The 1994 American documentary film “Hoop Dreams” directed and produced by Steve James, Frederick Marx, and Peter Gilbert is regarded as one of the best documentaries ever made. During it’s nearly three hours runtime it follows William Gates and Arthur Agee, two African-American high school students, in Chicago and their dream of becoming professional basketball […]
Hoop Dreams – ★★★★★ Read More »
After the long Cinema break due to COVID-19 one of the biggest mainstream releases of this year finally arrives in cinemas after it has been postponed several times. I’m talking about “Tenet” the new film by popular British-American filmmaker Christopher Nolan (Memento, Dark Knight-Trilogy, Inception, Interstellar, Dunkirk). This is a short spoiler free review of
The new visual album film “Black is King” by Beyoncé is now available on Disney +. A huge amount of artists from the US and from countries in Africa such as Nigeria, Ghana and South Africa worked together to create a new creative visual music film based on Disney’s Lion King. The project is rich
Black Is King – ★★★★½ Read More »
The US comedy drama “Marriage Story” with Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson by Noah Baumbach from 2019 on Netflix is excellent. A sensitive portrait of a break-up marriage and at the same time of a family that stays together. The acting and the dialogues are excellent and especially Adam Driver and Laura Dern, in a
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Amazon Prime Video now feautures the most visually beautiful and finest art house film of 2019, “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” by Celine Sciamma from France. A historical drama about the relationship of a young aristocrat and a painter who is supposed to portray her. The framing, the light, the colours and the faces
Portrait of a Lady on Fire – ★★★★★ Read More »
The 2017 biographical film “A Prayer Before Dawn” by Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire is now available on Prime Video and is one of the greatest smaller international films I discovered that year. It is based on the experiences of British Billy Moore, a drug-addicted Muay Thai boxer who lives in Thailand and is jailed for drug dealing.
A Prayer Before Dawn – ★★★★ Read More »
You can now watch Raoul Peck’s 2016 US documentary “I Am Not Your Negro” on Netflix. The film is inspired by the unfinished manuscript “Remember This House,” a collection of notes and letters written by writer and activist James Baldwin in the 1970s that recall the work and life of his close friends and civil
I Am Not Your Negro – ★★★★ Read More »
On Amazon Prime you can see the excellent movie “Dolor y Gloria” (Pain and Glory) from 2020 by the Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar. A very personal work about an ageing film director with physical suffering, reflecting on the relationships and experiences that have shaped him in his life. Very sensitive film with Antonio Banderas and
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Das Weisse Band (“The White Ribbon”) is the first film I saw by Michael Haneke and is still my favourite film by the Austrian Director. Using the inhabitants of a small village just before the beginning of the First World War as an example, Haneke depicts the German society of that time, in which strict
Das Weisse Band (The White Ribbon) – ★★★★★ Read More »
The Taiwanese film “Yi Yi” by Edward Yang from the year 2000 is a masterfully crafted, calm reflection on the aspects of human life. Using the example of a family of three generations, the drama shows how everyone, old or young, faces their own personal problems and challenges. While the film begins with a wedding,