One of the most startling books I’ve read this year is Naomi Wolf’s “The End of America,” an engaged, furious polemic about the similarity of authoritarian impulses in this country after 9/11 to those of fascist regimes like in Italy and Germany before and during World War II. Even more startling than Wolf’s conviction in prose is her spirit in person: when I introduced her at a Q&A last month at Doc/Fest in Sheffield, England, it took only one question for her to extend what the audience had raptly watched on screen to fill the entire allotted time as she articulately elaborated and footnoted her concerns. Annie Sundberg and Ricki Stern’s documentary, coming after “The Devil Came On Horseback” and “The Trials of Daryl Hunt,” sounds small, essentially following Wolf on a national tour to talk about the book and the issues facing a fearful, readily swayed country. The ideas are big. The fear is large. The film, being distributed on campuses and cinematheques before an Inauguration-timed DVD and online release, is a patriot’s articulate cry. 75m. BetaSP. (Ray Pride)
Talking Screens, May 7-13, 2021: About Endlessness | Heat | The End of Moviegoing? Talking Screens: A Week In Chicago Film, May 7-13, 2021 OPENERS The dour, serene, dapper, disheveled cornucopia of moments in Roy Andersson's "About Endlessness" is presumed by some to comprise the final feature from the seventy-nine-year-old Swedish master behind "Songs from the Second Floor" (2000) and "A Pigeon Sat On A Branch Reflecting On Existence" (2014). The 2020 documentary "Being…
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.
