In Rusudan Glogidze’s winter sophomore film “Vintage,” the title could refer to any number of withered relics: the beautiful, richly antique pieces of furniture that Georgian émigré Medea (Salome Demoria) illegally imports from her home country to Russia to sell; The once large but disintegrating apartment in St. Petersburg that she bought at a discount … Read more
An entertaining wedding switcheroo, “Laapataa Ladies” (or “Lost Ladies” in some areas) makes effective use of Bollywood’s broad social messaging. This style of storytelling can be clunky in order to draw in audiences, but director Kiran Rao deftly combines the literal and the symbolic, resulting in the audience being filled – for better or worse … Read more
Long before Peter Jackson screened The Lord of the Rings, audiences got a glimpse into the fantasy world of J. R. R. Tolkien through a trio of late-1970s animation projects: two Rankin/Bass animated television specials (of which no “The Hobbit” (still a fairly popular film) is a dark and ominous big picture directed by Ralph … Read more
Looking back seems to offer insight into the future in “The Hungarian Tailor,” Iveta Gruvova’s compelling adaptation of Peter Krzystovec’s novella “Emma and the Death’s Head” set in Slovakia during World War II. At that time, local residents had to navigate uncharted territory of authoritarianism, when the far-right Slovak People’s Party came to power (…)