BEST POLITICAL FILMS OF 2022 Among eleven films nominated by the Political Film Society for 2022 in each of four categories, members of the Political Film Society selected the best in each category. The winning film directors will receive awards: The best film promoting DEMOCRACY was Argentina, 1985, which covered the trial of those found […]
Political Film Review #674 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)
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 »
THE OLD OAK SHOWS HOW RELICS OF THE PAST MIGHT ENJOY THE FUTURE Director Ken Loach has a knack for depicting how forgotten people view their worlds. In his The Old Oak he focuses on a pub called The Old Oak in a small town near Durham, northeast England, during the year 2016. Once upon
Political Film Review #694 Read More »
THE OLD OAK SHOWS HOW RELICS OF THE PAST MIGHT ENJOY THE FUTURE Director Ken Loach has a knack for depicting how forgotten people view their worlds. In his The Old Oak he focuses on a pub called The Old Oak in a small town near Durham, northeast England, during the year 2016. Once upon
ONE LIFE IS A BIOPIC WITH TWO HIGH POINTS Nicholas Winton (played by Johnny Flynn) is the person who organized the rescue of 669 Jewish children from Prague before the Nazis took full control of Czechoslovakia in 1939. One Life, directed by James Hawes, begins in 1987, when Winton (played by Anthony Hopkins) is 78