Embargo circles around the history of the more than a half-century-long US embargo on Cuba. Director Jeri Rice meticulously explains the mechanics of how and why not much has changed, quite obviously not in the ceaselessly embargoed communist Cuba, but neither at the dream site of transformation: the blockading neo-liberal and democratic US. (MJJ: 3.5/5)
Day: September 14, 2017
THE FUTURE PERFECT (2016): Review by Brigid Presecky
A Chinese teenager learns Spanish in her new home of Buenos Aires, imagining the myriad of possibilities her future holds. Winner of the Best First Feature prize at the 2016 Locarno Film Festival, The Future Perfect (also known as El Futuro Perfecto) is a charming, honest portrayal of the human’s ability to adapt. (BKP: 4/5)
TROPHY (2017): Review by Amelie Lasker
Big game hunting may seem niche, but it’s an industry worth tens of billions of dollars, and it is rife with moral questions. Hunters argue that the revenue they produce helps to conserve habitats, and local anti-poaching officials add that the money the hunters spend helps to keep poachers from killing the same animals in…
IN SEARCH OF FELLINI (2017): Review by Giorgi Plys-Garzotto
A very pretty film that rewards familiarity with Fellini’s work. Nancy Cartwright does a good job with surrealist dialogue and keeps the film’s emotional arc clear despite its more whimsical elements. It’s a matter of taste whether its aesthetics appeal, and whether the expressionistic style makes up for the relative lack of plot. (GPG: 3/5)
RED TREES (2017): Review by Georgi Presecky
Director Marina Willer presents a first-person account of her family’s history as Jews in WWII in the doc Red Trees. Their survival of the Holocaust, and the resonance their migrant past still has is Willer’s focus in this autobiographical story of migrants reaching their dreams in spite of an unbelievably painful history. (GEP: 3.5/5)