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Netflix’s ‘Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenét Ramsey?’ Casts New Light on a 1996 Murder

©Courtesy of Netflix  The slaying of six-year-old JonBenét Ramsey remains one of the great unsolved mysteries of our day. The young girl, a precocious child who had starred in beauty pageants and talent contests, was found dead by her father in her bedroom in their Boulder, Colorado home on the morning after Christmas 1996. According…

‘Nosferatu’ Video Review: Above the Line vs. Below the Line Episode 48

In the latest installment of “Above the Line vs. Below the Line,” film critics Matthew Schuchman and Edward Douglas discuss Robert Eggers’ new remake of Nosferatu, a movie that the filmmaker behind The VVitch, The Lighthouse, and The Northman has been wanting to make for thirty years.  Nosferatu stars Timothy Hoult and Lily-Rose Depp as…

DOC NYC : ‘Queendom’ Explores Rage and Rebellion in Homophobic Russia

As I watched the poignant and powerful Queendom, I could not help thinking of “the personal is the political,” a catchphrase from the 1970s that was often used by feminists to validate the importance of personal, lived experience in the struggle to liberate themselves from oppressive structural systems. Agniia Galdanova‘s documentary, which was screened last…

Queer: A Breathtaking Epic of Same-Sex Desire

©Courtesy of A24 Described by its producers as the story of “a cosmic and precarious love between two American expats in midcentury Mexico City,” Luca Guadagnino‘s Queer is a breathtaking adaptation of the eponymous novel that William S Burroughs had begun writing in the 1950s though it was not published until 1985. Starring Daniel Craig…

Moana 2 Honors Exploration, Teamwork, and Perseverance

Photo by Disney/DISNEY – © 2024 Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Original Moana, after earning universal acclaim and more than $600 million worldwide, finally Moana is back! Moana has transitioned from being the youngest daughter of the island tribe’s leader to being the co-chieftain of her father after reversing an ancient curse on the goddess of nature. Now,…

Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival: No Address is a Realistic Exploration Into the Struggles of Homelessness

Society preaches the importance of caring for everyone, no matter what circumstances they find themselves in, during the current holiday season. But once the new year begins, many people’s consideration for those who are less fortunate seems to become quickly forgotten. The new emotionally gripping drama, No Address, showcases how people who experience homelessness are…

Senna : See it with Same Vividness as Yesterday

Photo by Alan Roskyn/Netflix – © 2024 Netflix, Inc. I could still see it with the same vividness as yesterday…That was a first-time I laid my eyes on Ayrton Senna on TV, and everyone was anticipating his best performance in Japan,  especially since he secured the pole position in the 1988 F1 Japan Grand Prix, despite…

DOC NYC : ‘Drop Dead City’ Focuses on New York’s Fiscal Crisis of 1975

Who knew that a film about accountants, bureaucrats, and municipal bond offerings could ever be interesting, let alone downright enjoyable? After all, hasn’t economics often been referred to as the “dismal science”? Despite its lugubrious title, Drop Dead City is actually quite an undismal description of how New York City was driven into near-bankruptcy half…

The World According To Allee Willis Celebrates A Neglected Artist

We often associate songs with its performers and tend to forget the songwriters who created them, before bequeathing their brainchild to a voice that isn’t theirs. But the world of the arts is capable of setting the record straight, and that is the case with the film The World According To Allee Willis directed by…

Blitz: Saoirse Ronan Humanizes Steve McQueen’s Poignant War Drama

©Courtesy of Apple TV+ Offering a critical exploration into how human cruelty and its resulting suffering can fuel resilience and courage into its victims has helped turn filmmaking into an emotional, realistic art form. Oscar-winning 12 Years a Slave director-producer, Steve McQueen has once again thrived in exploring how devastating cultural situations have long impacted…

DOC NYC: ‘Surveilled,’ Ronan Farrow Exposes Spyware

Investigative journalist Ronan Farrow, after exposing the sexual abuse allegations against film producer Harvey Weinstein, has focused on a new topic that concerns us all. In the HBO documentary Surveilled — directed by Matthew O’Neill and Perri Peltz — we are taken on a journey, from New York City all the way to Tel Aviv,…