the traveler's resource guide to festivals & films
a FestivalTravelNetwork.com site
part of Insider Media llc.
Connect with us:
Reviews
November '26 Digital Week II
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Friday, 13 November 2026 02:25
- Written by Kevin Filipski
In-Theater Releases of the Week
You Can See Everything
(A24)
If you thought that that spending three hours with disgraced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes prior to her 11-year prison term is too much, you’re in luck: once she’s locked up halfway through this long documentary, directors Nathan Fielder (who’s onscreen more than anyone, a la Michael Moore) and Lance Oppenheim recalibrate.
The result is a second half that becomes a sort of snarky commentary on the first, as Fielder brings Amanda Seyfried aboard (she won an Emmy playing Holmes in the excellent Hulu series The Dropout) to begin filming reenactments of moments with Holmes and her controlling partner Billy Evans that attempt to shed new light on what we’ve already seen. It’s cleverly done, with priceless moments of humor and even horror over the hubris we witness from both the film’s subjects and Fielder himself—but it ends up being less than the sum of its often involving parts.
(Grasshopper Film)
Director-writer Kogonada got his start making occasionally incisive videos about films and TV series, including classics in the Criterion Collection; his own pictures are also marked by self-satisfied but shallow explorations—his last film, The Big Bold Beautiful Journey, which wasted Colin Farrell and Margot Robbie, was beautiful to look at but impossibly long-winded.
His newest, mainly a two-hander set on the streets of Hong Kong, was made quickly and is less exhaustingly precious; with ace cinematographer Benjamin Loeb, Kogonada makes his own flimsy tale look terrific, even if its story and script are undercooked. Even the committed acting by Haley Jo Richardson, Michelle Mao and Jin Ha isn’t enough to make these characters convincing.
4K/UHD Releases of the Week
Gone With the Wind
(Warner Bros)
Producer David O. Selznick and director Victor Fleming’s landmark 1939 epic of the old South, based on Margaret Mitchell’s novel, is four hours long but feels like an immersive mini-series, even if the unavoidable racism of its era threatens to overshadow the compelling soap opera with Rhett Butler and Scarlett O’Hara at its center. There’s spectacular color photography by Ernest Haller and an intensely dramatic score by Max Steiner alongside Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh at their movie-star best—and Oscar-winning Hattie McDaniel as Scarlett’s faithful Mammy is as memorable as they are.
On 4K, the film’s images have never looked more vivid; the many extras include featurettes ported over from earlier editions, along with newer ones that give context to the film’s recreation of the antebellum South.
(Universal)
Andrew Adamson and Vicky Jenson’s 2001 animated blockbuster, based on William Steig’s beloved children’s book, gets a packed 25th anniversary edition that shows why it remains far and away the best Shrek film, with Mike Myers and Eddie Murphy doing their greatest voice work as the green ogre and his faithful sidekick Donkey.
The UHD restoration is eye-popping, making this worth a rewatch for the visuals alone; extras include a director’s commentary, vintage featurettes, deleted scenes and new interviews.
Blu-ray Releases of the Week
Salon Kitty
Miranda
(Cult Films)
Tinto Brass, the Italian maestro of photographing beautiful women in his often tongue-in-cheek films, died last week at age 93, and Cult Pictures (not to be confused with Cult Epics, the enterprising company that has released several Brass films in very good UHD editions) gets fortunate help with their release of two of his films on Blu-ray.
1976’s Salon Kitty is one of Brass’ more serious efforts, a tough but softcore study of a Berlin brothel turned into a spy network by Nazis; 1985’s lighthearted Miranda follows the sexual escapades of the irresistible eponymous war widow, played by the seductive Serena Grandi. No less an eminence than Federico Fellini raved about Miranda, so take that for what it’s worth. Both films look a little rough visually, particularly Salon Kitty, for which the available elements are not always up to bar. Each disc also includes a Brass interview.
November '26 Digital Week I
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Friday, 06 November 2026 02:56
- Written by Kevin Filipski
4K/UHD Release of the Week
The End of Oak Street
(Warner Bros)
David Robert Mitchell wrote and directed this clever monster movie that plays like a lengthy Twilight Zone episode as it spins a bizarre yarn of a middle-class middle America neighborhood in 1982 that finds itself back in the prehistoric era and the families must fend for themselves against killer dinosaurs.
Of course it’s nonsensically silly but it works, mostly because Mitchell keeps it relatively short, populates it with good actors like Anne Hathaway and Ewan McGregor and concentrates on thrills instead of explanations (notwithstanding the goofy ending). It all looks magnificently treacherous in 4K; extras comprise a trio of on-set featurettes.
Christmas at the Kringles
(Briarcliff Entertainment)
When Mark Sevenson and his family move into a new neighborhood, they discover that their eponymous neighbors are so besotted by the Christmas season that they celebrate every day of the year—and they will violently make trouble for anyone who doesn’t go along.
