Lost Soviet classic: Klimov's "Agony'

Anarchy vs. order in pre-Soviet Russia (and guess who wins?)

Agony, Elem Klimov's 1975 masterwork about Nichols II and Rasputin, was banned in Brezhnev's Russia, which isn't surprising. That is it was made at all, and on an epic scale that clearly required substantial state resources, is the real mystery.

Robert Zaller

May 15, 2012 · Articles · 6 minute read

Joseph Cedar's "Footnote' (2nd review)

Honor thy father

Joseph Cedar's Footnote is a savagely brilliant comedy of ideas that humanizes as prickly a set of personalities— Israel academics at the summit of Talmudic studies— as one could hope (or fear) to meet. It also raises significant issues of honor, authority and truth. Footnote. A film directed by Joseph Cedar. At the Ritz Five, 220 Walnut St. and other Philadelphia venues. For show times, click here.

Robert Zaller

May 05, 2012 · Articles · 10 minute read

"Martha Marcy' and the truth about cults

Beyond ‘Helter-Skelter': The not-so-awful truth about cults

As a movie, Martha Marcy May Marlene is an extremely scary thriller. As an examination of the cult phenomenon, it's simplistic propaganda the likes of which I— an authority on cults— haven't seen in 30 years.

Judy Weightman

May 01, 2012 · Articles · 8 minute read

Drew Goddard's "Cabin in the Woods'

Horror flick with a conscience

At last: A horror film that asks its audience, “Why are you paying to see young people being butchered?”

Jake Blumgart

Apr 24, 2012 · Articles · 3 minute read

Joseph Cedar's "Footnote' (1st review)

Pornography for bibliophiles, or: Footnotes for Footnote

Writing, books and acts of reading and arguing about books and publications and words and ideas are to Joseph Cedar's Footnote what martial arts are to Jackie Chan movies. And I've got the footnotes to prove it.

AJ Sabatini

Apr 24, 2012 · Articles · 4 minute read

Agnieszka Holland's "In Darkness'

The Holocaust, as close as it gets

Agnieszka Holland's In Darkness, based on the true story of a Polish Gentile who kept a dozen Jews alive in the sewers of Lvov, is as close as anyone has come to depicting the most infernal event of human history without trivializing it— a moral accomplishment no less than an artistic one.

Robert Zaller

Apr 17, 2012 · Articles · 7 minute read

Claude Lanzmann at the Free Library

How to describe the indescribable?

In Philadelphia to promote his autobiography, the formidable Claude Lanzmann touched on his personal Jewish heritage, his experience as a wartime resistance fighter, his relationship with Jean-Paul Sartre, and the making of his classic Holocaust documentary, Shoah.

Robert Zaller

Mar 24, 2012 · Articles · 5 minute read

Education and "The Wild Bunch'

Everything I needed to know about learning, I learned from The Wild Bunch

What motivates kids to learn? Sam Peckinpah's violent 1969 Western is as good a place as any to seek the answer.

Andrew Mangravite

Mar 20, 2012 · Articles · 2 minute read

'Chronicle' vs. Plato's 'Republic'

What Plato could learn from teenagers

Plato suggested that even just men will be corrupted by unchecked power. Chronicle, a new teen fantasy flick, takes a different tack: Even the most just among us, it implies, have scores we're itching to settle, if only we had a magic wand or potion.

Jim Rutter

Feb 26, 2012 · Articles · 4 minute read

"Take Shelter' (2nd review)

Stormy weather

Take Shelter is a movie well worth experiencing for yourself before reading any commentary— including this one.

Judy Weightman

Feb 25, 2012 · Articles · 4 minute read