Movie review by Greg Carlson Carlo Mirabella-Davis’s noteworthy feature debut as writer-director examines, with a degree of precision and deliberateness that would impress Alfred Hitchcock, the actions of a young woman who consumes inedible objects as a way to attain some measure of control in her suffocating marriage to a wealthy man. The disorder, identified […]
Crip Camp
Movie review by Greg Carlson Sundance 2020 opening night selection and audience award winner “Crip Camp” — now streaming on Netflix — recounts the incredible grassroots movement that ultimately led to the passage and implementation of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which was signed into law on July 26, 1990. But before that ceremonial milestone, […]
Posted by GBC on April 18, 2020
https://southpawfilmworks.net/?p=4319
Collecting Movies with Mike Scholtz
Interview by Greg Carlson My friend Mike Scholtz, the director of “Riplist” and many other fantastic documentaries, collects movies when he’s not making them. He especially likes VHS and once rescued the children of Pine City, Minnesota by purchasing tapes of “Fritz the Cat” and “Flesh Gordon” that had been shelved in the local thrift […]
Posted by GBC on April 10, 2020
https://southpawfilmworks.net/?p=4311
Never Rarely Sometimes Always
Movie review by Greg Carlson Eliza Hittman’s Sundance favorite “Never Rarely Sometimes Always,” which played in theaters for just three days before Focus Features pulled the film amidst the widespread and unprecedented coronavirus-related closures, will be made available on demand beginning April 3. According to Anne Thompson, the movie will cost $19.99 to rent for […]
Posted by GBC on April 2, 2020
https://southpawfilmworks.net/?p=4306
Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound
Movie review by Greg Carlson Veteran sound editor and USC professor Midge Costin educates and entertains as the director of “Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound.” An engaging, entry-level crash course on the role of audio in motion picture storytelling, the film is a sibling to “Visions of Light,” “Side by Side,” and other […]
Posted by GBC on March 29, 2020
https://southpawfilmworks.net/?p=4303
The Green Fog
Movie review by Greg Carlson In 2017, the always vital Guy Maddin and regular collaborators Evan and Galen Johnson were commissioned by the San Francisco Film Society to create some kind of city-themed motion picture homage/tribute in collage form for the 60th San Francisco International Film Festival. The movie that resulted, “The Green Fog,” has […]
Posted by GBC on March 21, 2020
https://southpawfilmworks.net/?p=4299
Lost Girls
Movie review by Greg Carlson Documentary filmmaker Liz Garbus visited the Fargo Film Festival in 2002 — the second year of the event — to introduce a screening of her Emmy and Sundance Grand Jury Prize-winning, Oscar-nominated “The Farm: Angola, USA.” The supremely talented artist would go on to make many other nonfiction films of […]
Posted by GBC on March 16, 2020
https://southpawfilmworks.net/?p=4296
Emma.
Movie review by Greg Carlson Photographer and music video veteran Autumn de Wilde makes a bold statement with her feature directorial debut, punctuating the title of the oft-adapted Jane Austen favorite with an emphatic period as if to suggest she gets the last word with this particular edition of “Emma.” Sumptuously designed, elegantly appointed, and […]
Posted by GBC on March 6, 2020
https://southpawfilmworks.net/?p=4290
Kindred Creatures Director Samuel Sprynczynatyk Interview
Interview by Greg Carlson Bismarck-based filmmaker Samuel Sprynczynatyk’s “Kindred Creatures” is a feature-length documentary that explores the world of farm animals and the sanctuaries that rescue them. The movie also addresses animal rights and animal activism. For Sprynczynatyk, a long-time vegan, “Kindred Creatures” is a dream project that advocates the position that “animals are somebody, […]
Posted by GBC on February 28, 2020
https://southpawfilmworks.net/?p=4283
The Lodge
Movie review by Greg Carlson “Goodnight Mommy” filmmakers Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala continue to carve up chills, thrills, and nightmares in “The Lodge,” a Sundance 2019 favorite finally receiving the theatrical release it rightfully deserves. With an unrelentingly oppressive atmosphere in the claustrophobically framed location of the title, “The Lodge” is perfect slow-burn arthouse […]
Posted by GBC on February 20, 2020
https://southpawfilmworks.net/?p=4277