CONCLAVE EXPOSES HOW POPES MAY BE CHOSEN When the public sees smoke from the Vatican chimney, the inference is that the cardinals have not yet agreed upon a new pope. That’s how Conclave ends, so the drama takes place beforehand in a film that director Edward Burger assures is extremely accurate in details, though the […]
THE APPRENTICE TRIES TO EXPLAIN THE TRUMP PUZZLE Donald Trump attracts voters regardless of his dangerous policy pronouncements, so domestic and foreign pundits have been baffled, unable to explain how such a person could exist in the United States of America. The Apprentice, directed by Ali Abbasi, seeks to lay out how his life evolved
Political Film Review #698 Read More »
THE APPRENTICE TRIES TO EXPLAIN THE TRUMP PUZZLE Donald Trump attracts voters regardless of his dangerous policy pronouncements, so domestic and foreign pundits have been baffled, unable to explain how such a person could exist in the United States of America. The Apprentice, directed by Ali Abbasi, seeks to lay out how his life evolved
REAGAN PROVIDES AN INSIDER’S VIEW OF THE FORMER PRESIDENT Biopics tend to glorify those portrayed, and Reagan does so in spades, resulting in applause at the end of the film in a Los Angeles theater even a few days after the premier. The film’s chronology begins in his childhood, when Ronny (played by David Henrie)
Political Film Review #697 Read More »
REAGAN PROVIDES AN INSIDER’S VIEW OF THE FORMER PRESIDENT Biopics tend to glorify those portrayed, and Reagan does so in spades, resulting in applause at the end of the film in a Los Angeles theater even a few days after the premier. The film’s chronology begins in his childhood, when Ronny (played by David Henrie)
KIDNAPPED: THE ABDUCTION OF EDGARDO MORTARA FEATURES ITALIAN HISTORY Director Marco Bellocchio has filmed a history of Italy in which the fate of one person—Edgardo Mortara (played at age 6 by Enea Sala, as an adult by Leonardo Maltese)—galvanized opposition to rule over parts of the country known then as the Papal States. During the
Political Film Review #696 Read More »
KIDNAPPED: THE ABDUCTION OF EDGARDO MORTARA FEATURES ITALIAN HISTORY Director Marco Bellocchio has filmed a history of Italy in which the fate of one person—Edgardo Mortara (played at age 6 by Enea Sala, as an adult by Leonardo Maltese)—galvanized opposition to rule over parts of the country known then as the Papal States. During the
CIVIL WAR IS MIXED UP Despite a lot of publicity for the film Civil War, the efforts of an Englishman to direct a film about a civil war in the United States is a spectacle but politically amounts to a flop. Despite the director’s denials, the film’s president is a substitute for Donald Trump, as
I AM GITMO TELLS THE TRUTH ABOUTTHE BUSH ADMINISTRATION’S WAR CRIMES As a title at the end of the film attests, 86 percent of those at Guantánamo should not have been there. What happened is that Defense Secretary Rumsfeld had thousands of leaflets dropped in Afghanistan after 9/11, encouraging Afghans to rat on their rivals,
I AM GITMO TELLS THE TRUTH ABOUTTHE BUSH ADMINISTRATION’S WAR CRIMES As a title at the end of the film attests, 86 percent of those at Guantánamo should not have been there. What happened is that Defense Secretary Rumsfeld had thousands of leaflets dropped in Afghanistan after 9/11, encouraging Afghans to rat on their rivals,
Political Film Review #695 Read More »