It sounds like a dopily dark comedy, but instead director Kevin Lewis and writer Zack Imbrogno have made a sour, mostly unfunny and unnecessarily bloody attempt to combine the holidays and horror. The cast is defeated by the unoriginal material, but Rob Riggle manages to squeeze a couple of laughs out of a nutty Santa.
Fjord
(Neon)
Romanian writer-director Cristian Mungiu returns with his latest provocative morality play that dramatically reverberates long after it ends, like his earlier 4 Months 3 Weeks 2 Days and Beyond the Hills. Romanian husband Mihai, his Norwegian wife Lisbet and their five children have moved back to Norway, where their conservative religious beliefs butt up against their new progressive community, coming to a head when the parents are accused of abuse and their kids are removed from their home.
Based on a true story, Mungiu’s film is as complicated and messy as real life—although a subplot involving their neighbors’ elderly father too obviously underlines the difficult relationships between parents and children—and it’s acted superbly by the entire cast, led by Sebastian Stan and Renate Reinsve as the beleaguered Mihai and Lisbet.
(Film Movement Classics)
Chinese master Zhang Yimou’s ravishing 1991 drama, set during the 1920s, follows Songlian, the young fourth wife of a wealthy man who lives on an estate with all his wives—or mistresses, as they’re referred to—and the power plays, double dealings and relationships that happen.
Zhang has always been a primarily visual director, and the variously subtle hues of red that he and ace cinematographer Zhao Fei film may be the apogee of their filmmaking style. Zhang’s then-muse, the stunning Gong Li, is a spectacular Songlian, while the new restoration makes Zhang’s film look more dazzling than ever.
Blu-ray Releases of the Week
Carmen
(Opus Arte)
French composer Georges Bizet never got to appreciate the success of his now-classic opera, since he died of a heart attack at age 37 a few months after its failed premiere. Of course, it’s now among a handful of recognizable musical stage dramas, with indelible characters, a romantic but tragic story and the most intoxicating earworms.
In director Damiano Michieletto’s serviceable 2024 staging set in Franco’s Spain at London’s Royal Opera House, Bashkir mezzo Aigul Akhmetshina makes a splendid Carmen, dramatic, fiery, humorous and ultimately tragic. There’s superb hi-def video and audio; extras are two backstage featurettes.
(Cohen Media)
For her ambitious biopic about Franz Kafka, director Agnieszka Holland refused to take the obvious route in dramatizing the ordinary existence and extraordinary work of a writer whose very name has become an adjective that even those unfamiliar with his writings know. Her energetic direction—heightened by Tomasz Naumiuk’s expert cinematography—unpacks Franz’s rather conventional life and quite unconventional art in ways both illuminating and irritating.
Several characters directly address the camera as if giving first-person accounts in a documentary, while a short story like the intense In the Penal Colony is recreated in a too-literally blood-dripping manner. Intentional anachronisms abound as well, making Holland’s kitchen-sink approach as eccentrically strange as her subject, played with enormous intelligence by Idan Weiss, a twitchy Kafkaesque lookalike.
American Ballet Theater Perform "Petal" & "Petite Mort" at Lincoln Center
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Friday, 30 October 2026 14:41
- Written by Jack Angstreich
James Whiteside, Madison Brown, and Calvin Royal III in Petal. Photo: Nir Arieli.
At Lincoln Center’s wonderful David H. Koch Theater, on the night of Wednesday, October 21st, I had the considerable pleasure to attend a marvelous mixed program of dance works presented by the outstanding American Ballet Theater, the first of its fall season.
After opening remarks by Susan Jaffe, the Artistic Director of Ballet Theater, the event started splendidly with an admirable performance of Helen Pickett’s remarkable Petal, from 2008, originally commissioned by Aspen Santa Fe Ballet and here receiving its company premiere. The piece features a beautiful score: two excerpts from Philip Glass’s “dance opera,” Les Enfants Terribles, after Jean Cocteau’s eponymous novel, as well as the end title music from Thomas Newman’s soundtrack for the film, Little Children. (The connection with Glass recalls Jerome Robbins’s Glass Pieces which would seem to be a likely influence.) The attractive costumes were designed by Nete Joseph, and the excellent lighting by Brandon Stirling Baker. The performance featured a superior cast, including Lauren Bonfiglio, Tristan Brosnan, Madison Brown, Jacob Clerico, Fangqi Li, Calvin Royal III, Sunmi Park, and James Whiteside.
Also rewarding was the next work, Petite Mort, by the distinguished choreographer, Jiří Kylián, which, despite certain modern inflections, bore a stronger relation to the classical vocabulary. This piece had the most glorious score on the program: two of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s greatest slow movements from his piano concerti, i.e., the Adagio from the A Major K. 488 and the Andante from the C Major K. 467, the celebrated Elvira Madigan concerto. (Evangelos Spanos was the impressive piano soloist, with the orchestra conducted by Charles Barker.) The elegant costumes were designed by Joke Visser and the effective lighting by Joop Caboort. The cast here was even starrier, with Park, Li, Brosnan, and Whiteside again, along with Zimmi Coker, João Menegussi, Betsy McBride, Carlos Gonzalez, Chloe Misseldine, Thomas Forster, Hee Seo, and Isaac Hernández.
