Film
To watch a Frederick Wiseman documentary is to see a subject or topic through the filmmaker’s eyes.
The intention isn’t to provoke, eroticize, or sexually titillate. Devoid of the kinds of melodramatics that play into the fujoshi fantasy that’s all the rage right now, “Pillion” is a film about fetishes that never fetishizes its subject matter to placate an outsider’s gaze.
With its briskly intoxicating style, narrative aplomb, and masterful performances, this film transforms pulpy material into a gripping entertainment with a satisfying, social justice subtext.
Directors Sims-Fewer and Mancinelli indulge in a few too many changes of tone, but their film offers a pleasantly oddball romance.
A trio of illuminating documentaries, their topics ranging from the struggles of a local newspaper to the days of public access cable television in New York City.
The film urges the audience to take action against AI, but it is too symptomatic of today’s paralysis to be of as much help as it would like to be.
“Magellan” circles the world and the world circles the drain.
Despite an excellent cast, impressive production values, and the thrilling music at its heart, “The Choral” often feels as if it is trying to be several films at once.
As a dick-waving demonstration of fascist corporate and political power, “Melania” would make a great double bill with Pasolini’s “Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom.”
Visual Art Commentary: Silence Is Complicity — Why Museums Must Use Their Voice to Defend Democracy