reviews
TV’s forgotten: Indigenous and working-class series
December 21, 2020Few series on television focus either on the Earth’s first inhabitants, the Indigenous, now mostly quartered in slums across the world, or on workers, their lives, and daily concerns. We’ll be discussing the series Mystery Road,...
Read more
How capitalism underdeveloped Appalachia: The economic truth ‘Hillbilly Elegy’ ignores
December 1, 2020It’s a tough trip for J.D. Vance and the viewer, but as the ride bumps along, it stays safely above the larger issues that actually shape the afflictions of Appalachia.
Read more
PBS ‘Latinos Are Essential’: Who does the work and who pays
November 24, 2020The mainly young filmmakers and their mainly young subjects have gone beyond the confusion and drama of crisis. They do what so few films do: They capture portraits of working-class people at their jobs and illuminate...
Read more
‘Donbass’: The ‘People’s Republic of Donetsk’ and more in the Wild East
November 23, 2020Press notes and critics observe that Donbass contains commentary on disinformation, propaganda and has an Orwellian outlook regarding our “post-truth” age of “alternative facts.”
Read more
Features from Iran at 2020 Toronto International Film Festival
November 4, 2020Many critics rate Iranian cinema as one of the most significant artistically, comparable to the classic Italian neorealist movement.
Read more