reading THE IRISHMAN
On this week’s edition of After Image, I chat with Metro Arts’ producer Veronica Straight-Lingo about the return to movie theaters with A Quiet Place Part II and Cruella (also available on Disney+ Premiere). But if those aren’t your bag, … Continue reading
Multi-hyphenate Armando Iannucci might be the best working satirist today (all seven seasons of Veep are streaming on HBO Max and DirecTV). His take on the transfer of power in the USSR circa 1953 is so loaded with jokes you have to … Continue reading THE DEATH OF STALIN
Today, Netflix releases the latest from writer/director Ramin Bahrani, The White Tiger, an adaptation of Indian author Aravind Adiga’s debut novel about the rise of Balram (Adarsh Gourav) from a coal breaker’s son to driven entrepreneur. Told in flashback and at … Continue reading Ramin Bahrani
In 2015, I thought about the images that defined the year in cinema. In 2016, I considered how cinematic output shaped the various tendrils of Hollywood. In 2017, I found solace in the cinema, no matter how downbeat it appeared … Continue reading 2018: An Embarrassment of Riches
Michael J. Cinema 
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