Visionary filmmakers deserve visionary distributors: if a film made to change the world winds up with two copies in Netflix warehouses in Tacoma and Bangor, does it make a sound? The Siskel Film Center offers a deserving tribute to Zeitgeist Films, run for twenty years by Emily Russo and Nancy Gerstman as one of the keenest facilitators of international film. Many of their films have debuted at Siskel, and their catalog includes many titles by Peter Greenaway, the Brothers Quay, Atom Egoyan, Guy Maddin, Deepa Mehta, Francois Ozon, Abbas Kiarostami, Derek Jarman and Todd Haynes. The seven-film selection includes Amy Ziering Kofman and Kirby Dick’s “Derrida” doubled with Astra Taylor’s “Zizek”; Jacques Demy’s “Umbrellas of Cherbourg”; Kiarostami’s “Ten”; Guy Maddin’s “Careful” (shown with his megawatt-short “Hearts of the World”); Etgar Keret and Shira Geffen’s recent “Jellyfish”; and Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s “Climates.” Rich, enriching stuff over a holiday weekend. (Ray Pride)
Seeing The Elephant: A Review Of Babylon The boisterous, brawling yet melancholy "Babylon," is a variation on film history, but more drawing for drama. It's gaudy and mean, celebratory and sorrowful.
Heart: A Review of Soul The real world is soulful, too, in Pixar's bountiful life of the mind.
Uncanny Ally: A Review Of M3GAN "M3GAN" sells itself in its first handful of seconds in how it introduces the handiwork of roboticist Gemma (Allison Williams, "Get Out") and her present product, PurrPetual Petz from Funki.
