Monthly Archives: August 2016

Real Life, Dream Life

Posted on August 25, 2016 by Mark Stern

Had I not loved my mother profoundly and had she not died 13 years ago (seems like forever, seems like yesterday), I would still have been mesmerized and moved by Italian auteur Nanni Moretti’s beautiful film “Mia Madre.” Margherita (Margherita Buy, wonderful), a … Continue reading →

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Kate Plays Kate Playing Christine

Posted on August 24, 2016 by Mark Stern

In Robert Greene’s engrossing new film (expertly shot by Sean Price Williams), “Kate Plays Christine,” he watches actress Kate Lyn Sheil as she prepares to play Christine Chubbick, a TV reporter at a local Florida station who committed suicide on-air in 1974. … Continue reading →

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Seeing Clearly Through the Steam

Posted on August 19, 2016 by Mark Stern

In director Andrew Ahn’s assured and atmospheric debut feature, “Spa Night,” is an uncommon coming-of-age-story with real risks. Handsome and athletic Korean-American teenager David Cho (Joe Seo, who won the Special Jury Award at this year’s Sundance for his quietly … Continue reading →

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My Beautiful Outlier

Posted on August 17, 2016 by Mark Stern

Half birthdays as milestones only apply to the very young and the impressively old. Leo is 14 1/2 today. And while we’re unwilling to say that he’s old (we say older), we’re aware of our good luck–the life expectancy of a … Continue reading →

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Crazy Love Rules

Posted on August 11, 2016 by Mark Stern

The title of director and co-writer Maïwenn’s complicated romance, “My King,” is ironic, not a declaration of  a woman’s fealty (but maybe an admission of her emotional powerlessness). Early, in the giddy phase of Tony (Emmanuelle Bercot) and Georgio’s (Vincent Cassel) decade-long amour … Continue reading →

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Where Suzhou River Meets the East River

Posted on August 8, 2016 by Mark Stern

Sixth Generation Chinese filmmaker Lou Ye’s second feature, the richly atmospheric “Suzhou River” (2000), echoes “Vertigo,” diving deeply into obsessive love, voyeurism and mistaken identity. Here Scottie is a Shanghai motorcycle messenger in his mid-20s who falls hard for a lovely young woman … Continue reading →

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The Interpretation of Dreams

Posted on August 4, 2016 by Mark Stern

Filming each other’s dreams freed filmmakers Daniel Patrick Carbone, Josephine Decker, Lauren Wolkstein, Frances Bodomo and Lily Baldwin from the conventional requirements of narrative. And with this concept, originated by executive producer Dan Schoenbrun, they made the “somnomnibus” “collective:unconscious,” five experimental shorts filled with beauty … Continue reading →

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That Difficult Age

Posted on August 4, 2016 by Mark Stern

Director Ira Sachs’s new film, “Little Men” (which opened this year’s BAMcinemaFest), empathetically observes his characters at a rough time in their lives, adolescence–and middle age. Thirteen-year-old Jake (Theo Taplitz), shaggy-haired and awkward, reluctantly moves with his parents Brian and Kathy … Continue reading →

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