Here are our latest reviews of films on DVD.
Pre-2020 Film Reviews
The Duchess of Buffalo (1926)
Marilyn Ferdinand @ Wonders in the Dark
- Excerpt: “Marian Duncan danced in America without avail. Then she tried Russia without a veil—and OH BOY-OVITCH!” This bold intertitle says it all, and, oh boy-ovitch, you won’t want to wait to see what comes next!
Footnote (2011)
Marilyn Ferdinand @ Film Freedonia
- Excerpt:Arguably, there is no religion as rulebound at Judaism. With a several millennia head start on other major religions and philosophies, Jewish scholars and rabbis were able to develop a truly vast body of religious law that proscribes and prescribes for every aspect of human life as derived from close readings of the Torah. The central codification text, the Talmud, even has two versions (the earlier Jerusalem [Palestine] Talmud and the later Babylonian version), and, according to Wikipedia, a modern printing of the entire text comprises 2,711 double-sided pages. As you can imagine, debates over the many and varied interpretations of the Talmud over the centuries have kept the academy very busy churning out additional texts. It is into the scholarly world of Talmudic esoterica and rivalries in modern-day Israel that director/screenwriter Joseph Cedar plunges us. More than that, however, Cedar makes flesh the adage “old age and treachery will overcome youth and skill” in its various manifestations.
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