Mini-reviews: The Oscar Nominated Shorts 2018 (Animation & Live Action)
Another year, another batch of short films. This year, there were none I was absolutely in love with. Last year was full of punch you in the guts social issues…
Mini-reviews: The Oscar Nominated Shorts 2018 (Documentary)
Last year was all about war and refugees and people in peril a world away. This time it's all about people here at home though still in peril. The films…
Review: The Insult (L’insulte)
Since most of what we're fed about the Middle East is about war and strife, it's always good to see a film about regular people set there. And since Lebanon…
Review: The Divine Order
The Divine Order (Die göttliche Ordnung) tells the story of women’s suffrage in Switzerland. I had no idea that the women there didn’t get the right to vote until 1971.…
Review: The Square
Winner of the 2017 Cannes Film Festival's Palme D'Or, The Square is a darkly funny satire set in the art world. Christian (Claes Bang) is the head curator at a…
Review: Mudbound
Mudbound was another film we both saw at Middleburg. It won the audience award at the festival and it’s easy to see why: great performances in a tragic epic of…
Review: Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri is a darkly funny masterpiece. Oscar nods await, no doubt. It’s the story of Mildred Hayes (Frances McDormand) a mother who is righteously pissed that…
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Arty Chick
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Arty Chick’s Middleburg Festival Download
What a great festival! It's my first year at Middleburg, now in its 5th year, but I was truly impressed by their selections. It's a small festival, as yet pretty…
Review: I Am Another You
Nanfu Wang is a very gutsy documentarian. In her previous film, Hooligan Sparrow, she put herself in extreme danger by documenting one of China's most famous women’s rights activists taking…
Review: Clash
This is an edge of your seat sort of film. It takes place in Egypt after the Arab Spring, after the Muslim Brotherhood has been thrown out of the government…
The Beguiled Review
When I heard this film was being done, my first thought was, "A remake of the 70s Clint Eastwood flick? Why?" But fortunately it's not a remake. Sophia Coppola has…
Toni Erdmann
This father-daughter dramedy/farce from German director Maren Ade may clock in at 162 minutes, but I never got bored and it certainly didn't drag. The film starts with a familiar…
Frantz
French writer/director François Ozon has made some of my favorite films these last few years. With The New Girlfriend, In the House, and Potiche he's shown himself to be very…
Live Action (Short Subject) Nominees
This is also a hard category, because the films are all so different, and the art of telling a story in a short time without either rushing it or shortchanging…
Animation (Short Subject) Nominees
The Animated shorts category is always a hard one for me to judge. Will the Academy members go with the best, most amazing animation, or will it be about telling…