There is something inescapably Portlandia about Showing Up. To be fair, it does take place in (unnamed) Portland at the (unnamed) Oregon College of Art and Craft (a real institution that has sadl…
Before seeing All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, I was unfamiliar with photographer Nan Goldin's art but I had heard about her group's activism. In the last few years, as hundreds of thousands of Ameri…
In a quirky voice-over by cheeky Olivia Colman, we are introduced to Louis Wain (Benedict Cumberbatch). An odd duck of young man in Victorian England, he is the ill-suited sole breadwinner for his mot…
Two things before we get started:
1. I haven’t seen the acclaimed documentary Marwencol, which inspired this film, and purposely didn’t see watch it in the weeks leading up to the screening because I…
There are just about no greater villains of modern history, both cinematically and in reality, as the Nazis. Images of the stiff-armed salutes, the crisp uniforms, the shiny boots, and--just as horrif…
Entertainment has always loved a mad genius. Whether the person portrayed is a brilliant scientist, artist, or musician -- these folks almost always makes for at least interesting cinema. We lowly fol…
The Keane "Big Eyes" paintings that dominated the late Fifties and early Sixties (and inspired endless knock-offs) have been called everything from kitschy to haunting. What caused this artist to pain…
Imagine you are a private person, very private. You have a lot of stuff. You are a bit of a loner and don't have close family. Imagine you had a hobby that meant a lot to you, but you kept it to yours…
For starters, I couldn’t quite tell whether Clooney’s latest directorial effort – an amiable but somewhat forgettable WWII picture about a rag-tag group of art-loving guys tasked with recovering, and …
Michelangelo Buonarroti (Charlton Heston) was already pretty much a rock star (or shall I say marble star... wah wah!) of his day, as he was kept perfectly busy with his commissions of sculptures, inc…
Adam Goldberg plays Adrian, an Adam Goldberg-type... you know, he is scowly, moody, full of disdain for humanity in general, and explodes with rat-tat-tat verbosity about how he is obviously the smart…
James McAvoy stars as Simon, an art auctioneer who’s pulled into the high-stakes heist of a multi-million-dollar painting. But when the job goes awry and he’s knocked unconscious, he loses a chunk of …
