6 DAYS EXPOSES BRUTAL ANTI-TERRORISM IN BRITAIN In 1979, mass demonstrations in Tehran welcomed the Ayatollah Khomeni, and the Islamic State of Iran was born. The American Embassy was seized that year, and hostages were held inside for 444 days. In 1980, an American attempt to free the hostages failed when a helicopter crashed. Meanwhile, the […]
GOOK REVEALS LOS ANGELES AT ITS WORST At the beginning of Gook, a title on the screen defines the term as a derogatory reference to anyone from East Asia or Southeast Asia; the term gained currency among Americans during the wars in Korea and Vietnam. When the film begins, April 29, 1992, a jury has just exonerated
COLONIALISM IS ABANDONED IN VICEROY’S HOUSE In 1947, Prime Minister Clement Attlee decided to recognize the independence of India, but the final decision on whether to partition the country, as Muslims wanted, was left to the top administrator of the colony, the viceroy. Attlee decides to give that decision to Lord Louis Mountbatten (played by Hugh
LIFE IS HARD BUT CAN BE FUN IN MOSCOW NEVER SLEEPS Irish director Johnny O’Reilly, who lives in the Moscow that he loves more than Dublin, decides to track the lives of several fictional residents for 24 hours, giving filmviewers a taste of life in the Russian capital by shifting back and forth between several intertwined
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CHURCHILL IS ABOUT HIS NOT-SO-FINEST HOURS As a title at the end of Churchill says, Winston Churchill may possibly be the greatest Briton of all time. But the early days of June 1944, featured in the film, were unquestionably his worst. What happens is that contents of Operation Overlord, the plan for D-Day, are revealed to him by
DID TWO EXPLORERS FIND PARADISE IN THE LOST CITY OF Z ? A biopic of Percy Fawcett (played by Charlie Hunnam), The Lost City of Z is a fascinating account of efforts to find a lost civilization in the upper Amazon based on a 2009 book of the same title by David Grann, though with a revealing subtitle A Tale
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TICKLING GIANTS PROVES THAT COMEDY IS ONLY CRUEL FOR THE CRUEL A self-documentary in the style of Roger & Me, Bassem Youssef tells his story in Tickling Giants as he became the John Stewart of Egypt for four seasons. With considerable film footage, he begins as a heart surgeon who is caught up in the Arab Spring of
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AT ETERNITY’S GATE LOCATES VINCENT VAN GOGHIn the 19th century, up-and-coming artists headed for Paris, banding together to provide subsistence similar to what La Bohème portrays. Vincent Willem Van Gogh (played by Willem Dafoe), not recognized as a great artist by his contemporaries, cannot not abide how the group operates. Neither can his best friend Paul
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BARRY IS NOT ABOUT HAPPINESS IN NEW YORK CITY After time in Honolulu, Jakarta, and Los Angeles, Barry Obama (magnificently played by Devon Terrell) hops a plane to the Big Apple on a day near his 20th birthday to go to Columbia College so he can advance intellectual pursuits. Director Vikram Gandhi seeks to explain how
NERUDA IS POETRY WITHIN POETRY In 1945, Chile’s famous poet Pablo Neruda (played by Luis Gnecco) was elected Senator, choosing to run as a member of the Communist Party, which he joined after the election. The following year, Gabriel González Videla asked Neruda to be his campaign manager. But when the Cold War and McCarthyism sweeps