RKS 2024 Film: “Come Lie with Me” (Arrête avec tes mesonges): The Torture of Remaining in the Closet

I take issue with the translation of “Arrête avec tes mesonges” which in my French means “stop with your lies” far more appropriate than “Come Lie with Me” given the path and plot of the film. You see Stéphane Belcourt (Guillame de Tonquédec) is a gay novelist who is quite out of the closet. OnContinue reading “RKS 2024 Film: “Come Lie with Me” (Arrête avec tes mesonges): The Torture of Remaining in the Closet”

RKS 2024 Film: “Be Still”: A Descent into Madness of a Forgotten Canadian

You know Salvador Dali and Mary Cassatt. But do you know Canadians Helen Galloway McNicoll and Hannah Maynard? All but erased from history, 40 years before Dali and the Surrealist movement began, professional Canadian photographer Hannah Maynard was perfecting surrealistic techniques in her Victoria, British Columbia studio. Maynard moved beyond stone faced portraits to aContinue reading “RKS 2024 Film: “Be Still”: A Descent into Madness of a Forgotten Canadian”

RKS 2024 Film: “Werner Herzog: Radical Dreamer”

“Werner Herzog: Radical Dreamer” is a documentary scanning the live and films of German director Werner Herzog. Herzog quips all his films emanate from pain and not pleasure. While many of the actors and directors in the documentary laud Herzog as a dreamer Herzog says he rarely dreams but sometimes when walking or driving longContinue reading “RKS 2024 Film: “Werner Herzog: Radical Dreamer””

RKS 2024 Film: “Eternal You”: Manipulative and Delusional Comfort Offered By Artificial Intelligence? The Swindling of Human Intelligence (or Lack Thereof) by Artificial Intelligence

“Eternal You” is a German-American documentary world premiering at 2024 Sundance this January. It explores the use of AI by users to interact with the dead through chat box voice synthesis and often with visual interactions. In this AI paradigm logic dictates this is an hallucination or illusion which seems in the examples proffered toContinue reading “RKS 2024 Film: “Eternal You”: Manipulative and Delusional Comfort Offered By Artificial Intelligence? The Swindling of Human Intelligence (or Lack Thereof) by Artificial Intelligence”

RKS 2024 Film: “And So It Begins”

Complimenting Ramona S. Diaz’s 2020 film “A Thousand Cuts” introducing Maria Ressa’s struggle in the Philippines to assert the rights of a free press through her media outlet Rappler, Diaz returns this month to 2024 Sundance with “And So It Begins” which chronicles the 2022 Presidential campaign of Leni Robredo affectionately known as “Leni”. FacingContinue reading “RKS 2024 Film: “And So It Begins””

RKS 2024 Film: “After the Fire” (Avant que les flames): Tired Old Plot Barely Saved by Fresh Talent

The French film “After the Fire” suffers from tired old plot syndrome perhaps more common in the news of the day or in documentaries than in a feature film. Minority member brutalized and killed by the police. It happens ubiquitously in almost all countries. In this film Karim El Yadari of Strasbourg dies after aContinue reading “RKS 2024 Film: “After the Fire” (Avant que les flames): Tired Old Plot Barely Saved by Fresh Talent”

RKS 2024 Film: “Double Down South” Meets “The Hustler” and Oliver Twist

Iconic films are shunted aside, but never replaced, by successors. In this case “The Hustler” (1961) is complimented by “Double Down South”. There are so many hustlers in this keno film I am not sure who is hustling whom but the “pool hustle” has been upgraded most enjoyably to the modern era by “Double DownContinue reading “RKS 2024 Film: “Double Down South” Meets “The Hustler” and Oliver Twist”

RKS 2024 Film: “There is a Monster”:  I Have Seen This Monster

Jack Terry (Joey Collins) is a successful commercial photographer. He is on the verge of an enormously successful series of shoots. Everything is going his way except his relationship with his wife Carol (Ena O’Rourke) which hit the skids after a brief drunken fling with a model he was photographing. Jack frequently sees a monsterContinue reading “RKS 2024 Film: “There is a Monster”:  I Have Seen This Monster”

RKS 2024 Film: “Tōtem”: The Wrenching Realization of Death and Life on its Flip Side

Sol (Naima Sentíes) is a nineish year-old Mexican girl. Her artistic father Ton is terminally ill and death hovers. His family decides to celebrate his birthday with a large party. Sol arrives at her aunt’s house early for the party. Ton’s husband Nuria has taken to drinking heavily unable to process the impending death ofContinue reading “RKS 2024 Film: “Tōtem”: The Wrenching Realization of Death and Life on its Flip Side”

RKS 2024 Film: “Some Other Woman”: The Women are not the Problem Here! Who is Taking Over Whom?

With the camera on a Caribbean Island a female narration sets forth a legend of the island with a backdrop of two women in a life and death struggle in the water. The island legend is of a fisherman is on his boat with his beautiful pregnant wife and encounters a storm which tosses hisContinue reading “RKS 2024 Film: “Some Other Woman”: The Women are not the Problem Here! Who is Taking Over Whom?”