The highlight of the evening by far, however, was the concluding selection which hadn’t been performed by this company in three decades: the magnificent Paquita, choreographed by the now legendary Natalia Makarova, after that of the immortal Marius Petipa, set to a charming score by Ludwig Minkus, orchestrated by John Lanchbery. (The conductor was David LaMarche.) The sets and winsome costumes were designed by Jose Varona. This had the finest cast of all led by the astonishing Devon Teuscher and Joo Won Ahn, along with Yoon Jung Seo, Sierra Armstrong, Breanne Granlund, and Léa Fleytoux. (The superb corps de ballet were also featured.)
The artists, including Makarova herself who finally entered the stage, deservedly received a standing ovation.
October '26 Digital Week II
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Thursday, 29 October 2026 18:25
- Written by Kevin Filipski
In-Theater Releases of the Week
Once Upon a Time in Harlem
(Neon/Film at Lincoln Center, filmlinc.org)
Filmmaker William Greaves pointed his revealing camera at a starry group of dignitaries from the 1920s Harlem Renaissance—including musician Eubie Blake, lyricist Noble Sissle and artist Romare Bearden—whom he invited to Duke Ellington’s uptown townhouse in 1972 for honest, informative and illuminating conversations about their memories of that era and how it helped to transform American culture.
Greaves’ son David took his father’s footage and has made a compelling and fresh portrait that ensures that these artists and intellectuals not only get a chance to speak their minds but also to—even more importantly—be identified.
(MUBI/Film at Lincoln Center, filmlinc.org)
In Pawel Pawlikowski’s chamber film, Nobel laureate Thomas Mann—the greatest German writer of the first half of the 20th century—returns home four years after Hitler’s defeat to claim plaudits from his native country with his daughter Erika—whose own demons include the suicide of her beloved brother, writer Klaus Mann—driving him in what becomes a metaphorical and poetic journey.
There’s a lot stuffed into this 80-minute drama from German literary and cultural history to the fraught relationship of Mann and his children. Although Pawlikowski glosses over some of this rich ore, the excellent central performances of Hanns Zischler as Thomas and Sandra Hüller as Erika make this near-essential viewing. Too bad the resourceful August Diehl only gets one scene as Klaus, but it’s a dark scene-setter for this chronicle of a broken family and nation, beautifully photographed in rich greys by Łukasz Żal.
Streaming Release of the Week
A Brief Affair
(Breaking Glass Pictures)
Ludovica Rampoldi wrote and directed this a one-note comedy-drama about two people who meet cute one night and reluctantly fall into an adulterous affair, managing to keep their illicit encounters secret—at least until a couple of unsurprising plot twists end up bringing everything into the open.
It’s all attractively acted by Pilar Fogliati, Adriano Giannini, Andrea Carpenzano and Valeria Golino, but Rampoldi’s derivative script and direction prevent this from becoming a true guilty pleasure. Too bad the costume film Primavera, directed by Damiano Michieletto from Rampoldi’s flavorful script, hasn’t been released yet hereabouts.
Eclipse Series 5—The First Films of Samuel Fuller
(Criterion)
Samuel Fuller (1912–97) was a director who was best-known for making low-budget films in many different genres mainly outside studio interference, although his first three features (collected here) are primary examples of his takes on the western and the war film.
His debut was the myth-busting western I Shot Jesse James (1949), followed by the darkly comic The Baron of Arizona (1950) and gritty Korean War drama The Steel Helmet (1951). Fuller’s films were raw and often crude but nearly as often original; on Blu-ray, these black and white films look vividly striking.
Rusalka
(Naxos)
Czech composer Antonín Dvořák’s most dramatic and enticing stage work is this “lyric fairy tale” about the titular mermaid who becomes human when she falls in love with a man but her decision leads to tragedy. Dvořák’s gorgeously melodic music includes one of the most stirring arias ever written, the “Song to the Moon,” sung here in Philipp Stölzl and Philipp M. Krenn’s otherwise misguided modern production by the beguiling Dutch soprano Johanni van Oostrum.
Although the rest of the cast impresses—as is the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and Dutch National Opera Chorus under conductor Joana Mallwitz—it’s van Oostrum who makes this strangely impersonal staging attractive. There’s first-rate hi-def video and audio.
George Enescu—Octet and Quintet
(Chandos)
Romanian composer George Enescu (1881–1955) was a musical prodigy on the level of Mozart and Mendelssohn, as these remarkably mature chamber pieces, written when he was a teenager, can attest.
Enescu composed his string quintet at age 15, but it’s an accomplished work that’s more than a bit reminiscent of Enescu’s musical hero, Brahms; but his octet for two string quartets, finished when he was just 19, is something else altogether: a thoroughgoing masterpiece that stuns with its breathtaking originality and endless variety. Members of the Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective perform both pieces with assurance and vitality, befitting the youthful zest in which they were written.
More Articles...
Newsletter Sign Up
Upcoming Events
No Calendar Events Found or Calendar not set to Public.