Siddhant Adlakha, Variety: “As the game grows more complex, WAR GAME invokes footage not only of January 6 but of other flashpoints in American history involving protest, state violence or religious extremism — Kent State, the MOVE bombings, Waco and so on — building a tapestry of the past, as a chilling reminder of what might happen if warnings go unheeded.”
Category: Film/TV/Video
U.S. Theatrical Premiere August 2 at Film Forum:
ALAM: Poignant and Politically Fraught Coming of Age Tale – Premiering via VOD/Digital on 4/26 (Review in the Works)
Talk about Jungian Synchronicity (events are chance occurrences from a statistical point of view, but meaningful in that they may seem to validate paranormal ideas) and with April 5, 2024 “Breaking News” headlines about President Biden and Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s phone chat-chat, timing couldn’t be better. – Article by WORD editor Gregg W. Morris. Review in the works.
Film Review
I DIDN’T SEE YOU THERE: A Mindboggling, Mind-blowing, Mind-bending Film Experience
Reid Davenport:“All of the footage in I DIDN’T SEE YOU THERE is shot by me from my literal point-of-view. The motivation for this is twofold: 1, to jar viewers with shots from a camera held by my spastic body or mounted to my wheelchair, and, 2, to unequivocally rebuke the norm of disabled people being seen and not heard In this film, viewers listen to my voiceover without ever seeing the entirety of my face.”
Review, articles by Gregg W. Morris
2023 Harlem International Film Festival – May 18-28
Celebrating the art of cinema in the home of the Harlem Renaissance, The Harlem International Film Festival (Hi) inspires and entertains by honoring dynamic films by anyone about anything under the sun. Conceived from the belief that we all have…
Film Review of Recently Re-released IRRESVERSIBLE (2002) with its companion IRREVERSIBLE: STRAIGHT CUT (2023) by Gaspar Noé.
Excerpt from the production notes: “On the original release of IRREVERSIBLE, critics responded vehemently, and the relationship between the violence of the film and its form was central to how it was perceived and valued. However, as yet, there has been little critical response to the Straight Cut and, as a result, there has been little discussion about how the revised structure impacts on the film’s meaning and the permissibility of its depiction of violence.”
This reviewer wonders what respected American filmmakers in these contemporary times will be saying about the new release. What will respected Filmmakers of Color as well as respected Film Reviewers of Color say? Last, but absolutely not least, what’s will be on the minds of respected women filmmakers and film reviewers? – Review by Gregg W. Morris
Not Particularly “Gripping” But It Most Certainly Has Its Seductive Moments
MARLOWE is a thematic, mystifying, aesthetic riddle rather than a gumshoe “gripping noir crime thriller” being pitched, marketed, publicized and set to release in a fashionable grand style today, February 13, in Big Apple’s AMC Empire 25, Lincoln…
Review of WHO’S ANNIE? – Pilot for a Surreal Dark Comedy Series by Sophia Peer
Despite jail-time, 12-step programs and five marriages, Annie played by Annie Pisapia begins an acting career because of a close encounter of a whacky kind with a director she meets at a Burger King in Queens, NYC. Definitely head spinning. – Review by Gregg W. Morris
Winner of the Audience Award for Best Feature Film at Silicon Beach Film Festival
“Movies are so rarely great art that if we cannot appreciate great trash, we shouldn’t go at all,” Pauline Kale was quoted as saying. And Roger Elbert, author of “Your Movie Sucks,” once acknowledged that some of his fans confided in him their need sometimes to see really bad movies even though the reasons were never explained. This reviewer believed those comments needed to be aired before he got into the guts of the review of first time director Zach Koepp’s 77-minute-long THE WILLOWBROOK, which was released on digital early in November.
The WORD’s Truth, Whole Truth and Nothing But the Truth Film Review of PRESENCE, Directed by Christian Schultz
Good horror films can make us twist and turn in our seats and cringe, wince, slink down in the same seats where we are twisting and turning and hiding for any kind of relief possible from what on the screen is scaring the bejesus out of us. Review by Gregg W. Morris
Review and Q&A for SEXTORTION, THE HIDDEN PANDEMIC (2022) – Part 3
Maria Demeshkina Peek [responding to a question about what else they were doing]: … we are presently working on creating educational modules for schools that would be five minute videos that explain the story of a survivor from different perspectives.…