Personal feelings have a way of clouding one’s more practical or pragmatic judgement. If we’re excited or enamored with something, we’re more likely to excuse or soften something’s harder edges. If we’re not interested or already turned off by something,… Read More ›
Writer/director/actor Robert Townsend has played a solider, a superhero, an every man, and even himself. He’s made a point to create and tell stories that are not just specific to him and his worldview, but to the Black community, as… Read More ›
You can often tell a bit about a person based upon where they know an artist or creative from. Specifically, what period of their work. For instance, if someone were to mention the musician Sting, they could just as easily… Read More ›
First there was Do the Right Thing (1989), then there was Bamboozled (2000), and now, for the third entry into the Criterion Collection, writer/director/actor Spike Lee’s Oscar-nominated Malcom X (1992) joins the illustrious physical format boutique distributor nearly 30 years… Read More ›
Boutique physical media distributor The Criterion Collection began offering 4K UHD editions of their monthly releases starting in November 2021 with Citizen Kane (1941) and Mulholland Dr. (2001). Since then, each month, a new 4K UHD edition has been released,… Read More ›
Of the many things that occurred as a result of COVID-19 in 2020, as it related to the film industry, was that movies were either pushed over and over, rescheduled to a later date entirely, or sold to streamers. Films… Read More ›
Before writer/director Bong Joon Ho would go on to win Best International Feature, Best Director, and Best Picture for his film Parasite (2019) at the 92nd Academy Awards, Bong Joon Ho was awarded Best Motion Picture in the Foreign Language… Read More ›
It seems fair to say that we’ve all experienced a sense of loss in some form or another since March 2020. It may be literal in the form of a loved one passing or as an extended estrangement due to… Read More ›
“You have to keep me in shoes.” Of all the stories my late grandmother Naomi Pearl Russin Royal told, the one involving my late grandfather’s proposal and her response always amused me. As she told it, she had larger feet… Read More ›
There are many proverbs or common phrases that have worked their way into the moral fabric of society. “It’s better to be safe than sorry.” “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” “Treat others the way you’d like to be… Read More ›
If you’re well-versed in Hong Kong cinema, then the name Johnnie To will carry a great deal of weight. Among those who know, his films like A Hero Never Dies (1998), PTU (2003), and Election (2005) exemplify the Kong Kong… Read More ›
Welcome to Fistful of Features, a celebration of film preservation through physical media and the discussion of cinematic treasures to maintain their relevance in the cultural lexicon. Today we’ll be discussing a failed television documentary pilot that was recently revived… Read More ›
The question of what happens after this life has plagued humanity for centuries. Nothing, Nothingness, Valhalla, Heaven, or Hell: these and others have all been theorized as the next step once we’ve shuffled off this mortal coil and moved into… Read More ›
Spine #1084 of The Criterion Collection is writer/director Andrei Tarkovsky’s Mirror, the fifth of his films to be added to the collection. A Russian filmmaker, Tarkovsky helmed 12 projects over his lifetime, including one short and one made-for-TV movie. Upon… Read More ›
Welcome to Fistful of Features, a celebration of film preservation through physical media and the discussion of cinematic treasures to maintain their relevance in the cultural lexicon. Today we’ll be discussing Howard Hawks’s magnificent screwball comedy Bringing Up Baby now… Read More ›
The line between politics and art is often fine, if not entirely overlapped. This is most obvious in stories from Marvel Comics’s X-Men, a series exploring the ultimate minority group trying to make peace against great xenophobia. In a similar… Read More ›
Welcome to Fistful of Features, a celebration of film preservation through physical media and the discussion of cinematic treasures to maintain their relevance in the cultural lexicon. This time we’ll be taking a look at a pop culture milestone coming… Read More ›
In her 21-year career, director Dorothy Arzner directed 16 films, with three others uncredited, and one in which she served as a sequence director. In the history of filmmaking, a career like Arzner’s is largely forgotten between the capitalist and… Read More ›
Writer/director Olivier Assayas’s Irma Vep is many things at once. It’s a comedic look at the making of a film, capturing the swirling chaos as various departments and personalities come together to create art. It’s a dramatic piece exploring how… Read More ›
Welcome to Fistful of Features, a celebration of film preservation through physical media and the discussion of cinematic treasures to maintain their relevance in the cultural lexicon. I’m taking a different approach this time around and decided to focus on… Read More ›