Reviews Ana, mon amour (2017): The Relationship Hive Mind 3 Mar 20173 Mar 2017 Netzer's follow-up to the excellent Child's Pose (2013) shares some elements with its precursor, but takes a different angle to the emotional roots and psychological ties of family life. A…
Reviews Camera obscura (2016): Anachronistic Avantgarde 10 Jan 201711 Jan 2017 The last year or so has seen several Romanian documentaries about cinematic heritage and the associated resistance against the communist dictatorship, with Chuck Norris vs. Communism (2015) [review] and Cinema,…
Reviews Nocturnal Animals (2016): The Story Within the Story 21 Nov 201622 Nov 2016 Any follow-up to 'A Single Man' was bound to be challenging, with bar set so high. Expectations are a horrible thing to have. Ironically, Tom Ford puts together an intricate…
Reviews Afacerea Est: That’s How It’s Done (2016) 17 Nov 201610 Jan 2017 I still recall Igor Cobileanski's first two shorts ("Cand se stinge lumina" and "Sasa, Grisa si Ion", video links included) with great fondness. It was the earlier days of the…
Reviews Cinema, mon amour (2015): Or Existential Limbo 18 Aug 201610 Jan 2017 As a topic for contemplation, the decay and dissolution of the Romanian landscape of movie theaters runs deep. Once a sort of burgeoning socialist arrangement for communist propaganda, less than…
Reviews Ilegitim (2016): A Difficult Tread 9 Aug 201610 Jan 2017 It feels like skewering Illegitimate would be too easy at times. The gist of the movie, which is pretty clear if you've either read a synopsis or seen the poster,…
Reviews Chuck Norris vs. Communism (2015): A Nostalgia Soufflé 29 Apr 201610 Jan 2017 In spite of being born towards the end of the 80s, I recall several "Margareta Nistor movies", her trademark dubbing scarring my youth alongside the zombies of Return of the…
Reviews Der Mann, der über Autos sprang (2010): A Soulful Escape 15 Apr 2016 As the movie (English title: The Man Who Jumped Over Cars) was drawing to a close, the question of whether one could really jump over an oncoming car was nagging…
Reviews Fúsi (2015): On Solitude and Defiance 11 Apr 2016 It was fitting that on watching this film, I was almost alone in the cinema, because isolation and solitude are powerful themes throughout Fúsi (English title: Virgin Mountain). So when…
Reviews Er ist wieder da (2015): An Exercise in Challenging the Norm 4 Apr 20164 Apr 2016 I was traveling in Berlin a year ago when I first saw someone reading the eponymous book on which this movie is based. It stuck somewhere, so as my travels…
