One of the main themes of the instant Swedish classic from 2009, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, is, “Everybody’s got secrets.” It’s also the personal aphorism of its central character – the young, mysterious, professional hacker, Lisbeth Salander, aka, Wasp. Her enigmatic persona is instantly established the moment she appears onscreen, creating an […]

  In 1991, Julie Dash made history with her debut film, Daughters of the Dust, which she wrote, directed and produced. It was the first movie made by an African-American woman shown in theaters across the country. A striking and original piece of film art, Daughters of the Dust is fictional, but inspired by Dash’s […]

  Before winning an Oscar for Jojo Rabbit, and before breathing new life into MCU’s withering Thor franchise, Taika Waititi was New Zealand’s most popular and successful filmmaker. Two of his homegrown films, 2016’s Hunt for the Wilderpeople and 2014’s What We Do in the Shadows, became international cult hits. But one of his lesser-known […]

  Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill: Vol. 2 is the superior half of a two-part revenge epic, and one of the best film of 2004. In Kill Bill: Vol. 1, released the year prior, a former assassin known as The Bride, played by Uma Thurman, was betrayed and left for dead, ostensibly on her wedding day, […]

  Every so often a really good movie will undeservedly fail at the box office. Bad timing, the marketing challenges of outside-the-box storytelling, or even its title can undermine theatrical success. But films that go on to develop a large and enthusiastic fan base in the home-video market are often far more interesting than profitable […]

  The main advantage of being a low-budget indie filmmaker is having the freedom to be creative without the interference of micro-controlling studio executives wanting to produce a mainstream product. Take, for example, David Lowery. In 2017, fresh off his $65 million collaboration with Disney to bring the live-action version of Pete’s Dragon to the […]

  “I know that nothing can change, and I know there is no hope.” So says Ethan Hawke as the despairing Reverend Toller in the compelling drama, First Reformed. First Reformed, released theatrically in the first half of 2018, was written and directed by Paul Schrader, one of the essential voices of the New Hollywood […]

  Youthful exuberance runs afoul of archaic traditions in the 2015 Oscar nominee for Best Foreign Language Film, Mustang. Five young orphaned sisters, living together in the Turkish countryside with their grandmother and uncle, have just finished another school year. On their way home, excited by the start of summer and still fully clothed in […]

  (Dennis Morton and I, as hosts of the KSQD Film Gang, have always reviewed current theatrical releases, believing that movies are at their best when enjoyed the way they were intended – on the big screen and with an audience. But most important is the film itself, regardless of how and where it’s viewed. […]

  A simple story of love and love lost becomes a feminist polemic and a meditation on the sensuality of seeing, and being seen, in the new French film by writer/director Céline Sciamma, Portrait of a Lady on Fire. It’s the late 1800’s, and Marianne, an art instructor, is modeling for her class of aspiring […]